Brown, Vivia Jean, 1902-1995

Kay Brown Barrett (known professionally as Katherine Brown, or Kay Brown) was born Derek Granger Katherine Brown in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York on December 7, 1902. Her father, Henry Collins Brown, one of the founders of the Museum of the City of New York; and mother, Kate Ross Brown were listed on the New York Social Register, as was their daughter.

Kay Brown Barrett attended Wellesley College to study English, graduating in 1924. Her first job in show business was at the Mary Arden Theater School in Peterborough, New Hampshire. In 1926, the school's owners, Joseph Kennedy, Sr., and Guy Currier took over a film company in which Kennedy had held an interest for the previous few years, the Film Booking Offices of America (FBO). The new heads of FBO offered Brown Barrett a position as Eastern Story Editor. Her responsibilities consisted of reading scripts and other properties submitted to the studio, assessing their potential for feature adaptation, and acquiring the rights for the chosen properties.

In 1928 FBO merged with the Keith Albee Orpheum (KAO) theater circuit, and the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), to form one of the five major motion picture production companies in the United States at that time, RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) Pictures. Kay Brown Barrett stayed with the company through all these shifts, and was instrumental in acquiring a property which would prove to be one of RKO's greatest early successes. Edna Ferber's novel, Cimarron, was adapted into an successful film, which won the 1931 Academy Award for Best Picture.

The producer David O. Selznick, who had worked with Brown at RKO, formed his own production company in 1935. He hired Brown Barrett as his Eastern Story Editor, which would prove an instrumental move for both of their careers. When the galleys for an unpublished novel crossed Brown Barrett's desk, she saw tremendous potential in the story and eagerly passed it on to Selznick so he could secure the rights. The novel was Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, which became a phenomenon as a novel and later as a Selznick film.

Brown Barrett's other achievements during her Selznick years include persuading key talents to sign with Selznick, such as Laurence Olivier, Ingrid Bergman, and Alfred Hitchcock. Brown Barrett also discovered the Daphne du Maurier novel, Rebecca, which would be Hitchcock's first American picture.

She was promoted to Eastern Representative and worked for Selznick until 1942. She left to become a theatrical agent at MCA, and later at International Famous Agency, which later became International Creative Management (ICM). Some of Brown Barrett's prominent clients at ICM included actors Alec Guinness, Ralph Richardson, Rex Harrison, Fredric March, and Montgomery Clift; and authors Lillian Hellman, Isak Dinesen, and Arthur Miller.

Kay Brown was married to James Barrett until his death in 1967. They had two daughters, Laurinda and Kate. Kay Brown Barrett died in Hightstown, New Jersey on January 18, 1995.

Kay Brown Barrett's daughter, Laurinda Barrett, was born in New York City, on September 3, 1931. She is an actress and her Broadway appearances include The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1964), I Never Sang for My Father (1968), and Equus (1974). Off-Broadway appearances include Miss Julie (1956), at the Phoenix Theatre; A Palm Tree in a Rose Garden (1957), at the Cricket Theatre; Ah, Wilderness! (1984), at the Haft Theater; and The Boys Next Door (1987), at the Lamb's Theatre. She has also appeared in films, such as The Wrong Man (1956), The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968), and A Perfect Murder (1998).

From the guide to the Kay Brown Barrett papers, 1906-1991, (The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.)