In 1936, photographer George W. Lucas and former White Studio business manager Irving Pritchard set up a studio to capitalize on and capture New York's thriving theatrical scene. Joined by photographer Edward Thayer Monroe, the Lucas-Prichard Studio (later Lucas-Monroe) shot thousands of theater stills and studio portraits capturing nearly 300 different productions from 1936 to the early 1950s. The studio's archive of negatives and prints was given to the City Museum in 1980 by John Bennewitz. The collection represents a cross section of the studio's various subjects. Portrait sitters include a wide range of entertainers from Ethel Merman to Paul Robeson, Orson Welles, and Eartha Kitt. Production stills document the lighter fare of Gilbert and Sullivan's work as performed on the New York stage, as well as dramatic heavy weights such as Clifford Odets's original production of The Country Girl and Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. The studio also took candid shots capturing musical recording sessions, cast parties, and other show-related events documenting some of the back-stage life of theatrical celebrity.
