DAVID M. DANIELS:

David Daniels was born April 10, 1927 in St. Paul, Minnesota to Thomas and Frances Daniels. He attended Yale, where he performed in multiple plays and musicals, and graduated from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He then frequented the Minnesota orchestra and theater scene, further developing his natural baritone sound with the St. Paul Opera and the Minneapolis Orchestra. His first national role was with Elaine Stritch in Call Me Madam in 1952. In 1955, David Daniels won the Theater World Award for his work on Plain and Fancy and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. After David broke onto the national stage, he continued to impress audiences for the next twenty years. He performed around the country, from New York to California, in on and off Broadway productions. His credits also included performing with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra and performing with Liza Minnelli in Carnival. His last documented performance in 1978 was his fifty-eighth role, demonstrating his impressive and expansive career in the entertainment business. On July 30, 2002, he died from complications of lung illness.

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The scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings, playbills, and photographs that document his early days at Yale to his later roles and experiences in the early 1970s. They also contain sheet music from throughout his career and various awards and other recognitions that he received.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. David M. Daniels Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 16,155

Processing Information:

Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Catalog ID number: 990072377770104294

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Musicals.

Opera.

Performing arts.

Theater.

Organizations:

Plantation Players (White Bear Lake, Minn.).

St. Paul Civic Opera Association.

Document Types:

Compact discs.

DVDs.

Photographs.

Scrapbooks.

Occupations:

Actors.

Singers.

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