Felix Mendelsohn scrapbook 1927-1962 1927-1935

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Felix Mendelsohn scrapbook 1927-1962 1927-1935

http://archives.nypl.org/the/21683

Felix Mendelsohn, Jr. (1906-1991), was an advertising copy writer based in Chicago. As a young man, Mendelsohn aspired to be a journalist. He found work writing promotional copy, booklets and brochures for various companies. He died in 1991 at the age of 84. The Felix Mendelsohn scrapbook holds a number of interviews with prominent actors and actresses of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At the age of 21, aspiring journalist Felix Mendelsohn, Jr. conducted a number of interviews with famous stage performers in which he asked each one to describe the "most thrilling moment" of his or her career. Mendelsohn developed these interviews into profiles, and hoped to sell the resulting series to a newspaper or magazine, but was unable to do so. He later compiled the profiles into a scrapbook, adding photographs of all the interviewees, some of which were inscribed to him. The performers profiled were Helen Hayes, Otis Skinner, Helen Gahagan, John Drew, Irene Bordoni, Richard Bennett, Helen Menken, John Cromwell, Ina Claire, Dennis King, Fay Bainter, Laurette Taylor, Grant Mitchell, Lowell Sherman, Ruth Draper, Florence Reed, Estelle Winwood, John E. Kellard, Wilton Lackaye, O.P. Heggie, Effie Shannon, Elsie Janis, Frank Keenan, Leo Carillo, Amelita Galli-Curci, Arthur Byron, Louis Mann, Lenore Ulric, and Raymond Hitchcock. Mendelsohn also included in his scrapbook rejection notes the proposed series received from several newspapers and publishing syndicates, dated between 1927-1935. More photographs are tucked into the back of the book, mostly actors who were not interviewed by Mendelsohn and prominent personalities outside the field of theater; many of these photographs are autographed and inscribed to Mendelsohn. Subjects include Pauline Frederick, H. L. Mencken, Frank Harris, Fritz Feld, Whitford Kane, William Faversham, Fortune Gallo, James O'Donnell Bennett, Oscar Tschirky ("Oscar of the Waldorf"), and Burl Ives.

1 vol

The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6317934

Related Entities

There are 30 Entities related to this resource.

Hayes, Helen, 1900-1993

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6f58g3r (person)

Helen Hayes Brown was born in Washington, D.C. on October 10, 1900. Her parents were Frank and Catherine “Essie” Brown. With her mother’s encouragement, Hayes made her stage debut at the age of five and began performing both in amateur productions as well as the stock company, The Columbia Players. While performing in a recital for Miss Minnie Hawke’s School of Dance, Hayes was spotted by Lew Fields. Fields, half of the Weber and Fields comedy team, as well as a producer, recognized Hayes’s tale...

Douglas, Helen Gahagan, 1900-1980

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z71ddn (person)

Helen Gahagan Douglas (November 25, 1900 – June 28, 1980) was an American actress and politician. Her career included success on Broadway, as a touring opera singer, and the starring role in the 1935 movie She, in which her portrayal of the villain inspired Disney's Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Born Helen Mary Gahagan in Boonton, New Jersey and raised in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn, New York, she graduated from the prestigious Berkeley School for Girls and at the ...

Skinner, Otis, 1858-1942

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d901wq (person)

Otis Skinner (1858-1942) was an American actor and writer. Born June 28, 1858 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he was brought up in Hartford, Connecticut where his father Charles Skinner was a Universalist minister. Otis Skinner was interested in theater from a young age, and through his father's friendship with P.T. Barnum was introduced to William Pleater Davidge, who gave him his first theatrical role. In the latter half of the 1870s, he played various bit roles in stock companies, and alongsid...

Byron, Arthur, 1872-1943

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60w63jg (person)

Cromwell, John, 1888-1979

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gx518c (person)

Actor, director, producer. From the description of Reminiscences of John Cromwell : oral history, 1958. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122574267 ...

Ulric, Lenore, 1892-1970

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mc8x3r (person)

American actress. From the description of Autograph letters signed (2) : [Powers Theatre, Chicago], to Edward Wagenknecht, [1920 Dec. 1920 or 1921 Jan.]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270867527 ...

Keenan, Frank, 1858-1929

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pz9nm1 (person)

Galli-Curci, Amelita, 1882-1963

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dz0nrx (person)

Kellard, John E

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r057h5 (person)

Sherman, Lowell, 1888-1934

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68d38v3 (person)

Lackaye, Wilton

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ng7p65 (person)

Drew, John, 1853-1927

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cr60bk (person)

American actor. From the description of Letter : Buffalo, N.Y., to "My Dear Alf," [190-?]. (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (HRC); University of Texas at Austin). WorldCat record id: 122632938 ...

Heggie, O. P. (Otto Peters), 1876-1936

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mk6s2z (person)

Hitchcock, Raymond, 1865-1929

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6057md1 (person)

Winwood, Estelle, 1883-1984

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d53chp (person)

Reed, Florence, 1883-1967

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mh0bb6 (person)

King, Dennis, 1897-1971

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rr5078 (person)

Bennett, Richard, 1873-1944

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60s0sbr (person)

Claire, Ina, 1892-1985

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66q2qc9 (person)

Married name: Ina Claire Wallace (1895-1985). From the description of Ina Claire papers, [ca. 1900-1985?]. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 122502049 Ina Claire Wallace was a prominent actress in the 1900s. She was born Ina Fagen, but used her mother's maiden name, Claire, as her stage name. She began performing at age thirteen and performed on stage and in the movies. From the description of The Ina Claire Wallace papers. 1893-1985. (Uni...

Bordoni, Irene

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w96gtt (person)

Shannon, Effie, 1867-1954

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6t73t33 (person)

Carillo, Leo, 1880-1961.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61v870p (person)

Menken, Helen, 1902-1966

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z060pr (person)

Mitchell, Grant, 1874-1957

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b862mv (person)

Taylor, Laurette, 1884-1946

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bv7w73 (person)

Mann, Louis, 1865-1931

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sj4bzp (person)

Janis, Elsie

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w632066m (person)

Elsie Janis (1889-1956) was a performer in musical comedy, vaudeville, and motion pictures, and also a composer and screenwriter. Born Elsie Bierbower in Columbus, Ohio, March 16, 1889, Elsie Janis made her stage debut at the age of eight in THE CHARITY BALL, and quickly rose to popularity in vaudeville as "Little Elsie." She made her Broadway debut in THE VANDERBILT CUP in 1906, and also appeared in THE HOYDEN (1907), THE FAIR CO-ED (1909), THE SLIM PRINCESS (1910) and THE LADY OF THE SLIPPER (...

Mendelsohn, Felix, Jr

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c956hf (person)

Felix Mendelsohn, Jr. (1906-1991), was an advertising copy writer based in Chicago. As a young man, Mendelsohn aspired to be a journalist. He found work writing promotional copy, booklets and brochures for various companies. He died in 1991 at the age of 84. From the guide to the Felix Mendelsohn scrapbook, 1927-1962, 1927-1935, (The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.) ...

Draper, Ruth, 1884-1956

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69g5ss5 (person)

Ruth Draper was a monologist, based in New York City. From the description of Ruth Draper Collection. 1913-1956. (New York University). WorldCat record id: 476263868 American actress. From the description of Autograph letter in the third person, dated : [n.p.], 22 February [1910?], to [Mr. and Mrs. Harry Harkness Flagler], [1910?] Feb. 22. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270565965 From the description of Autograph letter signed : 35 Montpelier Square, Ken...

Bainter, Fay, 1892-1968

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fr47rq (person)