{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/1j9765c209/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["John Brock-Benson interview, circa 1990"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/053/original/cropped-marmia-logo-copy1.png?1586173104","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Source Metadata URI"]},"value":{"en":["https://marmia.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/25816"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["circa 1990 (Creation)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["John Brock-Benson does part 2 of an interview about costume making, choreography, dancing, and students. Footage includes photographs. (Scope and Content Note)","Be advised that this video may contain sensitive, triggering, and offensive language and content. (Content warning)","Digitized with funding provided by the Council on Library and Information Resources' \"Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives: Amplifying Unheard Voices\" grant program. (Funding note)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["1 Betacam"]}},{"label":{"en":["Identifier"]},"value":{"en":["WJZ-FLDTP-009-007 (Identifier)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Series Title"]},"value":{"en":["Field Tapes"]}}],"summary":{"en":["John Brock-Benson does part 2 of an interview about costume making, choreography, dancing, and students. Footage includes photographs.","Be advised that this video may contain sensitive, triggering, and offensive language and content.","Digitized with funding provided by the Council on Library and Information Resources' \"Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives: Amplifying Unheard Voices\" grant program."]},"provider":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["MARMIA"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["MARMIA"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/053/original/cropped-marmia-logo-copy1.png?1586173104","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/260/202/small/thumbnail_260202_1736963953.jpg?1736963955","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - open-uri20250114-980809-cdjl13.mp4"]},"duration":857.843,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/260/202/small/thumbnail_260202_1736963953.jpg?1736963955","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-marmia.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/260/202/original/open-uri20250114-980809-cdjl13.mp4?1736889417","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":857.843,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202/transcript/74405","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["AUTO_TRINT_WJZ-FLDTP-009-007_ffv1.mp4 [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202/transcript/74405/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Just concise. So are you are you still make it You're still making costumes year round, year round. I have my adult ladies that I do sets and sets of costumes which belong to me. But then, of course, the younger students that we have in our studio are many of those groups I have to make also. So for each show we do shows twice a year, and for each one I might have as many as 80 to 150 costumes that I have to turn out sometimes to the class of 14 people. I have 14 of the same thing to make, which doesn't please me because I always enjoyed making individual costumes a lot more. But we do what we have to do. Are the ladies pleased with your work? Usually they are extremely thrilled and excited. We have to go through careful fittings and such. I have a couple of ladies that always jump on me if I do anything too tight up to the neck. But other than that, they'll wear just about anything. I design for them and enjoy it. Now you look like you're trying to keep up there. I mean, you were doing a little bit of fancy footwork. How much of it do you still do? I do. I do all the choreography for the for the adult line and for the children's classes. I do a lot of their choreography, too, along with my sister. So you have to dance it yourself before you teach? Yes, pretty much. Pretty much. So what's next for John Brock Benson? Well, I'm just hoping to keep the studio running successfully to give us an aim in life, to keep the children happy, watch them grow up, watch them progress. And my ladies, as I said before, I just want them to enjoy and look forward to coming in and dancing with us and getting up and doing their shows twice a year.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202#t=7.4,136.33"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202/transcript/74405/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Do you ever age and age where you're too old to dance? I reach that about 15 years ago, but I'm still chipping at it. For me, for for generally speaking, does it does an individual ever reach an age where they just should sit down? In most cases, no. If people have kept themselves in shape and hadn't had a long period of not exercising and keeping up their dance talent, then you can go into your 70s with it. When I was much, much younger and worked on Broadway and theaters and in Las Vegas, some of the male dancers I worked with were 50 and more and looked wonderful. They had kept their physique that kept their their their body line. And they it was just no reason to stop. Well, you obviously are not in the same shape you were in 30 or 40 years ago, but you're still that. Well, I still dance often and sometimes some nights more than others. But most of the time I get in there and do my best. At least they know what I'm aiming for. And in many cases, they may look better doing it than I do. But I've showed them what to do. And then perhaps some day they'll get a chance to show somebody else. Well, hopefully, hopefully. I have a number of students who want to go into teaching, and that's a kind of an immortality. It just goes on and on. The. All right. Again. How old were you when you left Baltimore and went to work here for New York? I went to New York at the age I wasn't quite 21, and I went there to study with Jack Cole, the late Jack Cole. I had admired his work so much that that's who I went to study with.