Austria

The Salomons-Fox family collection documents the lives of various family members of the extended Salomons-Fox family. Topics of the collection are the education; the emigration or attempted emigration to the United States, the establishment of a new life in America; and the professional career of the individuals represented in the collection. An extensive amount of the collection focusses on the artistic career and life of Dave Fox. Also included are papers pertaining to the circus artist and actor, Jackie (Leo) Gerlich, who appeared in the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz."

In 1961 Samuel L. Sumberg received a grant from the Leo Baeck Institute in New York to work on a project entitled Jewish Directors of the German Stage. Included in the collection are his notes, writings, correspondence and printed materials related to the subject. This work was not published.

Records pertaining to the life and business activities of Walter Ornstein, proprietor of beauty salons and purveyor of cosmetics. These include business records and patents pertaining to Goubaud, the perfume business that Max and Elsa Fahrer began in Vienna and that Walter Ornstein reestablished in New York. Also included are photograph albums, song lyrics and letters from a suitor of Gertrude Goldschmidt that date to her life in Vienna prior to emigration and marriage to Walter Ornstein.