Williamson, Alix

Alix B. Williamson was born on April 6, 1916 in New York City, where she lived and worked until her death in August 2001. While attending Hunter College in the 1930s she wrote for the school's weekly newspaper The Bulletin, and received prizes for "best editorial" in 1934, and "best contribution to a student publication" in 1935. She was also the president of Hunter's Shakespeare Society and dramatic society, and earned extra money as a reporter for the New York Journal-American. After graduating in 1935, Williamson joined the leading public relations firm of Constance Hope Associates, where she handled the accounts of notable personalities, such as Lotte Lehmann, Lauritz Melchoir, and Lily Pons. Her early career included a large amount of ghostwriting, both under the names of her accounts (e.g., Pons) and fictional creations (e.g., Catharine Hoffman).

Williamson left the Hope office in 1938 after a dispute over her freelancing activities, specifically a column about New York theater in Promenade. She opened her own agency with one client, Moriz Rosenthal, with office space at 55 West 42nd Street. Her early clients included a number of Philadelphia music institutions, such as the Robin Hood Dell concert series, which she publicized with a stunt involving the so-called last descendant of Robin Hood riding down Broad Street on a black horse to sell the season's first tickets to the mayor of the city.

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