Behymer (Lynden Ellsworth) Papers, 1850-1998, bulk 1910s-1940s

Summary

Title:

Lynden Ellsworth Behymer papers

Dates:

1850-1998, bulk 1910s-1940s

Creators:

Behymer, Lynden Ellsworth, 1862-1947

Abstract:

This collection contains personal papers, business records, correspondence, prints, photographs, and ephemera that relate to Los Angeles theatre impresario, Lynden E. Behymer. The materials date from approximately 1850 to 1998, with the bulk of the collection ranging from the 1910s to 1940s. The collection also includes programs, albums, scrapbooks, and press clippings pertaining to theatres and performers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, other U.S. states, and international countries.

Extent:

358.68 Linear Feet (344 boxes, 3 binders)

Language:

Materials are in English.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Lynden Ellsworth Behymer papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains personal papers, business records, correspondence, photographs, prints, and ephemera that relate to Los Angeles theatre impresario, Lynden E. Behymer. The materials date from approximately 1850 to 1998, with the bulk of the collection ranging from the 1910s to 1940s.

A small portion of the collection consists of biographical information about Behymer and his family. The Personal and biographical materials series contains albums, scrapbooks, clippings, and correspondence relating to Behymer's birthdays, tributes, and other celebratory events.

Of note in the collection are the Business records and Correspondence series. The materials primarily relate to Behymer's involvement in managing musicians, actors, actresses, dancers, singers, theatres, and organizations in the music and entertainment industry in California and abroad. Included are approximately 2,400 pieces of correspondence with organizations such as the California Grand Opera Company, the Chicago Grand Opera Company, the Los Angeles Repertory Theatre, the Merola Opera Company, and the San Francisco Opera Association. Formats consist of account books, ledgers, receipt books, agreements, contracts, correspondence, and notes by Behymer.

A significant portion of the collection consists of programs, which are organized by theatre programs, movie theatre programs, and souvenir programs. Theatre programs are one of the largest series in the collection, and consist of theatres based in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, as well as other states and international countries. Many of these theatres (Grand Opera House, Los Angeles Theatre, Burbank Theatre, Philharmonic Auditorium, Chicago Opera House, etc.) are also represented in the Press clippings and Theatre scrapbooks series.

Souvenir programs are incorporated into the Music, dance, and drama series as they primarily pertain to performers and musicians such as: Anna Pavlova, Ballets Russes, Ruth St. Denis, La Argentina (Antonia Mercé y Luque), Trudi Schoop, Sarah Bernhardt, Helena Modjeska, Mei Lan-Fang, Ignace Jan Paderewski, and many others. Additional materials in the Music, dance, and drama series include librettos, prompt books, plays, poetry, sheet music, and correspondence with various music organizations and clubs.

The collection also contains approximately 3,000 photographs of performers and performances. The photographs range from signed portrait photographs, to play and set designs, musicians on stage, and some press photographs of the Behymer family at events and premieres.

A small number of prints, drawings, and ephemera are also found in the collection. They include Behymer's personalized book plates and stationery, travel tickets, memorabilia, invitations, celebrity signatures, business cards, travel guides, postcard albums, greeting cards, drawings, prints by Alfred Frueh and Max Reinhardt, and costume designs.

Biographical / historical:

Lynden Ellsworth Behymer (1862-1947), nicknamed "Bee," was a theatre manager, producer, and promoter born on November 5, 1862, in New Palestine, Ohio. In January 1886, Behymer married schoolteacher Minetta (Menetta) Alma "Nettie" Sparks (1865-1958), and, shortly thereafter, they moved to Los Angeles, California. They had three children: a son, Glenarvon Behymer (1886-1965), and two daughters, Enid Lynn (1888-1980) and Elsie Olive (1889-1976).

In Los Angeles, Behymer worked as a bookseller at Stoll & Thayer during the day and began his career in the entertainment industry by working night shifts at the Grand Opera House concession stand. In 1888, while still at the Grand Opera House, he also started working under the management of H.C. Wyatt at the new Los Angeles Theatre. His involvement in the industry grew as he eventually became a promoter, ticket seller, program publisher, and later manager for many local theatres in the area. The theatres include the Grand Opera House, Los Angeles Theatre, Burbank Theatre, Hazard's Pavilion, Simpson's Auditorium, Trinity Auditorium, Philharmonic Auditorium, and Mason Opera House.

In addition to managing theatres and performers, Behymer was involved in many art and music organizations and events. In 1897, he was the official programmer for La Fiesta de Los Angeles (otherwise known as La Fiesta de las Flores). In 1904, he founded and was later President of the all-male musical society, Gamut Club. By 1912, the organization expanded to include local performers, financers, writers, and patrons of the arts. From the 1930s to 1940s, Behymer published and edited a magazine called The Magazine of Celebrities, which featured articles and programs on musical events, artists, and theatrical news.

Throughout a career that spanned sixty years, Behymer brought the Metropolitan Grand Opera, the Chicago Grand Opera, and the San Carlo Opera Company to Los Angeles, in addition to international acts. He coordinated and promoted events that featured performers such as Sarah Bernhardt, Frederick Warde, Ignace Jan Paderewski, Helena Modjeska, Mei Lan-Fan, Eleanora Duse, Isadora Duncan, Anna Pavlova, Ethel Barrymore, Lily Pons, Maud Allan, and others.