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202#t=137.77,247.65"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202/transcript/74405/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And then I took classes, sometimes three, sometimes for a day. How did you get your first job in New York? My first job in New York was, let's see, I went to New York at New Year's, and my first job was in the autumn of the same year. What year was that? I think that was 1957. So in other words, when you went to New York in 1957 and you went to work. Well, I studied for a while. I was back. As a matter of fact, I worked as a fashion coordinator at Saks Fifth Avenue while I was training until the first thing I did was in the autumn. And it was a production of The Merry Widow. And it was mostly balletic, but that's what I trained for at that time. And then your career more or less took it off. Well, I started choreographing a long term, rather popular nightclub in New York, and a producer from Las Vegas came in to see my show and hired myself and every girl in my show and took us to the Latin Quarter in New York. And from there, he moved us out to first, the Desert Inn in Las Vegas and then the Stardust Hotel and then the Tropicana, where our shows work with very, very famous celebrities. And it was an enjoyable period. So you started off in New York in 1957. And what year did you make the film? What was the first one? Little. That was in 1959. So you started off in 1957, and by 1959 you were in Hollywood. Correct? Correct. That's not bad. It seemed longer than that. But I guess that is just two years as now. But I have to give a lot of credit to my training here.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202#t=248.05,352.52"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202/transcript/74405/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I had an excellent theater teacher when I was in high school at Baltimore City College. Okay, now, one more time, Jack. What's next for you? It's hard to say what's next. I would like to think that I could get a group of my dancers that would be available to follow through on productions that that our agent would like to put us into, because as I mentioned before, we've had to turn down many offers. Let's get something positive. What is around the corner? You're going to you're just you're going to keep on instructing. I mean, if you had if you had a wish, what would it be right now? My wish for right now is that with each production, we just show off better and better. And my ladies enjoy it more and more and and progress and learn and become better and better dancers. And for yourself, that's the satisfaction of seeing them progress. I've had a wonderful career with it, and I would like to think that that my training with them is going to improve their stage demeanor and make them better performers as they go along because they enjoy it so much. Get up in like 1958, Oklahoma. Years. 1958, Oklahoma, 1959 and Los Angeles. He danced in Urmila Douche Caramel That Deuce and the Irma the Deuce. Irma La Douce. Here he was fashion fashion coordinator for Saks Fifth Avenue, and this was a fashion show in 1957. So you were doing some modeling also that not all those earlier pictures were. And this was also a fashion shoot in Los Angeles, 1959. Back, he says, when he had hair. This was New York City, 1957 when he danced. And the merry Widow. 1956 in Baltimore Opera. He he was Carmen.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202#t=353.42,582.62"},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202/transcript/74405/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I mean, you know, you danced in Carmen or sang? No, no, I'm not Sang. Sang. Ballet company. Dance ballet. Okay. I was a ballet dancer from. Starlight Express. Hold it right there. Here on bottom of Seattle was a national company of kismet production of kismet, and he toured nationally right now. And be busy. Go ahead. Just keep it moving so I can talk to Neil and. And you can hang it up. Texas.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202#t=583.19,806.37"}]},{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202/transcript/74405","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["English [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://marmia.aviaryplatform.com/collections/948/collection_resources/140777/file/260202/transcript/74405/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"subtitling","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/file_transcripts/associated_files/000/074/405/original/trint_WJZ-FLDTP-009-007_ffv1_transcript.vtt?1736965282","format":"text/vtt","language":"en"},"target":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/file_transcripts/associated_files/000/074/405/original/trint_WJZ-FLDTP-009-007_ffv1_transcript.vtt?1736965282"}]}]}]}