Kinsey Komedy Kompany scrapbooks

The Kinsey Komedy Kompany scrapbooks, 1902-1963, are more a collection of memorabilia than a documenation of the company's business, productions, and history. The scrapbooks are filled with clippings from newspapers, trade journals and magazines, tickets, playbills, posters, business cards, programs, telegrams, letters, and hand-written records. Not included in these scrapbooks are the contracts for the players, theater rentals, tent and maintenance costs, costumes, props and settings costs, transportation expenses, laborers' wages, gate receipts, food costs, and profits.

Most of the items are clippings, especially from local Ohio newspapers. These clippings provide information on playdates, locations, and shows, reviews of performances, and interviews with players. Some articles offer the history of the Kinsey Komedy Kompany and the Kinsey family including the Grafs and Millers. Many articles after 1951 are devoted to the semi-retirement of Madge Kinsey Graf and her husband, Harry, as well as all the Kinsey children and grandchildren. The clippings also provide information on the productions of the troupe. Besides the popular Toby comedies, the troupe performed social dramas like: "Her Unborn Child," a play concerning birth control; "The Lost Paradise," a conflict between labor and capital; "Little Lost Sister," a play about white slavery; "Ten Nights in a Barroom," a temperance drama; "The Warning," a morality plkay on infidelity; and "Uncle Tom's Cabin," the great production on slavery. The company also staged "East Lynne," "Detective Ned Keene," "The Banker, the Thief, and the Girl," and other standard plays.

Also included among the clippings are articles and newsprint photographs on the American Stock Company, Baberton Stock Company, Bigelow Family Band, Billy Bryant's Showboat, H. Donna Gosner, Robert Grau, Vincenti Minnelli and the Minnelli Brothers, Winfred St. Claire Players, Maud Powell and Oliver Scott as well as numerous advertisements from different entertainment companies.