Harold Sylvester Papers

The papers of film and television actor, writer, and producer, Harold Sylvester, span over forty years, highlighting not only his career in Hollywood, but also his early theater work in New Orleans, Louisiana. Of note in the papers is Sylvester's participation as a player in the 1965 secret basketball game between the all-black St. Augustine High School team and the all-white Jesuit High School team in New Orleans. In addition, his time as the first African American basketball scholarship student at Tulane University (1968) is well documented.

The papers contain screenplays, scripts, teleplays with his personal notations, call sheets and logs, news clippings, photographs, and ephemera for the films Sounder, Part 2 (1976), An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Uncommon Valor (1983), Innerspace (1987), Corrina, Corrina (1994), and many others. Sylvester's television career is well documented with screenplays for many of the over 400 shows he was involved including, Married...with Children, Hill Street Blues, A Different World, Today's F.B.I., Mary, and Shaky Ground.

Sylvester's papers reflect his work as a screenwriter and producer through various project files containing agreements, contracts, minutes of meetings, and scripts. His screenwriting for the TNT documentary, On Hallowed Ground: Streetball Champions of Rucker Park (2000), received an Emmy. He made his directorial debut with the feature film NOLA (2005) and his work is documented through financial records, script notations, the script supervisor's daily log, and the sound log. Other screenplays by Sylvester represented within the collection include Mental Unit, In God We Trust: The Muhammad Ali Story, Fast Girls, Outrage, and Dancing Bear: a treatment. Sylvester was heavily involved in the production of Passing Glory (1999), a film about the 1965 secret basketball game between St. Augustine High School and Jesuit High School in New Orleans, Louisiana that Sylvester wrote and that Steve James directed. These records contain Sylvester's notes, drafts and final drafts of the screenplay, project proposals and descriptions, outlines, promotional material, news clippings, and ephemera (1992-1999). These papers also contain some business records for Blue Bayou Productions, Inc., a company that supports media cooperatives and collectives of which Sylvester is President.

Early papers encompass his athletic career at St. Augustine High School (1965-1967) and Tulane University (1968-1972) in New Orleans, Louisiana. These materials mainly consist of ephemera and news clippings along with a small amount of photographs of the St. Augustine High School players. The documentation for his time at Tulane University is more extensive with records for statistics, rosters, programs, photographs, and a 1967 Tulane basketball coach's office newsletter. Of note, is a copy of a typescript of Sylvester's journal for Hurricane Island Outward Bound (1966).

Sylvester involved himself in theater groups throughout his career, particularly in New Orleans, Louisiana and California. The earliest theater material documents the Free Southern Theater (FST) in New Orleans (1971-1976, 1984-1985). The materials regarding the FST center on scripts by founder and director John O'Neal, such as The Hurricane Season (1972) and When the Opportunity Scratches Itch-It (1974). Also included, is a scrapbook (1964-1965), production book for the play A Raisin in the Sun, news clippings, posters, brochures, performance ephemera, and items related to the FST Funeral Project (1984-1985). Other New Orleans theaters covered within the collection include ACT I (The Alliance for Community Theaters, Inc.) and the Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre. Ephemera representing The Group Reparatory Theatre and The Robey Theatre Company in California are also included.

Sylvester's correspondence is comprised of greeting cards and invitations with occasional personal letters (1976-2009), in addition to financial and professional records, dating from 1980-2012. Of interest are the drawings of Janice Billings, the wife of actor Earl Billings (circa 1976) and two scrapbooks dating 1975-1982, covering the era of the films Night of the Stranger to An Officer and a Gentleman.

Of note, is Sylvester's photographs mainly dating from his time with the FST in the early 1970s through the filming of Uncommon Valor in 1983. Available are photographs, negatives, proof sheets, and slides of artistic portraiture and Sylvester's still lifes from the early 1970s. Also included in the collection are Sylvester's promotional portraits ranging from 1975 to 1990, as well as cast photographs for the productions Sounder, Part 2, Shaky Ground, Corrina, Corrina, An Officer and a Gentleman, and Uncommon Valor. Of interest are two color images of the play Slow Dance on the Killing Ground performed by the FST circa 1970, as well as the 1965 St. Augustine High School basketball team.

The Sylvester papers contain a large amount of collected ephemera and publications from performances attended, film and play reviews, sporting events, and movie screenings. There are promotional materials from films for Sylvester's consideration as a member of the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences mainly dating from the early 1990s.