Collection Guide
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Fanchon and Marco Collection of Photographs and Ephemera
photCL 487
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Fanchon and Marco collection of photographs and ephemera
Creator:
Fanchon & Marco
Identifier/Call Number: photCL 487
Physical Description:
19 Linear Feet
(19 boxes)
Date (inclusive): approximately 1912-1940
Date (bulk): 1926-1937
Abstract: The Fanchon and Marco collection contains approximately 1400 photographs depicting hundreds of Fanchon and Marco Inc. sets
and performers for the company's live variety shows performed before feature films in California and across the country in
the 1920s and 1930s. These shows, known as "Ideas," were produced by the Los Angeles-based theatrical production team of sister
and brother Fanchon Wolff Simon (1892–1965) and Marco Wolff (1894–1977). The collection also includes a box containing newspaper
clippings, musical scores, miscellaneous photographs, and the supplemental press books that were included with the Fanchon
& Marco promotional magazine, Now (and later The Idea), dating from 1930 and 1931.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more
information.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and
obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Fanchon and Marco collection of photographs and ephemera, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Sandra Holden and William H. Simon, Jr., July 2008.
Newspaper clippings on album pages gift of Faye Hueston, 2013 (Box 17, Folder 5).
Scrapbooks of clippings gift of Sandra Holden, January 2023 (Box 19).
Preservation treatment in June 2011 included removal of photographs from the original binders for humidification and flattening,
as the items were severely warped. Photographs were individually numbered according to their original order in the binders,
interleaved, and placed in archival boxes. One original binder (volume 5) was retained as an example; the rest of the binders
were discarded.
In 2023, Kelly Kress processed the addendum to the collection housed in Box 19, and Maggie Hughes and Kelly Kress updated
the finding aid.
The sister-and-brother duo of Fanchon Wolff Simon (1892–1965) and Marco Wolff (1894–1977) founded the theatrical-production
company of Fanchon & Marco Inc. in 1923. The company, located at 5600 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California, provided
live stage shows to movie houses in California and across the country.
Born and raised in a large Jewish family in turn-of-the-century Los Angeles, Fanchon and Marco Wolff began performing on
vaudeville as teenagers. In 1919, they left the stage to produce a musical revue called "Let's Go!" A year later they created
Sun-Kist, a California-themed act starring a line of high-kicking chorus dancers. Sun-Kist opened on the West Coast before
launching a successful national tour in 1921.
In 1923, Fanchon and Marco presented their first "Idea" at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco. The Idea concept became
a Fanchon and Marco trademark and referred to a live variety show performed before a feature film, a genre also called a "prologue."
Fanchon & Marco Ideas – which centered on various themes – were distinguished by their snappy pace, intricate choreography,
spectacular costumes, lavish sets, and teams of chorus dancers, including the Sunkist Beauties and the Fanchonettes.
Between 1923 and 1936, Fanchon & Marco produced hundreds of Ideas that toured California, the Pacific Coast, and the United
States. The company closed its Hollywood offices in 1936 and stopped producing Ideas by 1938.
The Fanchon & Marco collection contains approximately 1400 photographs depicting hundreds of Fanchon and Marco Inc. sets and
performers between approximately 1925 and 1938. The collection also includes three boxes of ephemera, dated from around 1912
to 1940, that consist of newspapers clippings, scrapbooks of clippings, musical scores, miscellaneous photographs, and the
supplemental press books that were included with Fanchon & Marco's promotional magazine, Now (later The Idea), dating from
1930 and 1931.
The 16 volumes (now disbound) of photographs in this collection served as a visual inventory for hundreds of Fanchon & Marco
sets and performers. The images document the actors, dancers, costumes, sets, and concepts and appear to have been primarily
photographed during rehearsals before the shows premiered in Los Angeles theaters such as Loew's State Theater and the Paramount
Theater. The first volume contains some photographs presumably taken in San Francisco and later volumes include a few photographs
by New York-based photographers.
Accompanying descriptive information is scant with few performers identified by name. A typescript inventory with Idea titles
precedes volumes 1-8. The production name appears in pencil on the back of many of the pages in Volumes 1-12. Volume 13 contains
stage and lighting directions in typescript on the backs of some photographs.
Photographers represented in the collection are: Archer's Art Shop of Los Angeles (Volume 6, 8, 11, 13); Hollywood photographers
Irving Archer (Volume 12, 13, 14), Archer's Studios (Volume 8, 11, 13, 14); Curt Fox (Volumes 5-6); Paralta Studios (Volumes
2-4); and Harry Wenger (Volumes 1, 2-4, 6). A few photographs include the imprints of Peerless Photo of Los Angeles (Volume
13), John Sirgio (Volume 13), H.W. Steward of San Francisco (Volume 1), Talbot of New York (Volume 12), Weaver of Los Angeles
(Volume 1), and White Studio of New York (Volume 9).
Existence and Location of Copies
Visit the
Huntington Digital Library: Photographs
to view digitized items from this collection.
- Fanchon & Marco song sheet collection
- Reva Howitt Clar archive of Fanchon and Marco photographs and ephemera
The collection is organized in the following series:
- Photograph volumes (Boxes 1-16)
- Ephemera (Boxes 17-19)
Reva Howitt Clar,
Lollipop: Vaudeville Turns with a Fanchon and Marco Dancer (Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2000). Edited by Mimi Melnick.
Faye Hueston,
Fanchon's Daughter: A Memoir (2015). [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified]
Shyrle "Shanna" Hacker,
On Stage, Gypsies: A Memoir of a Dancer in the 30's (Falcon Books, 1994).
William Simon Jr., "Fanchon and Marco."
Marquee 44:4 (2012), pp. 16-24.
Phil Wagner, "`An America Not Quite Mechanized:' Fanchon and Marco, Inc. Perform Modernity."
Film History 23:3 (2011), pp. 251-267.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Actors -- United States -- Photographs
Choreography -- Photographs
Dance -- Production and direction -- Photographs
Dancers -- Photographs
Dancers -- United States -- Photographs
Musical theater producers and directors -- United States -- Photographs
Theaters -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs
Theater -- Production and direction -- United States -- Photographs
Theatrical productions -- United States -- Photographs
Vaudeville -- United States -- Photographs
Women musical theater producers and directors -- United States -- Photographs
Photographs
Photograph albums
Sheet music
Scrapbooks
Fanchon, 1892-1965
Fanchon, 1892-1965 -- Photographs
Marco, 1894-1977
Marco, 1894-1977 -- Photographs
Fanchon & Marco
Fanchon & Marco -- Photographs
Fanchon, 1892-1965
Marco, 1894-1977
Weaver, M. F. (Miles F.), 1879-1932
Archer, Irving
Fox, Curt
Sirgio, John
Steward, H. W.
Talbot
Wenger, Harry
Archer's Art Shop
Archer Studio
Fanchon & Marco