archives.nypl.org -- Cheryl Crawford papers (original) (raw)

The Cheryl Crawford papers span the years 1920-1986 and include correspondence, office files, production files, scripts, financial records, scrapbooks, photographs, programs, clippings, ephemera and memorabilia. The strength of the collection is in the correspondence and production materials. Many of the scripts are annotated prompt books. Of special note are the materials for Porgy and Bess that includes a prompt book of the Broadway production and a file on West Side Story that Cheryl Crawford rejected as a project. Correspondence in the collection includes letters from such notables as Tennessee Williams, Thornton Wilder, Lillian Hellman, Elia Kazan, Mary Martin, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Geraldine Page and Eli Wallach. Production materials include files on Porgy and Bess, Sweet Bird of Youth, Camino Real, Brigadoon, Oh Men!, Oh Women, Paint Your Wagon and The Rose Tattoo. There is also some small amount of materials on the Theatre Guild, Group Theatre, American Repertory Theatre and Actors' Studio, though this material is very sketchy.

The Cheryl Crawford papers are arranged in eight series:

• 1937-1986
  This series includes correspondence from friends and business associates both about personal and business matters. Some overlapping of subject information may occur in the content of these files and the production files. Correspondents include Hugh "Binkie" Beaumont, Tovah Feldshuh, Richard Halliday, Lillian Hellman, Jack Holmes, Randall Jarrell, Tom Jones, Bel Kaufman, Elia Kazan, Lotte Lenya, Oscar Lewenstein, Mary Martin, Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Harvey Schmidt, James Thurber, Eli Wallach, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, Audrey Wood and Joanne Woodward.
• 1936-1968
  This series includes correspondence, production files, contracts, production ideas and other materials relating to Cheryl Crawford's involvement in American Repertory Theatre, ANTA and Actors' Studio, Theatre Guild and Group Theatre.
• 1945-1971
  This series includes correspondence, production files and notes, contracts and other materials relating to Cheryl Crawford's work as an independent producer. Included in this series is a file on the collection of Agnes DeMille.
• 1938-1977
  Included in the production files are correspondence, contracts, scripts, production notes and ideas, box office statements and financial papers dealing with the business of theatrical production. Productions include works produced by Cheryl Crawford as an independent producer. PLEASE NOTE: All contracts are restricted and have been pulled from the files. Permission from the curator is required to view contracts.
• 1945-1986
  Included in this series are scripts, notes and production ideas for plays considered by Cheryl Crawford but not produced by her. There are also unidentified play excerpts. Some titles include Conversation at Midnight by Edna St. Vincent Millay (clippings from Los Angeles production), The Damask Cheek by John Van Druten, The Fair Country by Jack Holmes (includes correspondence, production files and scripts), The Farmer's Hotel by John O'Hara, The Flowering Peach by Clifford Odets, Hold Back the Dawn by Ketti Frings, Lizzie by Edward Padula (play about Lizzie Borden), The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee (casting notes), Post Mortem by Lynn Parker, The Silent Partner by Clifford Odets, Vieux Carre by Tennessee Williams and West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein (correspondence and notes).
• 1920-1986
  Included in this series are awards, an early scrapbook, personal photographs and ephemera, photographs and programs from her college productions at Smith College, programs from the Wharf Players a photograph of the Provincetown Players and a Japanese art book signed by the members of the Actors Studio.
• Included in this series are production ledgers from some of Cheryl Crawford's plays. These include Brigadoon and Paint Your Wagon, among others. Receipt books include stock certificate books from the American Repertory Theatre. Of special note are two ledger volumes concerning M.T.R. Washburn entitled Ancestry. The connection to this collection has not been determined.
• 1938-1950
  This series includes scrapbooks of clippings about Cheryl Crawford as well as scrapbooks documenting Cheryl Crawford's productions. Titles include Family Portrait, Porgy and Bess, One Touch of Venus, The Tempest, Love Life, Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, Regina and The Closing Door. There are also scrapbooks under the topic of the Maplewood Theatre in New Jersey and the American Repertory Theatre.