Behymer was the recipient of multiple tributes and awards during his career. Gifted medals include: The Dutch Order of Officer of Orange-Nassau; The Serbian Order of St. Sava; the Italian Order of the Crown; the French Officer of the Palms; the Grecian Order of the Redeemer; the German Artistic Service; the Russian Order of St. Vladimer; the Silver and Golden Palms from the Order of Leopold, Belgium; the Russian Order of St. Stanislas; and the Order of Danilo, Montenegro. A bronze bust of Behymer was awarded to the city of Los Angeles in 1931, and he received an honorary Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Southern California. From his arrival in Los Angeles in 1886, continuing until his death in December 1947, Behymer worked to establish himself as the city's leading impresario for musical talent and theatre.

Acquisition information:

Gift of Mrs. Lynden E. Behymer (Minetta Sparks), December 1948.

Gift of Mrs. Lynden E. Behymer (Minetta Sparks), June 1952.

Gift of California State University, Northridge, May 1976.

Gift of Music Center Operating Company, September 1993.

Gift of Arvonne Behymer Degenfelder, March 2015.

Processing information:

Preliminary finding aid prepared by Lianna Moneypenney and Diann Benti. In May 2025, Suzanne Oatey reprocessed the Photographs series. In June 2025, Mari Khasmanyan reprocessed the rest of the collection, reunited materials that were formerly separated into artificial collections, processed the 2015 ephemera addenda, and updated the finding aid.

Arrangement:

Collection is arranged according to the existing order of the materials.

Organized in eight series:

1. Series 1. Personal and biographical materials, 1898-1998
2. Series 2. Business records, 1888-1953
3. Series 3. Correspondence, 1887-1951
4. Series 4. Music, dance, and drama materials, 1887-1946
5. Series 5. Theatre programs, 1881-1965, bulk 1910s-1940s
6. Series 6. Photographs, approximately 1870s-1930s
7. Series 7. Prints, drawings, and ephemera, approximately 1900-1940s
8. Series 8. Press clippings and theatre scrapbooks, 1850-1946

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Related resources

Separated material:

Manuscripts, correspondence, and ephemera relating to Anna Held Heinrich, Max Heinrich, and Ellen Terry were transferred from the Behymer Papers to the Olive Percival Collection in December 1988. The items originally belonged to Olive Percival before they were acquired by Dawson's Book Shop.

Other descriptive data:

The former call number for the Photographs series was: photCL 325.

The former call number for the Ephemera series was: ephBehymer addenda.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Actors -- Portraits
Actresses -- Portraits
Arena theater -- California
Dance companies
Dancers -- California -- Los Angeles County -- Photographs
Dancers -- Photographs
Drama -- 20th century -- Periodicals
Drama festivals -- California -- Los Angeles
Impresarios -- United States
Music -- California -- Los Angeles -- History
Musical theater -- 20th century -- History
Musical theater producers and directors -- California -- Los Angeles
Opera -- California -- Los Angeles -- History
Theater -- California -- Los Angeles -- History
Theater management
Theatrical companies
Theatrical managers
Accounts -- California -- Los Angeles
Advertisements
Albums (books)
Business letters
Business records
Cartes-de-visite (card photographs)
Clippings (information artifacts)
Contracts
Costume design drawings
Drawings (visual works)
Ephemera
Financial records
Greeting cards
Ledgers (account books)
Letters (correspondence)
Photographs
Playbills
Plays
Postcard albums
Prints (visual works)
Programs
Promotional materials
Prompt books
receipts (financial documents)
Scrapbooks
Scores (documents for music)
Sheet music
Souvenir programs
Theater programs
Theater reviews
Travel guidebooks

Names:

Ballets russes de Monte Carlo
Ballets russes du Col. W. de Basil
Belasco Theatre (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Chicago Grand Opera Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Gamut Club (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Greek Theatre Association (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
Los Angeles Theatre (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Philharmonic Auditorium (Organization : Los Angeles, Calif.)
War Memorial Opera House (San Francisco)
Behymer, Lynden Ellsworth, 1862-1947 -- Archives
Argentina, 1890-1936
Bernhardt, Sarah, 1844-1923
Frueh, Alfred Joseph, 1880-1968
Kryl, Bohumir, 1875-1961
Mei, Lanfang, 1894-1961
Modjeska, Helena, 1840-1909
Pavlova, Anna, 1881-1931
Reinhardt, Max, 1873-1943
Paderewski, Ignace Jan, 1860-1941
Schoop, Trudi (1903-1999)
St. Denis, Ruth, 1880-1968

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:

Mari Khasmanyan

Date Encoded:

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-12-15 14:58:42 -0800 .

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

RESTRICTED. Box 206. Closed to researchers due to the fragility of the mediums of the drawings and sketches.

RESTRICTED. Box 344. Item contains broken glass, closed to researchers until conservation work is completed.

Terms of access:

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.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Lynden Ellsworth Behymer papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:

Huntington Library, Manuscript Collections

1151 Oxford Road

San Marino, CA 91108, US

Contact:

(626) 405-2191

reference@huntington.org

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