Howard Ashman Archive

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This is a sketch of lyrics for Be Our Guest, featured in Beauty and the Beast. It is probably one of the earliest drafts of the song. It was originally meant to be sung to Maurice.

"Remember, this is a sketch and these are ideas that got left aside for a reason. But it’s fun reading today’s a good day for celebrating.  So enjoy"

Not so long ago, sir, this was our career! Light the chandelier! Ah, what atmosphere! Serving you, we can recapture yesteryear! Raise the lid, let's see what we have here? Oh, my dear!

This is fish, this is not But you'll like it quite a lot Slice it thickly, eat it quickly It's much better when it's hot Try the bread, try  the soup When the croutons loop de loop It's a treat for any diner! Don't believe me? Ask the china! Singing pork! Dancing veal! What an entertaining meal! How could anyone be gloomy or depressed? We'll make you shout encore And send us out for more So be our guest, be our guest, be our guest

Be our guest, be our guest! Get your worries off your chest Let us say, for your entrée We've an array, may we suggest Breast of grouse, several quail? Or the Goose? It's never-fail! What a treat our vinaigrette is Why it's much too good for lettuce! Chicken leg? Ready? Pull! We won't quit until you're full We delight in every bit that you ingest We've got a rare supply So don't you dare be shy, no Be our guest, oui our guest, be our guest!

This interview is of Sarah Gillespie, sister of Howard Ashman. It was conducted to promote the new Disney + movie Howard, directed by Don Hahn.

Notes: This review was mentioned in Howard (Disney +). Mr. Rich, and critics in general, panned the musical.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/25/theater/theater-smile-a-musical-comedy.html

Notes: This is an interesting article because it details the history of the company (for example the disaster that was the Dark Cauldron). It is useful because it contextualizes the importance of the Little Mermaid within the general history of the Disney company itself.

Original Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/11/movies/after-the-lean-years-a-triumph.html

This has already been auctioned but it is an original cell from the movie. Provided by: Propstore.

Here is the description:

An autographed hand-painted original production cel of Ariel from The Little Mermaid taken from one of the most emotionally resonant moments in Disney animation history: the final, heartfelt note of "Part of Your World".

Released in 1989, The Little Mermaid marked the beginning of the Disney Renaissance, a new golden era of animated filmmaking that introduced deeper storytelling and Broadway-style musical scores. The film was a monumental success, grossing over $200 million worldwide and winning two Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Song for "Under the Sea".

This scene, particularly this frame, is a pinnacle of that legacy, celebrated for its emotion, expression, and groundbreaking animation by Glen Keane that gave Ariel depth and soul. It is not just a beautiful cel; it's a landmark frame from the film that captures Ariel in mid-song with unmatched poignancy, longing, and grace.

It also features the official Walt Disney seal in the upper right corner. The cel is inscribed and signed in black ink by Ariel Jodi Benson's voice. She has written, "With love from The Little Mermaid! God Bless – Jodi Benson, Ariel". The signature was obtained during a special London gallery appearance in November 1997, commemorating the film's re-release.

These are rare because you have to go digging through archives to find these, specifically the Indiana University Archive which I have to compliment because they have done a great job in the item descriptors which allow for easy find.

Here are the pictures

Brown County Playhouse production of "Of Mice and Men"; Location of Individuals: (L to R, front to back) David George, Elizabeth Huberman, Howard Ashman, Jesus Ramos

Notes: A positive review from the NYT, showing that the company was turning things around.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/15/movies/review-film-andersen-s-mermaid-by-way-of-disney.html

Fair Use Notice:

This is newspaper coverage from the Indiana State University Newspaper regarding the play that Ashman put on April 1973. This musical was produced for kids and was shown in the University Theater.

It was actually hard to find this newspaper clipping because I didn't know exactly when the show had actually premiered so I had to go through the Indiana University Newspaper Archive and go entry by entry and scrolling. I know way too much about how the university paper reacted to Nixon than I need to know.

Anyway, the images in this newspaper are in a larger format here:

All of these newspaper clippings (which are not in order) are from the university paper of Indiana. These are a mix of reviews (of work when he was in Indiana and after he left) and of mentions in the newspapers of him (usually these mentions are brief and in-passing).

Reviews of Ashman's Work/Works Involving Ashman

Mentions of Ashman

Misc

These are photographs from the production that Howard made for the Snow Queen, which was his masters thesis in Indiana.

Some of the people involved with the production:

Written and Produced - Howard Ashman

Lyrics - Howard Ashman

Score - David Cline

Supervisor - Dr. David Hawes

Production

Scenery - Paul Sweeney

Costumes - Marcia Cox

Choreography - Stuart White

Lighting - Whitney L. White.

Cast

Lars - Tom Warrick

Gretchen - Laura Chickedance

Hans - Dan Bonnell

Inga - Kathryn O'Brian

Policeman - Terry Crannert

Kay - Stuart White

Greta - Shiela Duell

Tania - Barbara Lorenc

Aunt Helga - Marcia Cox

Sergei - John Thompson

Georgie - Hank Levy

Sasha - Mark Carmichael

The Snow Queen - Pam A. Livingston

Sunflower - C. Michael Shallenberg

Wise-Woman - Nancy Parent

Note: Stuart White was Howard's partner. Nancy Parent would go on to become a close collaborator of Howard's.

Photographs:

By now these images have made the rounds since they were posted in 2015 but here are some pictures from the production of Little Shop of Horrors. These are from Howard Ashman Papers found in the Library of Congress collection. These are from Playbill

"Here comes Audrey II!" (Howard Ashman Papers, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington DC.)

Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (Howard Ashman Papers, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington DC.)

