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Collection Data
- Description
- Buzz Miller (1923-1999) was an American dancer who performed primarily in musical theater and ballets. The Buzz Miller papers, dating from 1906 to 1999, chronicle his career as a dancer and choreographer, as well as his personal life and service in the United States Army during World War II. The collection contains correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks, resumes, contracts, notes, and artwork. A large portion of Miller's papers consists of personal photographs, showing Miller with his partner, Alan Groh, and fellow dancers and choreographers.
- Names
- Miller, Buzz (Creator)
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1906 - 1999
- Library locations
- Jerome Robbins Dance Division
- Shelf locator: *MGZMD 127
- Topics
- Festival of Two Worlds
- United States. Army. Women's Army Corps
- Choreographers -- United States
- Dancers -- United States
- Musical theater
- Dancers
- Genres
- Albums (Books)
- Correspondence
- Photographs
- Notes
- Biographical/historical: Buzz Miller was born Vernal Miller in 1923 in Snowflake, Arizona. Miller served in the United States Army during World War II, and was injured in combat in 1944. He pursued a dance career after leaving the Army in 1947.
Miller began his career touring with the Jack Cole Dancers and Kay Thompson. He went on to work with choreographers Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse in Broadway productions such as Two's Company (1952), The Pajama Game (1954), Redhead (1959), and Funny Girl (1964). In 1958, Miller danced in ballets choreographed by John Butler at the first Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. Other credits include La Chambre with Roland Petit's Ballets de Paris (1954-1955); John Butler's Portrait of Billie (1961); Bravo Giovanni (1962); and Katherine Litz's Dracula (1969).
In addition to dancing, Miller worked as a choreographer and, later in his career, taught ballet and jazz dance. He choreographed Tito Capobianco's 1972 production of Aida in Germany, and choreographed and directed several plays at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City.
Miller met his partner Alan Groh in 1957. The couple lived together for more than thirty years until Groh's death in 1996. Miller died of emphysema in 1999 in New York City.
- Content: The Buzz Miller papers, dating from 1906 to 1999, trace Miller's career and personal life through correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, resumes, contracts, and Miller's notes and artwork.
The correspondence features a large number of Miller's letters to Alan Groh, and a large number of letters to Miller from his sister, Rosalene (Ronnie) Miller. Miller's letters to Groh date from 1958 to 1979. The 1958 letters were written while Miller was at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. Later letters to Groh were also written while Miller was working internationally; there are letters from his tenure as choreographer for Tito Capobianco's production of Aida in Germany during 1972, and letters from a 1979 tour in Japan. Ronnie Miller's letters to Miller date from the 1940s and discuss her experiences serving in the Women's Army Corps in Iowa and California, as well as her life in Arizona before and after World War II. Other correspondence includes letters Miller wrote to his family, letters from Miller's agent, and short notes from Janet Flanner and Jerome Robbins.
The scrapbooks chronicle Miller's dance and choreography career from 1948 to 1980 with photographs, clippings, and programs. Other materials in the collection related to Miller's career include resumes, contracts, and short written reminiscences.
Photograph albums feature images of Miller's family, colleagues, and friends, including Jerome Robbins and Carol Haney. Most albums contain photographs of Miller, Groh, and others traveling in the United States and internationally from the 1970s to the 1990s; travel locations include Arizona, Israel, Spain, Italy, and Mexico. Family photographs date as early as 1907.
The collection also holds notes from Miller's time in the United States Army, and artwork by Miller and his family members that dates as early as 1906.
- Physical Description
- Extent: 3.54 linear feet (8 boxes, 3 volumes)
- Type of Resource
- Text
- Still image
- Identifiers
- Other local Identifier: (S) *MGZMD 127
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b20319656
- MSS Unit ID: 18762
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 43aa30a0-33f8-013e-251e-0242ac110002
