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Playscript about the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg espionage trial
MS.M.054
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries
Title: Playscript about the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg espionage trial
Identifier/Call Number: MS.M.054
Physical Description:
0.1 Linear Feet
(1 folder)
Date (inclusive): circa 1975
Abstract: The collection is comprised of one untitled playscript (50 pages) written by Barbara Clairchilde, Leslie Hoag and Dudley Knight.
The play deals with the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1951) and the couple's resulting execution (1953).
Language of Material:
English
.
The collection is open for research.
Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and
their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.
Playscript about the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Espionage Trial. MS-S034. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine
Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.
For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this
collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.
Acquired in 2009.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were tried on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage in 1951. They were convicted when the court
determined they had provided information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. In 1953 they were executed for the crime,
an event that was and remains controversial.
Barbara Clairchilde, Leslie Hoag and Dudley Knight were associated with KPFK, a politically progressive radio station in the
Los Angeles area, in the 1970s. Knight was an actor who became a member of the faculty in the Department of Drama at the University
of California, Irvine, in 1981.
Processed by Dawn Schmitz, 2010.
The collection is comprised of one untitled playscript (50 pages) written by Barbara Clairchilde, Leslie Hoag and Dudley Knight.
The play deals with the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1951) and the couple's resulting execution (1953).
The first half of the play recounts the events leading up to the trial. The second half is comprised mainly of letters written
by the Rosenbergs during their imprisonment. Letters are to each other, their lawyer Emanuel "Manny" Bloch, President Dwight
D. Eisenhower, and their children.
The play was probably originally written to be performed on KPFK radio station in Los Angeles. It was adapted in part by Robert
Carl Cohen for the Rally to Reopen the Rosenberg Case, Santa Monica, California, February 2, 1975.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Actors.
Radio plays
Activists.
Trials (Espionage) -- History -- Sources
Cold War -- History -- Sources