...including a filing cabinet of 65,000 of her jokes

Joan Rivers’s comedy archive – including a filing cabinet containing more than 65,000 of her jokes –  has been donated to a museum.

The comedian’s daughter Melissa Rivers announced the donation to America’s National Comedy Center yesterday – on what would have been the pioneering stand-up’s 90th birthday.

Her archive includes material from the start of her career in 1950s Greenwich Village nightclubs to her death in 2014.

It includes handwritten jokes, personally compiled scrapbooks, never-before-heard autobiographical audio recordings, hundreds of pre-show preparatory notes, intimate correspondence with peers in entertainment, the guest books from her run as host of The Late Show – as well as a selection of gowns, boas, and jewellery.

The filing cabinet – which featured in the 2010 documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work, available on Amazon – consists of gags meticulously arranged by subject matter. A total of 564 jokes are filed under Parents Hated Me (See: Not Wanted) and more than 300 within the Stewardesses category. 

In a category called 28 And Single (See: Weddings), Rivers wrote: ‘I was left standing at the altar so long my bouquet took root!’; under EDGAR (See: Marriage, Honeymoon) she wrote of her late husband: ‘My honeymoon was a disaster. The next day, he screamed, "Don’t tell me you can’t cook either!"’

And in Cooking she recorded a line she told on one of her 31 Ed Sullivan Show appearances: ‘If the Lord wanted me to cook, I’d have aluminum hands. These hands were meant to hold charge cards.’

Melissa said: ‘To be included with the legends of comedy who are represented at the National Comedy Center is amazing. My mother would have been thrilled to be seated at the best table.’

The museum – in Lucille Ball’s hometown of Jamestown, New York –  maintains a collection of more than 150,000 objects, documents, and recordings chronicling the contributions of comics including George Carlin, The Smothers Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, Phyllis Diller, and Richard Pryor.

Journey Gunderson, executive director of the centre, said: ‘Joan Rivers was a master of evolution who ascended—again and again—to the heights of success in an industry that was not structured in her favour, blazing a wide and clear trail for generations of artists who would follow.

‘She is not only a role model for women in comedy, but for all artists who desire to wield comedy’s expressive power to communicate something vital about the human condition.

And director of archives Laura LaPlaca added: ‘Joan Rivers is among the most influential stand-up comedians in the history of the art form. Her legacy, characterised by bold truth-telling, personal vulnerability, and a raw determination to make great art, altered the trajectory of American cultural history—more than once.

Fellow comedians also commented on the announcement:

Carol Burnett said: 'Joan was one of the funniest people I ever met, and a friend for decades. It’s wonderful to know that her archives will join the National Comedy Center, a one-of-a-kind museum dreamed up by none other than Lucille Ball: a woman whom Joan and I both loved and admired very much.’

Margaret Cho added: ‘ This archive is priceless not only for the history of comedy but also for women in art. Joan was a trailblazer, an icon, a true legend. I was lucky enough to know her and call her a friend. To be able to see her life in jokes is a tremendous honour.’ 

Melissa Rivers also announced the launch of a special edition four-disc CD box set collection titled Joan Rivers: The Diva Rides Again that will feature five hours of never-before-released recordings of Joan’s comedy spanning six decades.

The August 18 release – currently available for preorder in the US – includes a 16-page collector’s book of liner notes with never-before-seen photos. The audio will also be available on streaming platforms such as iTunes and Spotify.

Published: 9 Jun 2023