The papers of Frank Young are quite fragmentary, and thus provide only a partial view of his life and career. The collection has been arranged in three series: Personal Papers, Professional Papers, and Photographs.
Included with PERSONAL PAPERS is a folder of Young's personal documents and correspondence, including his birth and baptismal certificates and obituary, his father's receipt for steamship passage from Ireland and his naturalization certificate, his parents' marriage certificate, clippings concerning the death of Frank Young, Sr., and other papers, mainly pertaining to members of the Fox family. Two folders contain correspondence, resumes, and drafts of public relations projects Young created while seeking employment. These are supplemented by separate folders of resumes and of personal press releases, generally created to announce Young's job changes. One folder of personal newspaper clippings also illustrates Young's professional career and his New York City social life.
Young's service with the U.S. Navy and Naval Reserve is represented by correspondence and other papers, generally concerning his transfers and benefits. There are several folders of correspondence, school awards and fraternity records, journalism and other class notes, and term papers from Young's school days. Other examples of Young's writings are found in separate files of general writings and articles, television sketches created for comedians Jackie Gleason and Art Carney and Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, and materials gathered for a book on the Shubert family that Young apparently proposed to write. Young's social life and friendship with New York City restaurateur Toots Shor are illustrated in a separate folder containing clippings, notes, dinner programs, and a humorous “annual report” from 1961.
Young's PROFESSIONAL PAPERS are arranged in alphabetical order by the name of the public relations firm or network for which he worked. Records of his short tenure with General Public Relations, Inc. consist of fragmentary correspondence and a few publicity files illustrating the shows Young publicized. Included are budgets and expenditures, cost summaries, press kits, public relations plans, and publicity reports, all for 1958-1959, for The Ann Sothern Show, December Bride, and The Loretta Young Show; and a program promotion presentation, 1958, for The Rifleman. There are two scripts, 1964-1965, of The Entertainers, apparently from Young's years with McFadden, Strauss, Eddy, Irwin, and Goodman. Representing the National Broadcasting Company are a 1951 organizational chart, a working manual for NBC's 25th anniversary, and press releases. Young's award-winning 1955 publicity campaign to save the cancelled Screen Gems show Father Knows Best is illustrated in a scrapbook.
Young's work at WNEW Radio and WPIX-TV stations is somewhat better represented in the collection. There is a small file of correspondence, press releases, and other papers from WNEW, together with broadcast license renewal applications to the Federal Communications Commission and programming support data, 1962-1963, and summaries of 1962 news and sport coverage by WNEW. For WPIX there are numerous press releases, February 1948-June 1951; breakdowns and proposals for changes in news programs, program announcements and schedules; proposals for publicity campaigns for WPIX, together with newsclippings; lists of sponsors; and a folder of station histories, staff biographies, an organizational chart, program schedule, and studio and advertising rates.
Photographs are of Frank Young and his friends.
