Walter and Jean Kerr papers, circa 1920-1993.

ArchivalResource

Walter and Jean Kerr papers, circa 1920-1993.

Papers of Walter Kerr, playwright and drama critic, and his wife Jean Kerr, humorist and playwright; the collection documents their individual and their collaborative careers. For their New York productions such as King of Hearts (1954), Mary, Mary (1961), and Poor Richard (1964), there are scripts, musical scores and recordings, photographs, notes, clippings, correspondence, and financial records. Also included are materials relating to Walter Kerr's teaching, and his career as a theater critic. Jean Kerr's writings are represented by correspondence and financial and legal material for Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1957), and drafts of three collections of her free-lance articles. Among many prominent correspondents in the collection are W.H. Auden, Richard Burton, Carol Channing, Oscar Hammerstein II, Moss Hart, Helen Hayes, Hubert H. Humphrey, Elia Kazan, Clare Boothe Luce, Fredric March, Mary Martin, Groucho Marx, Richard Rodgers, William Saroyan, Gloria Swanson, and Tennessee Williams.

56.4 c.f. (111 archives boxes, 68 volumes, 2 packages),16 tape recordings, and16 disc recordings; plusadditions of 8.3 c.f.,36 photographs, and6 tape recordings.

Related Entities

There are 34 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...

Williams, Tennessee, 1911-1983

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64v79hs (person)

Thomas Lanier Williams was born on March 26, 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi. His father, Cornelius, a salesman who was largely absent had a bad relationship with Tennessee, the second of his three children. Consequently, Tennessee was raised predominantly by his mother, Edwina, and maternal grandparents. His often strained and disturbed family life became the fodder for many of his plays. After moving to New Orleans in his late 20s, and adopting the name Tenn...

Rodgers, Richard, 1902-1979

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69h6cvt (person)

Richard Rodgers, composer and producer, was born in New York on June 28, 1902. He composed his first song, My Auto Show Girl when he was fourteen years old. (This is included in the collection Box 16, Folder 6) In 1918 Rodgers met his first professional partner, Lorenz Hart. Together they presented their first hit show, The Garrick Gaieties in 1925. In 1929 Rodgers and Hart appeared in a two-reel autobiographical short, Masters of Melodyproduced by Paramount-Famous-Lasky Corp. and written and di...

Hammerstein, Oscar, II, 1895-1960

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vf7qf7 (person)

Oscar Hammerstein II, lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer. He is best known for his collaborations with composer Richard Rodgers, whose musicals include Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music....

Luce, Clare Boothe, 1903-1987

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6t54jdh (person)

Clare Boothe Luce (née Ann Clare Boothe; March 10, 1903 – October 9, 1987) was an American author, politician, U.S. Ambassador and public conservative figure. A versatile author, she is best known for her 1936 hit play The Women, which had an all-female cast. Her writings extended from drama and screen scenarios to fiction, journalism and war reportage. She was the wife of Henry Luce, publisher of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated. Born in New York City, parts of Boothe's childhood ...

Schneider, Alan, 1917-1984

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xj0ggs (person)

Director Alan Schneider was born Abram Leopoldovich Schneider in Kharkov Russia on December 12, 1917 (There is some confusion surrounding the date--the true date being December 11.) He arrived in New York with his parents, Leopold Victorovich Schneider and Rebecka Samilovna Malkin Schneider, both physicians, on July 4, 1923 and spent his childhood in Maryland where his parents worked in tuberculosis sanatoriums. Mr. Schneider received a B.A. magna cum laude in political Science from the Universi...

Burton, Richard, 1925-1984

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63w07b3 (person)

Humphrey, Hubert H. (Hubert Horatio), 1911-1978

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66j56vs (person)

Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Minnesota from 1949 to 1964 and 1971 to 1978. He was the Democratic Party's nominee in the 1968 presidential election, losing to Republican nominee Richard Nixon. Born in Wallace, South Dakota, Humphrey attended the University of Minnesota. At one point he helped run his ...

Golden, John, 1874-1955

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tj99v4 (person)

John Golden (1874-1955) was a songwriter and theatrical impresario who wrote, directed, managed, or produced over 100 shows in a career spanning more than 40 years, including Lightnin', Claudia, and Susan and God. Golden was known for his "clean, humorous, American plays," which were suitable for a family audience. "I think Mrs. Warren's Profession is a great play," he explained in his autobiography, Stage Struck, "[but] given equal literary value, I should infinitely prefer a whole...

Kerr, Jean

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ht4wwp (person)

March, Fredric, 1897-1975.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gx4k2x (person)

Crouse, Russell, 1893-1966.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g481pz (person)

Brady, Leo, 1917-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nw19s3 (person)

Martin, Mary, 1913-1990

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cr5vhs (person)

Mielzinger, Jo, 1901- .

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qj9qx2 (person)

Marx, Groucho, 1890-1977

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60g3vws (person)

Humorist and actor. Real name: Julius Henry Marx. From the description of Groucho Marx papers, 1930-1967 (bulk 1950-1965). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70982543 Biographical Note 1890, Oct. 2 Born Julius Henry Marx, New York, N.Y. 1920 Married Ruth Johnson (divorced 1942) ...

Channing, Carol, 1921-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x16wz4 (person)

Carol Channing (b. January 31, 1921, Seattle, WA) is an American actress, singer, dancer and comedian. Notable for starring in Broadway and film musicals, her characters typically radiate a fervent expressiveness and an easily identifiable voice, whether singing or for comedic effect. She began as a Broadway musical actress, starring in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1949, and Hello, Dolly! in 1964, when she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She revived both roles several times thro...

