Theatre Collecting

I would like to research a book on theatre / theater collecting. I do not know where to begin. I have a few books on the subject (see below). I have found another book about collecting theatrical postcards. None of the books I have found, are very, "modern". I am looking for any help or advice on how to go about writing such a book.

I seem to be using, "theater," and, "theatre," interchangeably. "Theatre" is the British spelling. Some people use that spelling for the more literary theatre as opposed to popular, "theater". I should be more consistent than I am.

I do have my own small collection of theatre memorabilia that includes, programs, flyers, posters, and some, "old," newspaper and magazine clippings. I am in no way an expert on collecting theater ephemera.

If I were to put together a book on collecting theatre, I would like to concentrate on fairly modern paper ephemera. Paper ephemera includes, posters, programs (programmes), Play Bills, flyers, lobby cards, plus newspaper and magazine clippings. There could be other things that fit under the heading of, "theater paper ephemera," I just don't know what that would be off hand. I do not normally run across that much, "historic," theater memorabilia. (I use the term "historic," to refer to anything made before the 1930s. I am not sure what the proper term would be.) I will more than likely concentrate my researching to ephemera made from the 1930s onward.

There are companies that print price guides for collectors. I have books about collecting radios, and cookbooks from the following companies. When I did a quick search of the two sites below that I found, I did not find any books relevant to this page. If you type in theater or theatre, you get books about war, of course; about historic theaters; antique fashion dolls; movie posters; and historic architecture of American cities that must have theaters, as I don't know why they came up.

Collector Bookstore

Leavenworth, KS 66048

https://www.collectorbookstore.com/

Schiffer Books for Collectors

https://www.schifferbooks.com/ At one time they had the following notice in the front of their books: "We are interested in hearing from authors with book ideas on related subjects". I just did a search of their website. I found books about stage theaters, mainly about the architecture of them. They also had a book about collecting rare movie posters. I did not see a book on theater memorabilia off hand. I did not do a thorough search.

There was a, "Radio Mania Books," in Baltimore Maryland.

Theatre Collecting Books and Magazines that I have:

These are written from a mostly British perspective.

Discovering Theatre Ephemera

by John Kennedy Melling

ISBN: 0 85263 245 2

No. 185 in the Discovering Series

"Playbills, Photos, Tickets, Cartoons, Autographs, Relics, Programmes, Drawings".

Printed in the UK

Book and Magazine Collector

No. 114 September 1993

Printed in the U.K.

"Collecting Theatre Programmes" by Karen Faulkner

This is a UK magazine.

Collecting Theatre Memorabilia

by George Speaight

ISBN: 0 86190 119 3

Printed in the UK

This is a book about collecting all sorts of theatre ephemera. Everything from props, figurines, scenic designs, costumes, toys, puppets, phonograph records, posters, etc. Most of this seems to be about collecting historical theater, very early 20th century on back.

Theatre Collecting Books I do not have yet:

A Collector's Guide to Theatrical Postcards

Richard Bonynge

Hardcover: 120 pages

Publisher: Grange Books Ltd (1993)

ISBN-10: 1856274969

ISBN-13: 978-1856274968

(There is also an edition of this book from 1988, but I don't have any other information on it.)

I will probably be contacting, "you," first to let you know about this site. (In other words, you should have my E-mail address already.) But if you run across this site on your own some how, and you want to contact me, there is contact information at the top of the page. If you can't reach me that way, then go to: http://www.whatdubhghalldoes.org/feedback.htm. That is the feedback form on our main website. You can follow the directions on the page in order to contact us. (Which is pretty much the same as above, now that I think about it. Had to disable the form because of excessive spam.)