Archive of material belonging to Belgian American actress Monique van Vooren

N.p.: N.p., 2000. Archive of material belonging to Belgian American actress, singer, and socialite Monique van Vooren, composed primarily of annotated sheet music from her lengthy stage career as a nightclub singer. Material dated variously between the 1950s and the 2000s, although the balance is dated from the late 1950s and 1960s. Nearly 2 linear feet of material in all.

Archive contains hundreds of pages of sheet music, with over 70 distinct compositions represented, dating between 1954 and 1972, many including parts for several instruments. Most compositions are annotated in manuscript pencil and ink, often with amendments made in van Vooren's hand to adjust tempo, lyrics, pitch, etc.

Also included are two books, the first being in French, inscribed by van Vooren, noting that this is the "first book [she] ever read in English". Additionally included is a small program from van Vooren's performances at the St. Regis-Sheraton in 1969.

Finally, the archive includes manuscript notes in van Vooren's hand for an unproduced novel titled "Rape," two reels of audio tape (unplayed), and 15 color photographs of van Vooren and friends from the 1990s and early 2000s.

Born in 1927 in Brussels, van Vooren was purportedly a beauty queen and champion skater in her youth. She came to the US in the 1940s as an exchange student, and was cast in her first Hollywood movie, "Tarzan and the She-Devil," in 1953. Singing in nightclubs and appearing in summer stock productions through the 1960s, she would settle in New York near the end of the decade. There, she befriended Andy Warhol and his associates, who would cast her as the notorious and libidinous Baroness Frankenstein in Warhol's 1973 production "Flesh for Frankenstein."

Ultimately finding more success as an entertainer and socialite than as an actress, van Vooren was linked with a number of New York luminaries of the period, including Rudolf Nureyev and David Bowie. Having informally retired from acting after 1973, van Vooren became somewhat of a raconteuse, penning a novel and a cookbook and studying philosophy and languages, and continuing to perform in nightclubs across the US and Europe. She passed away in 2020 after a prolonged battle with cancer.

All told, a revealing personal archive, including much previously unknown autobiographical content, as well as a wealth of material demonstrating a strong and even technical focus on the musical aspects of van Vooren's lively stage career.

Material generally Very Good to Very Good plus, with moderate edgewear and age toning on manila envelopes housing sheet music.