Lindsay, Howard, 1889-1968

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kp86h7 (person)

Hart, Moss, 1904-1961

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ns0sjb (person)

Director, theatre owner/operator, writer, producer and performer. From the description of Autograph card signed : [n.p.], [195-?]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270923811 ...

Saroyan, William, 1908-1981

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w680528m (person)

Frances Ring was Editor at WESTWAYS in Los Angeles. From the description of Letters (and manuscripts and photos) to Frances Ring, 1970-1980. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 754863419 Goldie Weisberg was a fellow writer whose work Saroyan had discovered in a literary magzine. Saroyan initiated the correspondence, which focuses on their respective reading, writing, and work lives. From the description of Correspondence with Goldie Weisberg, 1930-1938. (Unknown). Wor...

Kazan, Elia

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k07gb1 (person)

American film director. From the description of Carbon copy of a typed letter : place not specified, to Darryl [Zanuck], undated [1952 Jan. or Feb.]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 778505876 American film producer. From the description of Autograph letter signed : Philadelphia, to [John Steinbeck], undated [1948]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 777247890 From the description of Preservation photocopy of a typed letter : place not specified, to John Stein...

Atkinson, Brooks, 1894-1984

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j104s3 (person)

Drama critic. From the description of Reminiscences of Justin Brooks Atkinson : lecture, [195-?]. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122631692 American drama critic educated at Harvard University, Atkinson became a literary editor of the New York Times in 1922 and served as the paper's dramatic critic from 1926 to 1960. From the description of Brooks Atkinson papers, 1925-1976. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 612378941 ...

Clark, Barrett H. (Barrett Harper), 1890-1953

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pn96vp (person)

Theatre historian and theorist. From the description of Notes on George Moore, 1922. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 78812829 From the description of Notes on George Moore, 1922. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702148335 Dorothy Lockhart (1905-1985) studied voice at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia for four years. After completing her studies, she entered the professional theater in England, starting as a stage hand and working her way up to ...

Reinhardt, Max, 1873-1943

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wh2rcv (person)

Epithet: film actor and director, born Maximilian Goldmann British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001305.0x0003ac Austrian actor, manager, and director, Ernest Julian Reinhardt (1876-1954) was a creative innovator in scenery and staging. He produced plays and spectacles in Germany, Austria, England and the United States and founded the Salzburg Festival in 1920. From the guide to the Max Reinhardt collecti...

Van Druten, John, 1901-1957

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6js9xp8 (person)

John William Van Druten (1901-1957) was a playwright, director, screenwriter, and novelist. In England, where he was born, he was a solicitor and lectured on English law and legal history at the University College of Wales. His first successful play was Young Woodley which played in London and New York. In addition to his later plays which were mostly comedies, he wrote novels and directed musicals. He was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. ...

Logan, Joshua

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m61t7x (person)

Playwright, director, producer. From the description of Reminiscences of Joshua Logan : oral history, 1980. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 309726951 Theatrical producer and director and playwright. Born 1908, died 1988. From the description of Papers of Joshua Logan, 1723-1992 (bulk 1940-1980). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 71072269 ...

Abbott, George, 1887-1995

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m90d2c (person)

American theatrical producer and director. From the description of George Abbott letter to William Work, 1953 Mar. 4. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 502306264 ...

Gassner, John, 1903-1967

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68d0q21 (person)

John Gassner was born in Marajaros-Sziget, Hungary in 1903, and emigrated to the United States in 1911. He received an A.B. (1924) and M.A. (1925) from Columbia University. He began his career as a book reviewer for the New York Herald Tribune (1926-1928), and was play editor and chairman of the play department of the Theater Guild (1931-1944). Gassner taught dramatic criticism and playwriting at colleges and universities including Hunter College, Columbia University, the University of Michigan,...

Gorelik, Mordecai, 1899-1990

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61g11fk (person)

Gorelik was a research professor in theater at Southern Illinois University from 1960 to 1972. A 1920 graduate of the Pratt Institute, Gorelik was primarily a scene designer, but during his six-decade career he also designed costumes, directed lighting and taught theater. Gorelik was born August 25, 1899, in Shchedrin, Minsk, Russia (now U.S.S.R). In 1972 he married Loraine Kabler in 1972 and had two children, one son and one daughter. He was a noted critic and scholar of the theater. Gorelik pu...

Auden, W.H. (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p55kjv (person)

Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973), poet, was born in York, England, on February 21, 1907. He attended Christ Church, Oxford, from 1925-1928, then served as a schoolmaster in various institutions in England and Scotland from 1930 to 1935, including The Downs School in Colwell. In 1935 Auden married Erika Mann, a writer and the daughter of Thomas Mann, so that she could gain British Citizenship and escape Nazi Germany. Although the two never lived together, they remained married until Mann's death in ...

Kerr, Walter

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h44151 (person)

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...

McNeil, Claudia

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hq5gqt (person)

Bellamy, Ralph, 1904-1991

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66h56dm (person)

American actor. From the description of Papers, 1918-1983. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 155507649 Actor. From the description of Reminiscences of Ralph Bellamy: oral history, 1958. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122608208 American actor and author; b. Ralph Rexford Bellamy; d. 1991. From the description of Ralph Bellamy collection, 1926-1988. (Boston University). WorldCat record id: 70971107 ...