Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Carroll (Diahann) papers
PASC-M.0260
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Diahann Carroll papers
Creator:
Carroll, Diahann
Identifier/Call Number: PASC-M.0260
Physical Description:
58 Linear Feet
(24 boxes, 2 shoe boxes, 92 flat boxes, and 8 oversize flat boxes)
Date (inclusive): circa 1940-circa 2008
Abstract: Over the course of her career, actress and singer Diahann Carroll has been involved in a number of stage, motion picture,
and television projects as well a business and philanthropic activities. The bulk of the collection includes musical arrangements,
clippings, and photographs documenting assorted stage, motion picture, and television projects. Additionally there is a small
amount correspondence, scrapbooks, awards, and ephemera.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
CONTAINS DIGITAL AND AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: This collection contains both processed and unprocessed digital and audiovisual
materials. For information about the access status of the material that you are looking for, refer to the Physical Characteristics
and Technical Requirements note at the series and file levels. All requests to access processed digital and audiovisual materials
must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], Diahann Carroll papers (Collection PASC-M 260). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young
Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Diahann Carroll.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user
interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides
a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive
processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
Processed by Kevin Awakuni and Alexandra Apolloni under the supervision of Julie Graham, October 2014.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
5971344
Carol Diahann Johnson (later changed to Diahann Carroll), was born in the Bronx, New York on July 17, 1935. At a young age
she received a scholarship to attend New York's High School of Music and Art. While studying sociology at NYU, she modeled
and began singing in New York nightclubs and on television. In 1954, she debuted on Broadway with Pearl Bailey in
House of Flowers, and received a Tony nomination for her performance. The same year, she appeared in the motion picture
Carmen Jones. In 1962 she received a Tony Award for her performance in
No Strings, the first for an African American woman.
In 1968, Carroll became the first black actress in television history to star in her own series,
Julia, for NBC. She won a Golden Globe (1968) and earned an Emmy nomination (1969), for her performance on the series. Public criticism
that the show was not a realistic portrayal of African American life led Carroll to decline to renew her contract with the
show in 1970. In early 1974 Carroll was featured in the motion picture
Claudine for which she earned an Academy Award nomination. In 1984, Carroll joined the television show
Dynasty as Dominique Devereaux, the first major prime-time soap opera role for an African American female.
Over the course of her career Carroll has been involved in a number of live performances, stage, motion picture, and television
projects. Stage credits include
Agnes of God,
Love Letters,
Same Time Next Year, and
Sunset Boulevard. Carroll's film credits include
Porgy and Bess (1959),
Goodbye Again (1961),
Paris Blues (1961),
Hurry Sundown (1967),
The Split (1968),
The Five Heartbeats (1991), and
Eve's Bayou (1997). Her numerous television credits include series and specials such as
The Colbys,
General Electric Theater,
Lonesome Dove,
Naked City,
Peter Gunn, and
Touched by an Angel, and TV movies such as
Having Our Say,
The Natalie Cole Story,
A Perry Mason Mystery, and
Sister, Sister.
In 1997, Carroll created a signature line of clothes and a line of wigs for African American women. The following year, Carroll
was diagnosed with breast cancer and became an outspoken advocate for early detection, and she has served as spokeswoman for
the National Women's Cancer Research Alliance. Diahann Carroll has earned many honors including the Women in Film Crystal
and Lucy awards, NAACP Image award for best actress, and induction into Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.
The collection consists of materials related to the career of actress and singer, Diahann Carroll. The bulk of the collection
includes musical arrangements, clippings, and photographs documenting assorted stage, motion picture, and television projects.
Additionally there is a small amount correspondence, scrapbooks, awards, and ephemera. Musical arrangements represent assorted
stage performances including solo performances and performances with Vic Damone. Among the motion picture productions represented
are
Carmen Jones and
Claudine; television projects documented include
Dynasty ,
Having Our Say ,
Julia , and
Lonesome Dove ; stage performances represented are
House of Flowers,
No Strings,
Sunset Boulevard, and
Diahann Carroll and Vic Damon in Concert. With few exceptions, notably missing from the collection are scripts and production information representing Carroll's numerous
acting roles for stage, film, and television.
The bulk of the correspondence are notes sent to Diahann Carroll from correspondents such as Judy Collins, Bing Crosby, Sammy
Davis, Jr., Berry Gordy, Quincy Jones, Henry Kissinger, and Barbara Walters, among others. Additionally there are invitations
to attend White House receptions from George H. Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton and a thank you note from John F. Kennedy.
Also included are materials from Diahann Carroll's fashion venture projects, materials documenting what appears to be an unpublished
autobiography book project, a copyedited manuscript for the book
Diahann: An Autobiography, and a very small amount of material related to Carroll's personal life.
Arranged in the following series:
- Personal and Biographical
- Motion Picture Projects
- Television Projects
- Stage Projects
- Musical Arrangements
- Fashion Projects
- Correspondence
- Photographs
- Scrapbooks
- Book Projects
- Awards
- Printed Material
- Sound Recordings
Subjects and Indexing Terms
African Americans in Entertainment -- Archives.
Actresses -- United States -- Archives.
Carroll, Diahann -- Archives