118 replies to this topic

[Neryssa]

rg, on 22 January 2013 - 11:49 AM, said:

actually i'm fairly certain about this Mary Allen, i acquired a number of items from her estate over time and she was apparently a devoted ballet fan, responsible, if mem. serves for the hand-produced fanzine, TANNY, that was produced for a few 'issues' and of which i have one.
she was evidently close to a number of dancers a number of whom signed photos etc. for her.
i'm not sure if she was New Yorker or not...

What did this handmade fanzine about Tanny look like, rg? You are so lucky to have one of them.

[rg]

the mag is charmingly amateurish in production.
its text portions - captions of photos, running commentary and a little statement by Le Clercq herself, about her working day, if i recall correctly - is typed - probably carbon paper was responsible for the 'multiple' printing(s). the cover has hand-coloring and maybe hand-made cut-outs and is put together, if mem. serves, with construction paper covers.
i say 'if mem. serves' b/c my copy is now away in storage since a recent move and i haven't accessed it recently. i have no idea how many issues were made, nor, right now what the date of my copy might be.

[Neryssa]

rg, on 24 January 2013 - 12:20 PM, said:

the mag is charmingly amateurish in production.
its text portions - captions of photos, running commentary and a little statement by Le Clercq herself, about her working day, if i recall correctly - is typed - probably carbon paper was responsible for the 'multiple' printing(s). the cover has hand-coloring and maybe hand-made cut-outs and is put together, if mem. serves, with construction paper covers.
i say 'if mem. serves' b/c my copy is now away in storage since a recent move and i haven't accessed it recently. i have no idea how many issues were made, nor, right now what the date of my copy might be.

How nice. Thanks for the description.

[pherank]

FYI: I'm on the lookout for a decent hi-res digital image of a Balanchine/NYCB portrait shot that appears in the American Masters Balanchine documentary (photographer not known to me). Le Clercq is wearing her La Valse "black" costume (except with the white opera gloves), and Tallchief is on the other side of Mr. B (not sure of her costume's origins):

[Bonnette]

For some time, I've been trying to track down the exact date in 1944 on which Balanchine's "Resurgence" was performed at the Waldorf Astoria for the March of Dimes benefit. Of course, I have found hundreds of references to the event, itself, and Balanchine's feeling that it cast a pall over Tanaquil Le Clercq; but nowhere have I seen the month and day of the event mentioned. Does anyone here know? I also wonder if this was a matinee, or an evening performance. Some of the references I've seen state that the benefit took place in 1946, but as Tanny was 15 years old when Balanchine created the ballet on her, the correct year would have to have been 1944. I am trying to correlate some facts for a bit of research I'm doing. Thank you!

[pherank]

Bonnette, on 24 January 2013 - 09:45 PM, said:

For some time, I've been trying to track down the exact date in 1944 on which Balanchine's "Resurgence" was performed at the Waldorf Astoria for the March of Dimes benefit. Of course, I have found hundreds of references to the event, itself, and Balanchine's feeling that it cast a pall over Tanaquil Le Clercq; but nowhere have I seen the month and day of the event mentioned. Does anyone here know? I also wonder if this was a matinee, or an evening performance. Some of the references I've seen state that the benefit took place in 1946, but as Tanny was 15 years old when Balanchine created the ballet on her, the correct year would have to have been 1944. I am trying to correlate some facts for a bit of research I'm doing. Thank you!

The Balanchine Foundation has the Resurgence date as January 22, 1946:
http://balanchine.or...ult.jsp?num=231

[Bonnette]

Thank you so much, pherank!

[pherank]

A few more images I hadn't run into before...



At Capezio - fab coat! Used as cover of the novel, "Master's Muse".







And one large image:
http://sinemkarisir....12/09/gaia1.jpg

[Marcmomus]

The Kultur documentary on DVD called "Balanchine" has a few clips of Tanaquil dancing, some in colour.

See:  http://www.amazon.co...ords=balanchine

[pherank]

Tanny writing, with Mourka the cat 'helping':

[jsmu]

Thank you, pherank--this last photo is even more magical.
I think the costumes in the astounding NYCB photo you showed earlier are:
Hayden in DIvertimento no. 15 (Caracole at that time)
Kaye in Lilac Garden
Tallchief in Swan Lake
Le Clercq in La Valse, of course
and I think Adams in some Tudor ballet he did for her.
can't identify Reed's....

[pherank]

jsmu, on 14 March 2013 - 04:43 PM, said:

I think the costumes in the astounding NYCB photo you showed earlier are:
Hayden in DIvertimento no. 15 (Caracole at that time)
Kaye in Lilac Garden
Tallchief in Swan Lake
Le Clercq in La Valse, of course
and I think Adams in some Tudor ballet he did for her.
can't identify Reed's....

Thanks very much for those details, Jsmu. Considering how great a publicity image it is, I'm amazed that there seems to be no record of this image on the Internet. The photographer might be someone like Baron, or Walter E. Owen, but there's something about the setup that reminds me of Cecil Beaton. I'm guessing it was done for a magazine like LIFE.

[pherank]

The Getty Images website has many different 'editorial use' images, but we only get to see the thumbnails, and no embedded images allowed.  ;)
Here are some of my favorites:

Western Symphony publicity shots
http://www.gettyimag...photo/160664792

http://www.gettyimag...photo/160664764

http://www.gettyimag...photo/160664793

http://www.gettyimag...photo/160664738

http://www.gettyimag...photo/160664736

http://www.gettyimag...photo/160664711

Home cooked meal
http://www.gettyimag...-photo/92923954

http://www.gettyimag...photo/158640946

http://www.gettyimag...photo/158640890

http://www.gettyimag...photo/158640889

http://www.gettyimag...photo/158640831

Receiving flower bouquet
http://www.gettyimag...-photo/53375298

[jsmu]

Those are terrific--love the one of her sitting on the chair in Western costume.
That photo (and yes it does look like Beaton doesn't it? among other things, everyone looks great at the same time--a RARITY, lol)
appears in the excellent Chujoy book The New York City Ballet (Knopf, 1953) which also has lots of other great photos
not appearing most other places and some very interesting commentary by various people involved in NYCB...

[pherank]

jsmu, on 15 March 2013 - 10:22 AM, said:

Those are terrific--love the one of her sitting on the chair in Western costume.
That photo (and yes it does look like Beaton doesn't it? among other things, everyone looks great at the same time--a RARITY, lol)
appears in the excellent Chujoy book The New York City Ballet (Knopf, 1953) which also has lots of other great photos
not appearing most other places and some very interesting commentary by various people involved in NYCB...

Excellent! You've made my day with that info, Jsmu.
I've noticed that there are various mostly out-of-print publications from the 50s through 70s on the subject of the NYCB, but it's hard to know which are worth seeking out. I've found one great one at the library: George Platt Lynes, "Ballet". A really awesome set of photos.

And...I just happened to notice that someone had put together a nice slideshow of Tanny photos - a few I haven't seen before...(note: at the end you'll see a link to a Suzanne Farrell slideshow by the same poster - that's very nice too)