Papers. Series III. Business Interests, 1921-1982.

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Papers. Series III. Business Interests, 1921-1982.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122547423

This series is comprised of the records of Miss Swanson's various commercial investments and ventures, 1921-1982, which supplemented, and at times substituted for, income derived from her career as an actress. These included cosmetics, a fashion line, hosiery, an inventions and patents company, investments, merchandising ventures, organic foods, perfume, product endorsements, travel, and writing projects. The largest subseries contains the records (correspondence, contracts, legal and financial records, patents and patent applications, drawings, blueprints, samples, brochures, photographs, and clippings) of Multiprises, Inc., 1937-1951. This company financed and exploited various inventions by four World War II refugee inventors from Austria and Germany, namely Leopold Karniol, Richard Kobler, Anton Kratky, and Leopold Neumann. Chief among their successes was the Kratky process of producing hard carbide tools and tips out of cemented carbides. The records of Forged Carbides, Inc., ca. 1939-1942, reflect the manufacture and practical application of this invention. Karniol's process for the manufacture of plastic buttons was successfully exploited through an agreement with the Lindenhurst Manufacturing Company of New Jersey. There are also substantial files on acoustical inventions of Leopold Neumann, such as recordings for the blind, and dictating machine equipment. The rest of these records deal with various ideas and inventions, both solicited and unsolicited, from a number of persons, including such inventors as Joseph Ganz and even Miss Swanson herself. Types of ideas and inventions represented include appliances, automobiles, chemicals, clothing, film-related, household objects, industrial processes, implements, machinery, medicines, and musical instruments, to list a few of the categories. There are also a number of war-related inventions, such as airplane devices, bombs, coding machines, guns, and submarine devices. The Writing Projects subseries includes correspondence, manuscripts (holograph and typescript, many with corrections), pre-publication states (setting copy, galleys, proofs), clippings, contracts and other legal documents, financial information, printed material, research materials, photographs, and publicity materials accumulated during the writing and publication of various articles, autobiographical sketches, books, columns, poems, and speeches, ca. 1921-1981. The largest portion of this subseries is devoted to the preparation, publication, and response to Swanson's candid 1980 autobiography, Swanson on Swanson. Clippings, contracts, correspondence, dress labels, fashion sketches, financial information, maps, photographs, promotional materials, and tour schedules evidence Miss Swanson's business activities in the commercial fashion world, ca. 1940-1982. Her fruitful and long lived association with Puritan Dress Company (later Puritan Fashions Corp.), ca. 1951-1982 dominates this subseries. She promoted a line of Gloria Swanson "Forever Young" fashions largely through arduous tours to department stores where she made personal appearances and conducted fashion shows. Also included are the records of Gloria Swanson Enterprises, Inc., 1959-1977, and Swanson-Dufty Enterprises, Inc., 1977-1981, which were used for a variety of projects. These included the exploitation of film copyrights, scripts, and other properties owned by Swanson, as well as her services as performer or for personal appearances. Husband William Dufty was also involved in the latter venture, and there is information on a number of his writing projects, most notably Sugar Blues. The remainder of this series includes papers of other commercial associations: cosmetics (Essence of Nature Cosmetics, manufactured by Vegetable Products, Inc.), hosiery (Sheffield Hosiery Mills, Inc.), organic food (Gloria Swanson Products Corp.), product endorsements (Aldon Rug Mills), and travel (Haley Corporation), among others.

76 boxes (32 linear feet).

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Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6758527

Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center

Related Entities

There are 44 Entities related to this resource.

Rosen, Arthur

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Bredin, Lewis L.

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Dalty & Associates.

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Dufty, William

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Journalist and free-lance writer. From the description of Papers, 1940-1947. (Wayne State University). WorldCat record id: 28421712 ...

Albino, Richard.

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Reeder, Gabriel.

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Sheffield Hosiery Mills, Inc.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mm2t1r (corporateBody)

Multiprises, Inc.

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Gloria Swanson Enterprises, Inc.

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Glory B Enterprises.

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Haley Corporation.

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Engel, Iphigenia.

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Gloria Swanson Products Corporation.

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Schirmer, Gustave.

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Larson, Clifford M.

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Simioni, Sergio.

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Puritan Dress Company.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bw3ws3 (corporateBody)

Forged Carbides, Inc.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dg35z4 (corporateBody)

Aldon Rug Mills.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c88r21 (corporateBody)

Neumann, Leopold

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Berggren, John Lennart

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Seiler, Anne R.

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MacRobert, Frederick H.

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Jaffe, William B.

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Vegetable Products, Inc.

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Bowker, Virginia.

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Sommers, Nathan I.

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Kobler, Richard

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Puritan Fashions Corporation

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Revson, Charles, 1906-1975

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66q220h (person)

Kratky, Anton

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65f2cwt (person)

Solomon, Leonard

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Dalty, Leon T.

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Swanson-Dufty Enterprises, Inc.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x41cfb (corporateBody)

Swanson, Gloria

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65t3s8w (person)

Actress. From the description of Reminiscences of Gloria Swanson : oral history, 1958. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122620278 American actress, motion-picture producer, and author. From the description of Papers. Series II. Career, ca. 1914-1983. (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (HRC); University of Texas at Austin). WorldCat record id: 122419032 From the description of Papers. Series VI. After Death, 1983-19...

di Trepuzzi, Lida.

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Schlee, George.

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Lindenhurst Manufacturing Co. (Lindenhurst, N.Y.)

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di Grandi, Gino.

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Ganz, Joseph

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Aponte, Laura.

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Luria, Herbert.

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Rosén, Carl-Gustaf.

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Karniol, Leopold.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xw86wb (person)