Collection search - Frank Shuster fonds [multiple media]

Record information – Brief
1
Frank Shuster fonds [multiple media]

Hierarchical level:

Fonds

Date:

1935-2002.

Reference:

R4610-0-3-E, MG31-D251

Type of material:

Photographs, Moving images, Sound recordings, Objects (including medals and pins), Art, Textual material

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

107127

Context of this record:

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Frank Shuster fonds
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Record information – Details
Fonds includes:

13 lower level description(s)
View lower level description(s)

Date(s):

1935-2002.

Place of creation:

No place, unknown, or undetermined

Extent:

5.27 m of textual records.
173 photographs 168 b&w.
55 videocassettes (ca. 55 h).
2 film reels (13 min).
7 audio cassettes (6 h, 9 min, 30 s).
4 audio discs (1 h, 42 min, 45 s).
1 audio reel (15 min, 15 s).
1 digital audiotape (15 min, 15 s).
3 plaques engraved copper mounted on wood.
1 drawing charcoal and gouache, cut out and mounted on paper.
1 medallion plastic.
1 cut and/or pasted silhouette

Language of material:

English
Accession:

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Frank Shuster fonds [textual record, graphic material, object]

Frank Shuster fonds [textual record, graphic material]
Scope and content:

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Fonds consists of textual records and one object which have been arranged into the following series: Personal material; Correspondence; Contracts; Radio and television material; Stage productions; Film projects; Scrapbooks; Clippings; and Posthumous material.

The fonds includes photographs of Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster on tour, in rehearsal and performing comedy skits for the Ed Sullivan Show, Tiddlywinks Show, Show of the Week, Wayne & Shuster Hour, and other television broadcasts for CBC. Skits include All in the Royal Family, Murder on the Super Continental, The Unholy Goalie, Once Upon a Giant, Dr. Sinister, Bonanza, Swan Lake, Sherlock Holmes, The Brown Pumpernickel, Citizen Wayne, French Bistro, Out West, Cyrano de Bergerac, Julius Caesar, and Robin Hood. Other performers include Ed Sullivan, Carol Robinson, Peggy Mahon and Roger Doucet. Also included are formal portraits and photographs of the duo entertaining Canadian troops in Normandy, Tokyo and Korea. A photograph of Frank Shuster receiving an honorary degree from the University of Toronto is also included in the fonds.

The fonds also contains audio-visual material including radio and television programs by Wayne and Shuster, as well as other productions by or about the duo, including interviews, television commercials and a 1991 CBC tribute, 1943-1993.

The fonds contains plaques awarded to Wayne and Shuster, including the Lafleche Trophy for Canadian Radio, 1946-1947; Harbord C.I. trophy for Outstanding Achievement, 1953; and the Radio World Gold Medal for Most Popular Radio Artists, 1947.

Also included is a caricature portrait drawing of Frank Shuster by an unknown artist. As well, there is a silhouette of Shuster that was done in 1931 when he was fifteen years old.

Provenance:

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Shuster, Frank, 1916-2002

Biography/Administrative history:

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Shuster, Frank, 1916-2002 : Frank Shuster was born in Toronto in 1916. He spent part of his childhood in Niagara Falls, where his father was a movie projectionist. He attended Harbord Collegiate back in Toronto, where he met John Weingarten (later Wayne). Together they organized a revue called the Oola Boola Club. They went on to the University of Toronto, where they contributed to the University College Follies and the Varsity. Frank Shuster was also involved in the Theatre of Action in Toronto, taking drama courses and performing in its productions. After graduating with a B.A. in English, Shuster and Weingarten, who by now had adopted the name Johnny Wayne, began appearing on radio in various comedy skits, in the CFRB shows Javex Wife Preservers and Co-eds and Cut-ups and CBC's The Buckingham Cigarette Programme, while at the same time continuing graduate work in English at U. of T.

