Photographs of the Cockettes in "Tricia's Wedding"
Overview
Three photographs of mid-20th century avante-garde theater group the Cockettes, performing in "Tricia's Wedding."
Dates
- Creation: 1971
Condition Description
Some light creasing and fingerprints present on each photograph.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine retrieval policies and times.
Extent
.04 linear feet ((1 volume) )Three photographs of theater group the Cockettes performing in "Tricia's Wedding," a video performance taken in 1971. In the performance, the Cockettes reenact Tricia Nixon's wedding to Edward Cox on June 11, 1971. Hurtme O. Hurtme, television correspondent, covers the wedding and interviews faux celebrities in attendance. All photos are captioned, "Grove Press presents the Cockettes in Tricia's Wedding." Two photos have a Photofest label affixed to the back. One photo has a stamp reading "From the collection of Cinemabilia N.Y.C."
Biographical / Historical
The Cockettes were an avant garde psychedelic hippie theater group founded in the fall of 1969. The troupe was formed out of a group of hippie artists, men and women, who were living in Kaliflower, one of the many communes in Haight-Ashbury, a neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Their brand of theater was influenced by The Living Theater, John Vaccaro's Play House of the Ridiculous, the films of Jack Smith and the LSD ethos of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters. The troupe performed all original material, staging musicals with original songs. The first year they parodied American musicals and sang show tunes (or original musical comedies in the same vein). They gained an underground cult following that led to mainstream exposure.
Arrangement
Arranged as received.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Custodial History
Ownership prior to this acquisition is unknown.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2023MT-77. Purchased from Walter Reuben Inc with the Maryette Charlton Harvard Theatre Collection Fund, 2023 May 4.
Processing Information
This collection was processed to a basic level with minimal rehousing, organization, and preservation. (Aurora Charlow, 2023)
- Title
- Photographs of the Cockettes in "Tricia's Wedding", 1971 (MS Thr 2278): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2023 May 24
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03565
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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