Martha Raye Collection

Known as “The Big Mouth,” actress, comedienne, and singer Martha Raye (1916-1994) had a career spanning seven decades. A versatile performer on stage, radio, films, and television, Raye appeared with everyone from Al Jolson and Charlie Chaplin to Alain Delon and George Kennedy. In 1968, Raye became the first woman to receive the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. The Martha Raye Collection was donated to the Academy Film Archive by Raye’s widower, Mark Harris, in 2007. The collection consists of one audio tape of a 1965 interview with Raye and two dozen 16mm reels of her home movies from the late 1940s and early 1950s.