Stanley Holloway Archive

Type of material: Music sheets (52) Printed libretti (21) Manuscript music (28) Legal documents Scrapbooks Misc. documents re. his stage career Letters Film

Stanley Holloway (1890-1982) made over 50 films, but he loved performing in the theatre and the comic monologues, for which he was so well known, were first introduced into a Co-Optimists' stage show in 1929. He began his career working in concert parties where he was spotted by Leslie Henson who organised Holloway's first west-end appearance in a Co-Optimists' show. His most notable post-war parts were as the first gravedigger in Olivier's Hamlet film; on stage as Bottom in the Old Vic production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and in film and on stage as Eliza Doolittle's father in My Fair Lady. Holloway's long career spans encompasses the music hall tradition and the cinema of the 1960s.

This archive collection is available for consultation in the V&A Blythe House Archive and Library Study Room by appointment only. Full details of access arrangements may be found here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/archives/.

Access to some of the material may be restricted. These are noted in the catalogue where relevant.

Stored within alphabetical order where appropriate.

Information on copying and commercial reproduction may be found here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/archives/.

This collection was appraised in line with the collection management policy.

No further accruals are expected.

See also the core collections of the V&A Department of Theatre and Performance. Material relating to Stanley Holloway may be found in several collections, including the biographical, productions, company and photographs files.

Please ask for details.