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Salzer (Clarence "Beeb") Collection
MS-0564
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & University Archives
Title: Clarence "Beeb" Salzer Collection
Creator:
Salzer, Clarence "Beeb"
Identifier/Call Number: MS-0564
Physical Description:
7.00 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1950-2013
Language of Material:
English
.
The
Clarence "Beeb" Salzer Collection documents the professional and artistic career of Beeb Salzer and includes ephemera, photographs, and artworks from the course
of his career, beginning with his time at Yale. The bulk of the collection dates from 1955-2013. Materials include newspaper
clippings, playbills, correspondence, photographs, set designs, speech manuscripts, legal papers, and paintings. The collection
is divided into four series:
Career Papers,
Art Work,
Personal, and
Audiovisual.
Career Papers, arranged roughly in chronological order, consist largely of playbills, newspaper clippings, and photographs. Highlights
include Salzer's correspondence with the playwright Edward Albee, op-eds, and photographs and other ephemera from Salzer's
time teaching in South America.
The
Art Work series is arranged into two subseries: Personal Art and Theatrical Art. Personal artwork includes water color landscapes,
caricatures of writers, modern paintings, and a wood carving. Also included are photographs of paintings. Theatrical artwork
consists of scene designs for plays that Salzer designed sets for, most notably scene designs for
The Saint of Bleeker Street.
The
Personal series includes photographs from Salzer's early life, and a poem he was given to commemorate his retirement.
The
Audiovisual series is primarily made up of VHS tape recordings of
The Saint of Bleeker Street and
Speaking of the Arts. Also included are 35 mm slides of set designs for
The Saint of Bleeker Street and other productions, a DVD recording of Salzer's retirement party and the documentary
Trial by Fire.
I. Career Papers
II. Art Work
1) Personal
2) Theatrical Art
III. Personal
IV. Audiovisual
This collection is open for research.
The copyright interests in some of these materials have been transferred to or belong to San Diego State University. The nature
of historical archival and manuscript collections means that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine.
Copyright resides with the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. Requests for permission to publish
must be submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. Permissions
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply permission
of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish. Materials from our collections are made available
for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including
but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.
Clarence "Beeb" Salzer
2017-042, 2017-050
Identification of item, folder title, box number,
Clarence "Beeb" Salzer Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, San Diego State University Library.
Beeb Salzer (Clarence M. Salzer) is an artist, designer of theatre, film and commercial productions, writer, producer, theatre
consultant, owner of Salzer Design, and professor emeritus of Theatre, Television and Film at San Diego State University.
Salzer graduated from Yale University with a BA in 1955, and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama in 1960. In 1958, Salzer
served as a visiting professor at the Catholic University of Santiago and the University of Chile in Chile, and the following
year at the University of Panama under a State Department grant. From 1966 through 1980, Salzer served as an associate professor
at different universities in New York. In 1982 he became a professor of Theatre, Television and Film at San Diego State University
where he is now a professor emeritus following his 2008 retirement.
Salzer designed sets and costumes for countless productions including
Madame Butterfly,
Teible and her Demon, and
Don Pasquale. One of his most celebrated contributions to stage production are his scenic designs for the Blatimore New York City productions
of
The Saint of Bleeker Street.
Salzer has written numerous articles on theatre and design. His writing has been regularly published since the 1970s, including
a regular column in
Lighting Dimensions Magazine, leading him to publish
The Skeptical Scenographer: Essays on Theatrical Design and Human Nature in 1995.
Though his career was in theatre, Salzer is first and foremost, an artist. His scene designs are beautiful works of art, and
he additionally painted many other subjects. He has had art shows throughout the United States and South America over the
course of his career, and has been featured on the covers of various publications.
Salzer has received awards for both his set designs and for his writing. He is a five-time awardee of The Herbert Greggs Award
for the Best Article of the Year in
Theatre Design and Technology.