PBA Galleries

Approximately 33 original sketches and finished drawings on paper, artist's vellum, or stiff art-board plus an additional dozen or so miscellaneous small sketches on paper. Various sizes, most 10x14" or larger. Many signed by Arthur Knorr. All loose in a period board portfolio. Also included are approximately a dozen women's costume designs, unsigned but possibly by Knorr or an associate. 

Arthur Knorr (1898-1966) was a theatrical set designer, producer, and director. Knorr began his career as a commercial artist in the 1920s and was later art director of the Capitol Theatre in New York City. In 1936 he became a production executive at the Roxy Theatre, which period the present portfolio seems to document (including a color drawing of a proposed color scheme for the Ladies Lounge). In the 1940s and 1950s Knorr was producer of Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theatre and from the late 1940s through early 1960s he was responsible for the staging of many pageant extravaganzas, including Miss America, Miss Universe, and Miss USA.