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Pickard and Provo (John and Frank) papers (ARA)
PA Mss 186
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Title: John Pickard and Frank Provo papers (ARA)
Identifier/Call Number: PA Mss 186
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
Physical Description:
48.5 Linear Feet;
(45 boxes: 38 record boxes, 7 document boxes)
Creator:
Pickard, John (1910-1995)
Creator:
Provo, Frank (1913-1975)
Date (inclusive): circa 1928-1975
Date (bulk): circa 1940-1970
Abstract: The John Pickard and Frank Provo Papers consists of over 48 linear feet of radio and television scripts, manuscripts, correspondence
and other miscellaneous material, dating from approximately 1928-1975, with the bulk of the material from approximately 1940-1970.
This collection documents Pickard's career in the early days of Australian radio, as well as the collaboration between Pickard
and Provo that lasted nearly 40 years, and resulted in radio programs such as
Wendy Warren and the News and
Young Doctor Malone, as well as television programs such as
Concerning Miss Marlowe and
From these Roots.
Physical Location: Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library.
The collection is open for research.
Property rights to the collection and physical objects belong to the Regents of the University of California acting through
the Department of Special Research Collections at the UCSB Library. All applicable literary rights, including copyright to
the collection and physical objects, are protected under Chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code and are retained by the creator
and the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns.
All requests to reproduce, quote from, or otherwise reuse collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Department
of Special Research Collections at UCSB at special@ucsb.edu. Consent is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of
California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB as the owner of the physical items and is
not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright
owner, heir(s), or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or their assigns for permission to publish where the UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of Item], John Pickard and Frank Provo Papers, PA Mss 186. Department of Special Research Collections, UC
Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara
This collection forms part of the American Radio Archives (ARA), which documents the early history of broadcasting, with an
emphasis on California. The ARA was formerly housed at the Thousand Oaks Public Library and was owned and administered by
the Thousand Oaks Library Foundation. It was transferred to the UCSB Library in 2021.
John Pickard was born on April 6, 1910 in Sydney, Australia. He entered the University of Sydney to study law
in 1927, yet also acted in plays as a member of the Sydney University Drama Society. It was during this time
that Pickard, intrigued by the new medium of radio, tried his hand at writing a radio play titled "The Tomb of
Osiris." This work was performed on various stations throughout Australia, and is considered by some to be the
first original Australian radio play.
By 1931, acting in radio productions had become Pickard's main occupation, and he was considered one of the
brightest young actors on Australian radio during his tenure with the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company)
Players, whose performances were broadcast on station 2FC in Sydney. He continued writing and directing
plays as well, being promoted to the Head of Drama Productions at the Australian Broadcasting Company in
1933. Pickard wrote series such as
Crime Club, and also adapted American programs like
One Man's Family, in which he substituted Australian settings, situations, and colloquialisms. By 1935, however, Pickard wanted to try something
new and left for the United States in August of that year. He arrived in San Francisco, and was soon working as an actor for
NBC programs such as Hawthorne House. It was most likely during his years in San Francisco in the late 1930s that he met Frank
Provo.
Provo, who was born on November 16, 1913, was a California-based actor and aspiring writer at the time he
met Pickard. He had graduated from the Pasadena Community Playhouse School of Theatre Arts, and by the
early 1930s, was acting in a number of NBC programs that were broadcast from San Francisco, such as One
Man's Family, in which he played the role of Johnny Roberts. By 1938 or 1939, however, both Provo and
Pickard had relocated to New York, both being featured in programs originating from there, with Provo acting
in the soap operas
Jane Arden (approximately 1938-39) and
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (approximately 1938), and Pickard landing the role of Grant Thursday on
Pretty Kitty Kelly. Around this time they also began collaborating on scripts for radio programs and plays for the stage, initiating a professional
and personal partnership that would last for the next forty years. The two shared an apartment in New York, and a few years
later purchased a farm in Great Barrington, MA, that became their primary residence until their deaths.
