Biographical Information:
Scope and Contents
Arrangement of Materials:
Conditions Governing Access:
Conditions Governing Use:
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Preferred Citation:
Processing Information:
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives
Title: Mimi Melnick Collection
Creator:
Melnick, Mimi, 1935-2013
Identifier/Call Number: URB.MCM
Extent:
16.82 linear feet
Extent:
5.28 Gigabytes
Date (inclusive): 1938-2013
Abstract: The
Mimi Melnick
Collection
documents the personal and professional life of native Angeleno Miriam
(Mimi) Clar Melnick, Jazz critic, Jazz pianist, and patron of Jazz musicians, whose
activities played an influential role in the development of Jazz in the Los Angeles region
between 1958 and 2010. The Collection also includes materials related to Melnick's family
relationships and friendships, educational pursuits, her work as an author and editor, and
her involvement in the preservation of urban industrial art.
Language of Material: English
Biographical Information:
Mimi (Miriam) Clar was born in Hollywood, California on December 25, 1935 to parents
Charles and Reva (née Howitt). Her father was a fireplace merchant and her mother was a
former dancer featured in the all-female tap dancing company, the San Francisco Beauties,
produced by Fanchon and Marco from 1923-1933. The Clar family lived in the Los Feliz area of
Los Angeles. As a young child, Mimi expressed an interest in music and began classical piano
lessons. By her early teens, she had become fascinated with Jazz, and came under the
tutelage of prominent music educator, Sam Saxe. Mimi Clar attended public schools,
graduating from John Marshall High School in 1953.
Following high school, Mimi attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA),
where she majored in music, and as early as her freshman year, demonstrated superior skill
in musical analysis and criticism. With encouragement from her instructors and notable Jazz
journalist and editor, Charles Emge, Mimi began submitting articles and essays to various
publications, including
Musical Quarterly,
Musical America,
Vogue,
Life, and
Harper's. Mimi's
acquaintance with conductor, music journalist, and UCLA lecturer, Albert Goldberg,
represented a major turning point in her career. As the story is told, Mimi wrote a review
of a Dixieland Jazz concert for one of Goldberg's classes, which was returned with a
suggestion that she should focus her critical writing skills on "something serious." Mimi's
response, "Jazz is serious," earned Goldberg's attention and respect, and later his
recommendation for a position as music critic for the
Los Angeles
Times
. She wrote regularly for the
Times as a critic
specializing in the coverage of jazz from 1958 to 1965, and published numerous articles in
Western Folklore,
Folklore
International,
and the
Jazz Review.
Mimi Clar graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor's degree in Music in 1960. She married
Robert "Bob" Allan Melnick in Los Angeles on July 26, 1962. Bob Melnick, also a graduate of
UCLA (1952), was an electronics engineer with a passion for photography. The couple settled
in West Los Angeles. The Melnicks had a love of urban industrial art and began to collect a
variety of pieces, with a particular interest in manhole covers. In 1974, the couple
published
Manhole Covers of Los Angeles, a limited edition
pictorial published by Dawson's Book Shop. Soon after publication, the Melnicks began their
research to document the history and artistry of manhole covers across the United States,
photographing nearly three-hundred covers over a ten year period.
Following her husband's death in 1982, Mimi relocated to Encino. Over the next ten years
Mimi moved forward with the project, compiling her husband's photographs and her text, which
culminated in
Manhole Covers, published by MIT Press in 1994. A
year later, Mimi successfully petitioned the Los Angeles City Council to preserve sixteen
manhole covers as historical artifacts, ensuring that city agencies would preserve and
protect the covers during street maintenance or urban renewal. Following the death of her
mother in 1997, Mimi discovered Reva's memoirs and began a lengthy editing process that
would result in the publication of
Lollipop: Vaudeville Turns with a
Fanchon and Marco Dancer
in 2002.
Along with writing projects and other interests, Mimi continued to play piano and her love
for Jazz never wavered. In February 1996, she established a series of concerts dubbed the
Double M Jazz Salon, staged at her home in the Encino hills, featuring both well-known and
local Jazz artists. Audiences for Jazz Salons were by invitation only with limited seating,
and all proceeds directly benefited the performers. For nearly two decades, the concerts
drew the attention of Jazz musicians, critics, students, and Jazz historians, all of whom
vied for a seat and the chance to experience the energy and intimacy of the Double M Jazz
Salon. Mimi Melnick passed away on June 14, 2013 following heart surgery.
Scope and Contents
The
Mimi Melnick Collection documents her personal and
professional life, most significantly her influence over the emergence of Jazz as a
legitimate area of academic study as well as her role in the development and promotion of
Jazz in the Los Angeles region between 1958 and 2010. Notable individuals represented in the
collection include Jazz musicians Horace Tapscott, Charles Owens, Roberto Miguel Miranda,
Jesse Sharps, Billy Childs, Billy Higgins, and Walter Norris. Highlights in the collection
include Melnick's published and unpublished reviews and essays on Jazz, her patronage of
Jazz musicians in Los Angeles, and her work to preserve manhole covers as an urban art form.
The collection is divided into two series, Series I,
Personal
Files
(1938-2012), and Series II,
Professional Files
(1948-2013).
Series I,
Personal Files, documents Mimi Melnick's life
experiences from childhood through adulthood, including her family relationships and
friendships, musical interests, and educational pursuits. Diaries span nearly fifty years,
beginning at age ten. Correspondence from Melnick consists of letters of reference,
congratulations, sympathy, thank you notes, and fan letters to musicians, dancers, and
writers. Correspondence to Melnick includes greeting cards, announcements and invitations,
congratulatory wishes, responses from fan mail, and personal letters. Also included are
event programs, other materials related to Melnick's personal activities and interests, and
a small number of personal photographs. This series is arranged alphabetically by subject or
title.
Series II,
Professional Files, documents Mimi Melnick's work as
an author, musician, and patron of the Jazz community. Correspondence includes query letters
to publishers, letters of interest to potential employers, research inquiries,
administrative letters, and proposals for writing, music, and civic projects. Also included
are research files and writings, publications and musical scores authored by Mimi Melnick
and colleagues, articles by and about Mimi Melnick, Double M Jazz Salon flyers, signed and
unsigned photographs of Jazz artists, and photographs, video, and audio of Double M Jazz
Salons. This series is arranged alphabetically by subject or title.
Arrangement of Materials:
Series I: Personal Files, 1938-2012
Series II: Professional Files, 1948-2013
Conditions Governing Access:
This collection is open for research use.
Conditions Governing Use:
Copyright for some unpublished materials authored or otherwise produced by the creator(s)
of this collection has been transferred to California State University, Northridge.
Copyright status for other materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials
protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires
the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be
commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any
use rests exclusively with the user.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Richard Clar, Andrew R. Clar, Ilene Clar Perry, 03/18/2016.
Preferred Citation:
For information about citing items in this collection consult the appropriate style manual,
or see the
Citing Archival Materials
guide.
Processing Information:
Holli Teltoe, 2017
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Audiovisual materials
Ephemera
Documents
Photographs
Scrapbooks
Audiovisual materials