Donald J. Stubblebine Collection of Theater and Motion Picture Music and Ephemera

Donald J. Stubblebine was born on February 4, 1925 in Reading, Pennsylvania, to Edgar W. and Emma Stubblebine. He had an older brother Edgar W. Stubblebine, Jr. His father was a sheet metal worker employed by the railroad in Reading. Stubblebine was first exposed to musicals through motion pictures. His mother attended "dish night" with her son twice a week. During the Great Depression, in order to draw an audience, theaters would give out dishes with each admission. He credited this with beginning his love of musicals. By the 1940 United States Census his mother is listed as a widow. Stubblebine attended the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania. After graduation he was employed for forty years as controller by the Chilton Publishing Company. He retired in 1994. As a lifelong film and theater fan, Stubblebine began collecting sheet music, programs, and ephemera from stage and film musicals in the early 1970s. As his collection grew, so did his expertise in the history of musical theatre and film. He eventually authored four reference books dealing with United States and British stage and film musicals as well as films from Canada and Australia. He became an often sought-after expert in stage and film music. His obsession with collecting eventually filled his Philadelphia apartment with one of the largest collections of material centered on music in the United States. He collected not only the sheet music and scores from musicals but often collected copies of reviews, programs, photographs, and costume sketches. Stubblebine died on May 1, 2010 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.