From the Howard Ashman Papers, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington DC.

From the Howard Ashman Papers, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington DC.

Faith Prince as Audrey in the Off-Broadway production (Howard Ashman Papers, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington DC.)

Lee Wilkoff, Ellen Greene, and Hy Anzell from the original Off-Broadway cast (Howard Ashman Papers, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington DC.)

Original Seymour and Audrey, Lee Wilkoff and Ellen Greene, sing "Suddenly Seymour" (Howard Ashman Papers, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington DC.)

The document Howard (see on Disney +) is a treasure trove for anyone invested in Ashman. We get all of the narration regarding Howard's early life from his sister, Sarah. Given the purpose of the documentary, the focus remains on building up the story of Howard the lyricist. It does leave a lot unanswered regarding Howard's home life when he was young. In this short blog, I will try and do my best to reconstruct what I can parse. I start with a very short intro on the Ashman family itself and from then on talk about Howard.

The Ashman family actually originates from Lithuania, with the original spelling of the name being Asch (I have no idea where the man comes from). It is not clear when but between 1890 (dob) and 1920s Charles Ashman (presumably anglicised name) emigrated to Baltimore. Reasons for emigration are not clear. Work might have been one, given the location he chose. Baltimore at the time was an industrial powerhouse. However, its worth noting that either he was Jewish or his wife was Jewish. Being Jewish in the early 1900s in Eastern Europe was not necessarily safe. It is likely that this also played a part

Raymond Albert Ashman was born in 1920s, son of Charles. This made him an American, second generation. He married Shirley Ashman. She at some point had dabbled in show-business (see above). In 1950 Howard would be born and in 1953* Sarah was born. They lived most of the early life in Flannery Lane, which Sarah describes as not too poor but not too rich. During this time their father worked in the ice cream business (see Howard on Disney +). However, by 1958, Raymond A. Ashman was sued by his employer. The details of the case are not accessible to me so I can only go by what Sarah herself has said about it.** According to Sarah, Raymond and his brother*** set up a company but Raymond continued working for the old employer. The old employer accused Raymond of stealing from the company for his own new company and stealing from clients. I am not certain how the court case ended (if they settled out of court or if it was a non-guilty veredict). Sarah asserts that Raymond was not convicted. During the trial Raymond's health significantly worsened and he suffered from a heart attack on the summer of 58 or 59. After that, he was never the same. Raymond could not work for a full year. Shirley, their mom, went a got job with social security and they relied on the charity of family members. Their dad did, at some point, get employed again by someone in their religious community.

In 1960 Howard put on his first show: L’il Abner’s Pork Chops. The profits from that first show were given to victims of an earthquake in Chile. The show did get newspaper coverage by the Baltimore Sun (see above; pardon the grainy image). In 1963 Howard had his bar mitzvah. At some point, before 1965, Howard skipped a grade. In 1965 their parents bought a house with their grandparents, a decision which Sarah think was a bad decision. This was apparently a difficult time for the Ashmans. Their grandparents got the master bedroom and their parents were "relegated to a childhood status again". They struggled to have personal space. During this time Sarah grew distant from Howard and they would quarrel, although this is attributed to growing up. Apparently during this time Howard would go out a lot with friends, which could mean they didn't move far enough for them to be cut off from their friends.

By 1968 Howard moved away, to Goddard Collage. It is here he met Stuart White. Sarah found out he was gay in 1972, when a letter arrived addressed to Howard. In it, a girl acknowledged her unrequited feelings were probably because Howard loved Stuart. Their father died in 1973, when Howard was 23 and Sarah was 20.

From here on the documentary Howard on Disney + picks up the narrative so I won't continue. I feel the need to acknowledge my source. This story is from one source: Sarah's blogs and I was not able to access other primary documents that I would have liked (like the court case from Baltimore or immigration papers from Charles Ashman). Therefore, this is Sarah's story about their childhood. With that said, I hope this was an interesting read.

Sometimes I put on puppet shows for my father.

One time I put on one that is about a little boy and a two-wheel bike.

Sometimes I put on Peter Pan, which he likes very much.

He said he is going to make me a stage with a real wooden frame that you can put staging on.

Picture of Howard Ashman in recording studio. He is sitting and is speaking to Alan Menken, who is standing.

This image was posted by Alan Menken as part of a collage of the 90s. See here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DW2DVs1iFfd/?igsh=NGxsc2ZtMzZpOGtx

This building does not say much. One would be forgiven for passing right by it without giving it much thought. However, this building used to house the WPA theater, a theater which housed various plays and originated Little Shop of Horrors and housed the talent of Howard Ashman.

WPA stands for Workshop of the Players Arts Foundation. While Ashman sometimes is credited with starting the company this is not entirely accurate. It has its origins since 1971 and operated from 333 Bowery until 1976. In 1976 it closed its doors but re-opened in 138 Fifth Avenue, under Howard Ashman who along with Stuart White provided a theater for the WPA. White died in 1983 and Ashman left in 1982, although it is likely that White by then had stopped working with the WPA, based on an interview on Howard (Disney +). After Ashman's departure leadership was handed to Kyle Renick. In 1985 the theater moved to 519 West 23rd Street, where it remained until its closure in 2000s. Renick died in 2019.

The internal joke was that WPA stood for We’ll Produce Anything. The mission of the WPA was to produce neglected American classics and work that provided a "detailed examination of men and women in their everyday environment". While it is true that the WPA produced less-well known classics, it did produce 15 commercially successful works. It also produced God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. A venue that did not have strict go rules also gave Ashman and Menken the flexibility to produce Little Shop of Horrors (LSH), which would not have made the stage had they tried to seek external production.