The Arthur Cantor Papers are concerned almost exclusively with Mr. Cantor's activities as a publicity agent. Most of the collection concerns the publicity work he did for the several television series sponsored by Alcoa (the Aluminum Company of America), and for Armstrong Circle Theatre, sponsored by the Armstrong Cork Company. The collection is organized into the categories Television Publicity, Theater Publicity, Public Relations Releases, Miscellaneous Materials, and Press Clippings. In 1986, the press clippings were microfilmed and the originals discarded.
In TELEVISION PUBLICITY, the Alcoa and Armstrong productions are arranged before everything else. Mr. Cantor's publicity for the Alcoa shows was done specifically for Alcoa. Therefore, for series such as Alcoa-Goodyear Theater, the collection contains only the alternate week shows sponsored by Alcoa, and not the shows sponsored by Goodyear. Also, Cantor always used in his publicity releases the name of the series preferred by Alcoa, such as Alcoa Theater, Alcoa Presents and Alcoa Premiere, even though these series were often better known to the public as Alcoa Goodyear Theater, One Step Beyond, and Premiere. The Alcoa series have been arranged chronologically, according to the earliest year for which there is information, rather than being arranged alphabetically by title. For instance, Alcoa Theater (1957-1960), is included before Alcoa Presents (1959-1961).
Armstrong Circle Theatre was a long-running dramatic show handled on the executive level by David Susskind's Talent Associates-Paramount, Ltd., for whom Cantor did other publicity work, including the television specials, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Little Women, The Power and the Glory, Swiss Family Robinson, and Wuthering Heights (Boxes 29 and 30); and the short-lived series The Witness, the scripts of which are in Box 28. Box 33 contains a folder of miscellaneous releases for Talent Associates. [David Susskind has presented his own collection to the University of Wisconsin, and it is cataloged by the Historical Society as U.S. Mss 73AN.]
The television publicity material includes publicity photographs, press releases, scripts and script revisions and production materials (cast lists, shooting schedules, credits). The actual material contained on the shows varies from series to series and from season to season. Therefore, each season of a series is headed separately, and the material likely to be contained in the folders for the shows of that season are listed in the season's divisional headings (i.e. Alcoa Theater, 1958-59 season: photographs, releases). Occasionally, individual shows may lack some of this material. Correspondence, memos and communications are placed at the end of the series. Dates listed in the box list below refer to the air time of the shows. Production information giving the producer, director, writer and cast of a show is listed when known.
The THEATER PUBLICITY material includes press releases and photographs, arranged alphabetically by production title. Also in the theater section are statements for The Golden Age, a special “one-performance only” Arthur Cantor production; the script for The Elizabethans, another one-performance Cantor production, and the musical score and original poster mock-ups for The Passion of Josef D. Dates listed in the box list refer to the New York opening of the shows.
The PRESS CLIPPINGS concern listings or reviews of shows Cantor publicized.
The collection is valuable from a number of different aspects. The complex and thorough publicity procedures behind the scenes of television and theater productions are clarified and amply demonstrated. Often the research can trace publicity for a show from the scripts and production, to the selection of photo-graphs from large key sheets, and the draft of press releases, to the designation and distribution of the final releases and photographs. In addition, the collection contains thorough information on several important television dramatic shows, as well as scripts and script revisions by significant writers, some of whom, such as Howard Rodman, David Davidson and Dale Wasserman, have presented their own collections to the Wisconsin Center for Theater Research. There are photographs of many performers, for example, Jack Lemmon, David Niven, Robert Ryan, Charles Boyer, Fred Astaire, Lee Marvin, James Stewart, Theodore Bikel and Laurence Olivier in television; and Mike Nichols, Rosalind Russell, Rex Harrison, Melvyn Douglas, Fredric March, Jason Robards, Jr., Richard Kiley, Anne Bancroft and Henry Fonda in theater.
