Institute of the American Musical Releases Decades of Unprecedented Broadway Footage

The Institute of the American Musical, one of the foremost archives of musical theater history, has begun the release of the Ray Knight Broadway Theatre Films collection, which 1931-1973.

The collection contains 40 years of excerpts from approximately 140 Broadway musicals, shot on 16mm silent film by Jacksonville, Florida, resident Ray Knight, during his visits to New York City. What was once intended as home movies is now able to become a vital archive for researchers, scholars, and artists, the single largest collection of moving images from the Golden Age of Broadway.

This archive begins with the Ziegfeld Follies of 1931 and ends with the original production of A Little Night Music in 1973.

Currently available for free viewing are Anything Goes starring Ethel Merman, On the Town (1944), Damn Yankees with Gwen Verdon, and several others.

Eventually, titles will include the original productions of Company, Follies, Pippin, I Can Get It For You Wholesale, Funny Girl, Sweet Charity, Mame, Cabaret, 1776, Guys and Dolls, Gypsy, Fiorello!, The Sound of Music, and dozens more.

For more information, click here.