Scope and Content Note
The Robert Parylak Collection on Mado Robin spans the period 1946 to 1978 with the bulk of the material dated between 1953 and 1978. It consists of biographical materials collected by Parylak during the fifteen year period from 1963 to 1978. He place the bulk of these items into eight scrapbooks, which were not arranged in an obvious order (e.g., chronological, topical, format, etc.). There is overlap in subject matter and duplication of items from volume to volume. There is also a set of items that were never placed into a scrapbook.
Much of the material is in French, with translations of articles and other lengthy documents provided by Parylak. Materials include personal photographs of Mado Robin from her childhood and marriage along with publicity portraits and other images related to her performing career, scattered programs, reviews, biographical sketches, and publicity material about Robin's recordings. There are also postcards from and brochures about Yzeures-sur-Creuse.
Among the loose items are discographies, both published and created by Parylak; several programs; printed sheet music; Robin's last signed contract before her death; and an extensive folder of publicity portraits and correspondence to Parylak from French tenor Alain Vanzo.