The papers are arranged in these categories: BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL, CORRESPONDENCE, THEATRE AND LIVE DRAMATIC PRODUCTION, TRADE SHOWS AND EXPOSITIONS, OTHER PROFESSIONAL WORK, RESEARCH MATERIAL, and COLLECTED MATERIAL.
The Albert Johnson Papers includes varied documentation about his career in the performing arts and his personal life. Unfortunately the material dating from the 1920s through the 1940s, the period when Johnson achieved wide prominence in the field of theatrical design, is sparse. In a letter to the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research prior to the donation of the collection Johnson explained that he had previously destroyed thousands of sketches and designs. As a result, the WCFTR collection is strongest for the work that Johnson did during the 1950s and 1960s which primarily focused on trade shows and the development of expositions and theatrical properties. The documentation in the collection is characterized by Johnson's careful attention to his files. Perhaps the most valuable part of the collection are his voluminous handwritten and typed notes. Rather than trusting his memory, Johnson made notes on personal and professional discussions with colleagues, phone calls, and other matters he considered important, and a large number of these have survived. He also carefully researched his projects and saved extensive quantities of clippings and other background materials; only a representative sampling of this material which directly pertained to his design research has been retained in the collection, however. (Also discarded were clippings pertaining to his interests in archaeology, astronomy, psychiatry, religion, metaphysics, and unidentified flying objects.)
To support both his design research and his strong personal interest in theatrical history Johnson also accumulated large quantities of old theatrical newspapers and magazines and other visual material. This documentation, which is largely out of scope for the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, has been removed from the collection.
The BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL includes information about Johnson's family, his infancy, his wives, general information about his career, his will, obituaries, details about his funeral, and letters of condolence to his wife. The medical logs and associated files contain very detailed information about his health and diet, trips to doctors, prescriptions and their effects, etc. Several folders also contain information about Dianne Valvo's work and speeches at conventions. There is some information on his personal finances from 1965 to 1967, but nothing for the earlier periods of his life. Several folders relate to the Johnsons' personal and professional travel. Portraits of Johnson are available in the WCFTR name file; candid photographs dating from his youth are available in Albert A. Johnson photograph lots in the Historical Society Visual Materials Archive.
The CORRESPONDENCE gives some information on his interaction with his mother and brother but mainly with his father (whose papers are also held by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin) and Dianne Valvo, both before and after their marriage. The 1943 correspondence primarily documents the response of his mother to his World War II service in the military, from which Johnson received an honorable discharge for an undisclosed illness. The correspondence with Dianne reflects their deep affection. Additional correspondence in the collection is filed with the design project to which it pertains.
Johnson's professional work has been divided into three categories: theatre and live dramatic performances, fairs and expositions, and other work. The distinction between the first two categories is not precise, and some of the fairs and expositions on which Johnson worked featured elaborate scripted performances.
The THEATRE AND LIVE DRAMATIC PERFORMANCES section includes both produced and unproduced works, all of which are arranged together alphabetically by title. The early works are primarily documented only by printed material such as playbills and programs, clippings, and sheet music. Of special interest within this group of documentation are the programs and photographs pertaining to Johnson's collaboration with Billy Rose on numerous theatrical, aquatic, and nightclub shows. Johnson's later works are represented in the collection by similar material as well as pencil and finished sketches, blueprints, photographs, and light plots although even for this period not all of the material of this type remains. The records of two Showboat productions during the 1950s and Night Life (1962) are extensive, as is the documentation (primarily sketches and blueprints) for the Radio City Music Hall he did during the 1950s. Additional photographs which documented aspects of a production in addition to the stage set have been separated to the WCFTR Theatrical Title file.
For the productions that Johnson attempted to produce himself during the 1950s and 1960s there are extensive notes on his activities as producer, as well as correspondence, research and technical information, script drafts, and some information on picture research. The files on The Magnificent Cuckold include extensive material on difficulties Johnson had in obtaining a definitive English translation of the Fernand Crommelynck work and in obtaining a clear right to produce it for the stage. The research material on A Bottle an' a Bird contains copies of Helen Green short stories Johnson used in writing the script. The material on Huckleberry Finn indicates that Johnson intended this production to be a musical, as these files contain lyrics by Henry Sullivan.
TRADE SHOWS AND EXPOSITIONS, which primarily date from the 1950s and 1960s, are documented by material that is similar in character to that described for the above series. A large quantity of this work pertains to automobile shows and to the Chicago International Trade fairs from 1961 through 1964. Also grouped here are papers on involvement with the 1964 World's Fair and Johnson's related, unsuccessful development of the American Flotilla idea. Johnson's meticulous record keeping for this project includes a nearly complete log describing the problems associated with the project, as well as extensive notes and correspondence with local governmental officials such as Frank Farley and James H.J. Tate in cities to which he hoped to take his floating extravaganza.
The section entitled OTHER PROFESSIONAL WORK includes a variety of material on inventions he hoped to market including a toy theatre complete with moving sets and lighting equipment and his Visi-O-Rama slides for a sound and light show. Also listed here are blueprints for several showboat theatres that Johnson apparently hoped to construct.
The RESEARCH MATERIAL series includes notes of various types, and theatrical supply catalogues and supplies.
The section entitled COLLECTED MATERIAL contains that small portion of Johnson's collections that fell within the collecting scope of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theatre research: the early theatrical photographs of his friend Sam Saltzman and a photocopy of a circus scrapbook Johnson compiled during the early 1920s. (The original of this scrapbook and nineteenth century circus heralds and broadsides that Johnson collected have been placed with the State Historical Society's Circus World Museum in Baraboo.)
