News clippings, 1970-June 1976

Series V consists primarily of news clippings documenting Mercer's career, dating from approximately 1928 through 1981 and including interviews, reviews, brief mentions of shows and songs, articles in which Mercer or his lyrics are mentioned, and obituaries and posthumous tributes. Programs, playbills and fliers from various Mercer shows are available along with reviews of many of the shows, and similar materials relating to productions which featured Mercer tunes or in which Mercer performed are filed in this series also. The series is divided into two subseries.

Subseries A contains photocopies on permanent paper of all of the original news clippings, made specifically for research use and arranged alphabetically by type or title (i.e. "cartoons," "news clippings"). It also contains original (not photocopied) programs, playbills and fliers relating to shows which Mercer wrote, co-wrote or appeared in. Programs and photocopies for productions which Mercer help create, such as Daddy Long Legs, Saratoga and Blackbirds of 1936 are arranged alphabetically by show title under the heading "Programs, reviews, etc." Other programs and fliers, mostly from concerts and shows in which Mercer or his tunes appeared, and dating from 1933 to 1976, are arranged chronologically under the heading "Programs, playbills and fliers."

Subseries B contains the original news clippings that correspond to the copies on permanent paper in subseries 1. The original clippings are arranged identically to the photocopies, except that the programs, playbills and fliers described in subseries A are filed only there, and not in subseries B as well.