archives.nypl.org -- Elisabeth Fraser papers (original) (raw)

The Elisabeth Fraser Papers consist of correspondence, a diary, journal, clippings, scripts, screenplays, photographs, programs and ephemera relating to her various stage, screen and television roles. The collection is divided into three series: Personal Papers, Productions, and Scrapbooks. The bulk of the collection contains material directly related to a number, but not all, of the various productions she appeared in throughout her career. This material consists primarily of programs, opening night telegrams, sides, photographs and a few contracts. The photographs are all organized in a separate scrapbook. There is one full script, for Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole; two screenplays, one for The Tunnel of Love and one for The Way West ; and a teleplay for The Scarlett O'Hara War.

The Elisabeth Fraser papers are arranged in three series:

• 1939-1966
  2 boxes
  The personal papers consist of correspondence; a diary, which she kept during the national tour of There Shall Be No Night; and a journal she wrote during the filming of The Way West and ephemera. The journal for The Way West encompasses nearly half the collection. There is both a handwritten and a typewritten manuscript copy of the journal, along with background material such as notes and correspondence. The overall correspondence is minimal, but it does include personal letters (including letters from her mother to her grandmother) as well as a few business letters. Some of the letters are photocopies.
• 1940-1979
  2 boxes
  The production papers include clippings, scripts, programs, contracts, press releases and opening night telegrams. The scripts include sides, screenplays and a teleplay. The one full script is for Blood, Sweat and Stanely Poole. There are two screenplays: The Tunnel of Love and The Way West; the teleplay is for Moviola: The Scarlett O'Hara War and the sides are from There Shall Be No Night (under the working title Revelation), The Russian People and Winged Victory. There are also a few souvenir programs and excerpts from a radio script of a 1941 interview in Memphis, with Elisabeth Fraser and Montgomery Clift promoting a production of There Shall Be No Night. This series also contains two editions of The Luntanne Tattler, a weekly newsletter of the Lunt-Fontanne Company that was touring There Shall Be No Night in 1940-41. There are also three editions of the Gremlin, a weekly newsletter put out by the cast of Moss Hart's Winged Victory.
• 1920-1999
  2 scrapbooks
  The scrapbooks in the collection consist primarily of clippings and photographs. One scrapbook is a collection of photographs organized and arranged by her daughter, Liza McDonald. The photographs are arranged by type with occasional captions provided by Miss McDonald. They include publicity shots, production stills and family snapshots. There is also an index and separate sheets of biographical notes, written at different points during her career. The scrapbook of clippings also includes reviews, some photographs (mostly photocopies) and ephemera, with occasional comments pasted in after the fact by Miss Fraser.