Larney Goodkind papers

The papers primarily document Larney Goodkind’s client, William Warfield, and highlight Goodkind’s efforts to promote Warfield’s career as an international classical operatic performer. Some materials pertain to other clients as well, including African American soprano Leontyne Price. Formats in the collection include correspondence, concert programs and stage bills, concert reviews, photographs, contracts, biographical sketches, scrapbooks, certificates and awards, press releases, and sound recordings of Warfield’s performances. Other formats are oversized contracts, royalty statements, biographical sketches, press books, certificates and awards, press releases and concert posters. Several of the concert programs have handwritten annotations with concertgoers’ remarks and opinions of the performance.

Correspondence dates from 1950 through the 1970s, and consists of letters from William Warfield to Goodkind concerning performances, touring and recordings, with some letters written while Warfield was on tour. Other letters are from various individuals to Warfield and Goodkind, which pertain to performances by Warfield, as well as teaching positions in music schools. Of note is a 1963 letter from Carl Van Vechten in which Van Vechten thanks Larney Goodkind for coordinating a small donation of manuscripts to Yale University.

The news clippings, magazines, theater programs and photographs in the collection mostly chronicle Goodkind’s client William Warfield. Newspaper clippings cover Warfield’s marriage to Leontyne Price, international concert performances and other professional highlights. The bulk of the programs highlights Warfield’s professional career and international travels and reflects his interest and passion for classical music and theater performances. Photographs mostly consist of black and white publicity headshots of Warfield.

The collection also documents Warfield’s extensive travel, and includes reviews for Warfield’s 1956 African and Mid-East tour; posters and programs for his performance at the Haile Selassie Theater in September 1956; Warfield’s artist calendars from 1979 to 1985; an invitation for dinner at the White House with President and Mrs. Kennedy, Haile Selassie, Adlai Stevenson and Warfield; programs for the 1952 opening of Porgy and Bess at the National Theater in Washington, DC; materials establishing the William Warfield Scholarship Fund by the city of Rochester; a 1953 program for the CBS television special “Dinner with the President,” with William Warfield billed after Jackie Robinson; audio reels of Warfield’s May 1967 performance of El Pessebre in Geneva, Switzerland; and black and white wedding photographs of Warfield and Leontyne Price.

The career of Leontyne Price, Warfield’s wife and fellow performer, under Goodkind’s management is also documented in the collection with programs and photographs representing Price.

The papers conclude with oversized materials and audiovisual items mainly representing William Warfield's career.