Finding Aids to Archival Collections

The Business Papers series is divided into two subseries that reflect their arrangement upon receipt by the Library of Congress: the Personal Business Papers, and the Amberson Business Papers. The distinction between the two subseries is not always clear. The Personal Business Papers reflect Bernstein’s business dealings chiefly beginning in 1944 (and perhaps a bit earlier) and continuing through the early 1970s when the Amberson Corporation increasingly took over aspects of that work.


Amberson Enterprises, Inc., Bernstein’s management company, was founded February 20, 1959, with Helen Coates, Abraham Friedman (Bernstein’s lawyer) and H. Gordon Freeman (Bernstein’s accountant) as directors. The company was named Amberson after the German word Bernstein which means "amber." The materials in the Amberson Business Papers reflect most of Bernstein’s business dealings starting in 1959, and continuing slightly beyond Bernstein’s death in 1990. However, between 1958 and 1969, the New York Philharmonic, where Bernstein was music director, managed many of Bernstein’s business dealings. It wasn’t until 1969 that Amberson began to take on significantly larger duties and responsibilities, and the two sets of business papers began to be thought of as separate entities.


Schuyler Chapin was appointed executive producer of Amberson Productions, an affiliate of Amberson Enterprises, Inc., in September 1969. Chapin left Amberson in 1971 to become general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, but remained on the board of trustees. Harry Kraut (previously Tanglewood’s manager) was named executive vice president of Amberson Enterprises, Inc. in January 1972. The company’s name was changed to Amberson, Inc. in 1989. In 1995 it was renamed the Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc./Amberson Holdings LLC.


The Amberson Business Papers reflect activities of several companies and related subsidiaries, some of whose names have changed over the years. During Leonard Bernstein’s lifetime, various Bernstein group companies were formed for music publishing and concert/video production purposes. These include: Mozart Films, Inc. (1966), which became Amberson Video, Inc. (1972); Amberson Pictures Corp. (1969) renamed Amberson Productions, Inc., the same year; Amberson Festivals, Inc. (date unknown) which became Video Music Education, Inc. (1973); Video Music Inc. (also known as VMI); Video Music Productions, Inc. (also known as VMP); La Boheme, Inc. (1986); Jalni Publications, Inc. (1978) and Jalni Enterprises, Inc. ("Jalni" was derived from the initial letters of Bernstein’s children—Jamie, Alexander and Nina); and Springate. This list is not considered complete, nor does it indicate all the mergings.


The Amberson Business Papers were originally arranged in groupings according to date ranges. As file space ran out, old files would be placed in storage to make room for current and new files. The Amberson Business Papers series in the Leonard Bernstein Collection is arranged in one alphabetical sequence with materials arranged chronologically therein. In some cases, various names for files that are obviously of the same type and subject were regularized under the same name. Later additions to the series have been boxed separately at the end, but are interfiled alphabetically within the finding aid series.


There is an additional grouping at the end of the Amberson Business Papers called the Coates, Gottlieb, Harmon and Proskauer Files. It reflects the papers of the following individuals who worked for Amberson: Helen G. Coates, Bernstein’s childhood piano teacher, became Bernstein's secretary at the beginning of his career and served in that capacity until her death in 1989. She began, annotated and maintained Leonard Bernstein’s personal and professional archives; Jack Gottlieb was Bernstein’s assistant at the New York Philharmonic from 1958 through 1966. He joined Amberson’s staff in the 1970s, working as editor and director of publications, and later as a consultant on all matters musical and archival; Charlie Harmon (same as Richard Charles Harmon) joined Amberson as personal assistant to Bernstein in 1982. He later served as archivist, then music editor; "Proskauer," represents the law firm Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn. Beginning around 1975, member Paul H. Epstein became counsel to Bernstein and Amberson.