Sheldon Abend was a colorful executive producer who also served as an estate representative for such literary luminaries as George Bernard Shaw and Tennessee Williams. He made a name for himself by winning an intense copyright battle with MCA. A New York native who later fought in the ring and worked as a tugboat coal-stoker, Abend went to work for the American Play Company in 1957 with little education and an over-abundance of initiative. He rose through the ranks to own the organization in three short years, and after establishing the Author's Research Company, served as a literary consultant and rights negotiator for David O. Selznick, among many others. Gaining notoriety for taking on MCA, Alfred Hitchcock, and Jimmy Stewart in 1983 to establish what has come to be known as the "Abend Rule," the tenacious negotiator went to the Supreme Court to clarify copyright law for instances in which the author dies during the copyright's term. Abend died August 24, 2003.
47 boxes. Approximately 300+ titles
This collection contains scripts. This includes but is not limited to, play descriptions, selected scenes, and notes and comments from works such as Grounds for Divorce, Robin Hood's Party, and the Broadway play The Last Warning. Additionally, this collection includes blueprints on how scenes were developed, corrected, and improved based on comments and concerns from various actors during his career from the early 1920s until his death in 2003. University of Miami has part of the collection. 47 boxes. Approximately 300+ titles
