Paul Nagel was a professor at the School of Communication at the University of Miami, as well as a writer, producer, director, and actor in non-theatrical "sponsored films."
The collection includes University of Miami radio tapes and video cassettes, scripts, and publications including Tempo, UM Bulletin, UM School of Music, UM Ballet, UM School of Communication; a series of historical photographs depicting students at work in the Radio, Television and Motion Pictures department of the School of Communication; and clippings, scripts, playbills and programs from the Coconut Grove Playhouse, Parker Playhouse, the Ring Theatre, Players State Theatre, the Cannes Film Festival, Mayfair Theatre, and the Carillon Hotel.
The collection contains scrapbooks, clippings, photographs, negatives, programs, audio reels, 8mm and Super 8 film, and theater ephemera related to the career of actress and singer Nattacha Amador.
"Focus: America" radio talk show was created by Richard (Ric) Arenstein and Larry Wallenstein, both juniors in the Communications Department, University of Miami in 1975. The show originally started as a local program "Focus: Miami" and was produced at the UM's campus radio station WVUM-FM where Arenstein interviewed local personalities and celebrities visiting Miami.
After the successful first season, the tapes of the talk show were mailed to more than 70 college stations across the country under the name "Focus: America." In his senior year, Arenstein and his new associate, Chuck Bortunick, traveled under a grant from the Burger King Corp. to tape interviews of celebrities in other parts of the country. The show ended because of Arenstein's graduation.
The David Ewen Collection consists of materials which pertain to several aspects of music, ranging from composers to opera houses and festivals, as well as his personal life and work. The papers follow the original order established by David Ewen.
The bulk of the collection contains information and some correspondence pertaining to American and foreign composers and serious and popular performers such as George Gershwin, Charles Ives, Igor Stravinsky, Gustav Mahler, Maria Callas, Bing Crosby, and other notable 20th century composers and performers.
The Bob Simms collection documents the life and activities of Robert H. Simms in the black communities in Coconut Grove and Miami and reflects his work with the Community Relations Board and the Defense Race Relations Institute. The collection also contains campaign materials from Leah Simms, the first African American female judge in the state of Florida, and the "Glory in the Grove" photographs of people and events at the George Washington Carver elementary and high schools in Coconut Grove before desegregation. A final component of the collection includes photographs, correspondence and clippings of General "Chappie" James and his family. General James was the first four star African American General and married Dorothy Watkins.
Samuel Hirsch was a theater professor, producer, and theorist who produced a number of plays in the Miami area. The collection consists of many photographs, clippings, programs, and correspondence of various plays that Hirsch produced from the 1940s to 1960s. The collection also contains a scrapbook with clippings, cards, and programs regarding the Musicomedy Series of theater productions directed by Hirsch, which was held in Miami in 1957. Included is an issue of the English Leaflet, Winter 1964, Vol. LXIII, No. 4 which contains an article by Samuel Hirsch titled "The Theatre of the Absurd," and an audiotape titled "Prof Samuel Hirsch, 'Some Thoughts on the Theatre of the Absurd,' the English Lunch Club, 3/14/1964."