They starred in CBC's Army Show and, after enlisting in the army, toured Canada with the stage version of the Army Show. They took the show overseas in 1944. They later went to Korea, in 1953, to entertain Canadian troops there.

Wayne and Shuster began their own show on CBC radio with RCA Victor in 1946. The programme went through a number of incarnations, but remained with the same format and roughly the same supporting cast (which included announcer Herb May, the Samuel Hersenhoren Orchestra, singer Terry Dale, Dick Nelson, Eric Christmas, Bernie Braden, etc. and was produced by Jackie Ray). They began in television with the CBC in 1954 and had their own weekly show until 1967, after which they starred in frequent Wayne and Shuster Specials. In 1958, they were invited to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show in the U.S., and they appeared regularly thereafter on that show until 1969.

They also worked on other American television shows and in Great Britain. In 1965, CBC's Wayne and Shuster Hour was awarded the Silver Rose at the Montreux television festival, named by an international jury as the world's funniest television show. Wayne and Shuster became Canada's best known comedy team, enduring until 1990, when Johnny Wayne died. Frank Shuster continued to work on retrospective shows for the CBC, which inaugurated a Wayne and Shuster Comedy Wall of Fame at its Toronto Broadcast Centre.

Frank Shuster was married in 1947 and he and his wife, Ruth, have two children: Rosalind, an award-winning writer for Saturday Night Live and Steve, a musician and comic. His cousin Joe Shuster was the creator of the Superman comic strip.

Frank Shuster died on the 13th January 2002.

Finding aid:

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Textual records (Electronic) The finding aid provides a file list of the papers. MSS2067 (90: Open)
http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000000600.pdf

Sound recordings and moving images: (Electronic) See MISACS for item level descriptions.

Photographs: (Electronic) See MISACS for select item level descriptions of material in accession 1995-249 (DAP).

Additional information:

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General note:

Received in 1995 and 2001 from Frank Shuster, and in 2003 from his widow, Ruth Shuster.

Exhibitions note:

Exhibition Title: Treasured Memories 3. Curator: Martin Tétrault, National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, 1998.11-1999.11.
(MG 31 D 251 v. 2, page 2 )
Subject heading:

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World War II Johnny Wayne

Television - Canada Joe Shuster

Army Show Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Comedy - Canada

Radio - Canada

Portraits
Source:

Private

Related control no.:

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123-020026-6
1995-0218 MISA
1995-249 DAP
1995/0142
1995/0142 MSS
2001-00976-3
2004-00410-X
2787 (1995-11-02)
95-268
MG31-D251

Former archival reference no.:

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MG31-D251
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

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Graphic (photo)

[Consultation90 Open]

Moving images (video)

[Consultation90 Open]

Sound recordings

[Consultation90 Open]

Object

[Consultation90 Open]

Box [1995-249]

[Consultation 90 Open]

2000845821;

[Consultation 90 Open]

2001044346;

[Consultation 90 Open]

Moving images (film)

[Consultation90 Open]

Graphic (art)

[Consultation90 Open]

Box [1995-249] 1333

[Consultation 90 Open]

001333 Item no. assigned by LAC 1

[Consultation 90 Open]

Textual records

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [MG31 D 251] 1--32

[Consultation 90 Open]

Finding aid box [FA 2067] 149

[Consultation 10 Closed]

Terms of use:

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Photographs: Various copyrights on items less than 50 years old. Copyright is expired on items more than 50 years old. Credit: Name of photographer / National Archives of Canada / Copy negative no.
Art: Copyright is unknown. Credit: National Archives of Canada.
Sound recordings and moving images: Reproduction and use in any form requires the written permission of the copyright holders.
Textual records: The recipient of copies is responsible for determining whether material is subject to copyright and for ascertaining the name of the person or organization holding copyright. The recipient is also responsible for determining whether any use of copyrighted material does or does not constitute an infringement of copyright under the Copyright Act.

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Date modified:: 2024-05-10