Archives May 2012

Yonkers Production Company

Scene from The Boy Friend
(GLC 61 Gregory Grosh Yonkers Production Company Slides)

In 2009, Gregory Grosh donated his collection of materials about the Yonkers Production Company. It was a San Francisco theater company in the 1970s that specialized in all-male productions of popular musicals such as Dames at Sea, The Boy Friend, and Hello, Dolly! Several performances took place at the Village Theatre.

Review in David (GLC 61 Gregory Grosh
Yonkers Production Company Slides)

Behind the scenes preparations for The Boy Friend
(GLC 61 Gregory Grosh Yonkers Production Company)

Yonkers was an off-shoot of SIR Productions and involved many of the same people. They included co-producers Perry George and John Kozak; Chuck Zinn, director; and Doug Marglin, choreographer. SIR, the Society for Individual Rights, was a homophile organization based in San Francisco.

Grosh was a neighbor of Kozak and Marglin's, and he became a member of the Yonkers Production Company at their invitation. He performed many behind the scenes tasks, such as taking photographs. His photographs of The Boy Friend appear in several reviews; he is credited as Fotografix and Photo-Graphix.

Scene from Dames at Sea (GLC 61 Gregory Grosh Yonkers Production Company Slides)

The Gregory Grosh Yonkers Production Company Slides collection contains slides of three Yonkers productions and the Golden Awards, plus a few reviews and one program. The program for the May 1972 Hello, Dolly! production includes the article "The Siege of the Palace of Fine Arts" by Perry George, in which he details the search for a performance venue.

The collection is open for research, with photographs available for viewing during Photo Desk hours: Tuesday: 1-5; Thursday: 1-5; Saturday: 10-12, 1-5. All archival collections are available through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library.