Papers of Irene Manning, an opera singer, moving-picture and stage actress, painter, photographer, and business educator. Born Inez Harvuot in 1912, she adopted the name Hope Manning in 1935, when she became a contract actress for Republic Pictures, using it not only in film credits, but also for her stage appearances (mostly in operetta) and the sound recordings she made in the same period. When she signed a contract with Warner Bros in 1941, she became Irene Manning, and continued to use that name for all professional purposes until her death in 2004. The papers include drafts of her writings, especially autobiographical works; lyrics and scores of songs she composed and arranged; teaching materials for Creative Careers, the business education school she ran with her husband Maxwell Hunter; and clippings on all phases of her career. Photographs include: family photographs from the 1920s to the 1980s; publicity photographs for her film and theater appearances; photographs of her paintings; and "Art-Riginals", nature photographs she made and sold. Film consists of two advertising films; video of copies of her theatrical moving pictures and records of interviews and similar events late in her career. Sound includes: demo disks of her songs and a small number of commercially released disks; and tapes of interviews and lectures.
