Leo Burmester “steals the show” with a belly dance in South Pacific, 1966/1967
This photo from 1957-1958 shows women looking at a Western Players scrapbook, now in our collections, that was already 23 years old. It is now 80 years old.
These fifty newly conserved and processed scrapbooks document theatre productions and other activities of Russell H. Miller and the Western Players from 1934 to 1969 and the Summer Players from 1956 to 1968. These scrapbooks include newspaper clippings, programs, tickets, greeting cards, correspondence, and many, many photographs.
Corky McCormick shows off his guns in Picnic, 1959-1960
The intended topics of the scrapbooks include the Players as a student organization, the players as students and actors, theatre productions, Bowling Green Community Theatre, oratorical and speech contests, debate team competitions (Miller was their coach for several years), regional theatre productions, and similar activities. However, the scrapbooks are also informative on changing fashions, costuming, perceptions of minorities (Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, French, the aged, and the disabled), set design, gender roles, and a variety of other topics.
Elegant gowns, cross-dressers, road trips, chickens… these scrapbooks are filled with decades of plays, players, club activities, and more.
The Western Debaters with sponsor, Russell Miller, seated in the center. The young woman on the right is Elizabeth McWhorter who won the women’s division at the Grand National Forensic Tournament that year, 1956.
Alice Chumbley (far left), Former Miss Kentucky, as Hero in Much Ado About Nothing, 1959/1960
The Western Players and Summer Players scrapbooks have been digitized and are now available on TopScholar. These and many other records are available for researchers through our online catalog KenCat. For more information contact us at WKU Archives.
Mary Ray Oaken and Charles Napier in Love Among the Ruins. This was Charles Napier’s first stage appearance. Think of a television show from the late 1970s to the early 1990s and he was probably in it at some point. See his extensive filmography at IMDB.
Post written by WKU Archives Assistant April McCauley.