One of the first network programs on which they worked together was
My Son and I, which started as a pair of single act plays on the
Kate Smith Show, and evolved into a daytime soap opera, running on CBS between 1939 and 1941. Pickard also played the role of Bruce Barrett
on this program. Pickard and Provo also began writing scripts for the popular serial,
Young Doctor Malone, during this period and continued to contribute scripts to this show throughout the early 1940s. The years of the Second
World War also brought military service, as Pickard served with the United States Army with the rank of lieutenant, writing
and staging radio plays designed to improve troop morale and assist in training soldiers who were stationed at Camp Lee, Virginia.After
the war, Pickard and Provo continued writing drafts of stage plays and novels that they hoped to publish,as well as pilots
for radio - and later television - programs. In 1947, their most successful program,
Wendy Warren and the News, went on the air. This series, which focused on the life and loves of the eponymous newscaster, incorporated an actual CBS
news broadcast at the beginning of the program, which then segued into the plot of the show. This 15-minute show was broadcast
at noon over CBS five days a week, from June 1947
through November 1958.
With the decline of network radio throughout the 1950s, Provo and Pickard began working on writing daytime
television soap operas, their first one being
Concerning Miss Marlowe, which was broadcast on NBC from July 1954 to July 1955, and
From these Roots, which ran on the same network from June 1958 to December 1961. They contributed scripts to other television soap operas
(
The Doctors,
Love of Life), wrote scripts for televised specials featuring the Ringling Brothers Circus, and wrote a play titled "Adamsburg, U.S.A.",
which was broadcast under the title "The Old Man and the City" on the
Dick Powell Show in 1963, and was later syndicated
throughout the world.
As this manuscript collection demonstrates, however, Pickard and Provo wrote numerous pilot scripts for
television programs that were never accepted, including a remake of
Wendy Warren for television. The two also
continued writing novels and stage plays up to the time of Provo's death in 1975. One such play, "Dagmar," was
staged at Simon's Rock College in Great Barrington, where Pickard and Provo had joined the faculty of the
dramatic arts program in 1969. They also published a novel,
The Education of Emily Adams. John Pickard died
on October 23, 1995, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Sources:
Dunning, John.
On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio. (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1998).
Lane, Richard.
The Golden Age of Australian Radio Drama, 1923-1960. (Melbourne:Melbourne University Press, 1994).
Schemering, Christopher.
The Soap Opera Encyclopedi. (New York: Ballantine Books,1985).
The majority of the collection consists of scripts for radio and television programs that Pickard either wrote or produced
for Australian radio, and early radio programs in the United States that featured Provo and Pickard. There also contains material
relating to John Pickard's service in the U.S. Army, 1942-1945, including scripts of broadcasts for the troops at Camp Lee
over the Richmond, Virginia affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System.
There is an almost complete run of the radio series
Wendy Warren and the News that makes up 25 linear feet of the collection, stretching from the debut of the series in June 1947 until a few months before
the end of the series in 1958, although a few gaps do exist.
Approximately 16.25 linear feet of the collection consist of television scripts, dating from 1954-1965. These include the
series
Concerning Miss Marlowe,
From these Roots,
The Doctors, and
Love of Life, as well as additional individual episodes of various programs. In addition to scripts, material for the television programs
also includes auditions, presentations, publicity, and correspondence, and such material is filed together with the scripts
for the series.
The remaining material in the collection includes manuscripts of pilot and presentation scripts for radio and television,
and manuscripts of plays and novels, most of which were not published. The novels and plays date from the mid-1940s to the
early 1970s. Among the plays are also copies of material used in student productions that were directed by Provo and Pickard
at Simon's Rock College in 1969-1971. An additional 0.5 linear foot consists of correspondence, most of it with Pickard's
family in Australia as well as former colleagues in Australian radio, but also including limited correspondence pertaining
to radio and television productions, and records of royalties and dues from the Writers Guild of America.
The materials in this collection are arranged into eleven series by type.
Series 1: Australian radio scripts: John Pickard; Series 2: Miscellaneous radio and stage plays: John Pickard; Series 3: World
War II United States Army productions, Camp Lee, Virginia: John Pickard; Series 4: Scripts and miscellaneous material: Frank
Provo; Series 5: United States radio scripts: Frank Provo and John Pickard; Series 6: Television scripts and related material:
John Pickard and Frank Provo; Series 7: Television series; Series 8: Manuscripts: John Pickard and Frank Provo; Series 9:
Writers Guild of America; Series 10: Correspondence; Series 11: Miscellaneous Loose Material.
Forms part of the American Radio Archives (ARA).
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Radio writers -- Australia -- Sydney (N.S.W.) -- Archives
Radio writers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Archives
Radio actors and actresses -- Australia -- Sydney (N.S.W.) -- Archives
Television writers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Archives
Radio scripts
Screenplays
Manuscripts
Correspondence
Pickard, John (1910-1995) -- Archives
Provo, Frank (1913-1975) -- Archives