- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"84 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"142 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- unitid
-
{"value"=>"*MGZMD 140", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"19865", "type"=>"local_mss"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1865-1993", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1865/1993"}
{"value"=>"1940-1988", "type"=>"bulk", "normal"=>"1940/1988"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Agnes De Mille scores"}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.</span> <span class=\"subarea\">Jerome Robbins Dance Division.</span> <div class=\"address\"><span class=\"addressline\">New York, New York</span></div>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Agnes De Mille was an American dancer, choreographer, director, and writer. The collection contains music scores, correspondence, writings, notes, programs, plots, legal and financial papers, daily reminders, and phone books."}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Agnes De Mille scores, *MGZMD 140. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"De Mille, Agnes", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p> Agnes (George) De Mille was born in New York City in 1905. She was the daughter of William Churchill De Mille, the famous playwright, and Anna George, the daughter of the distinguished economist and \"single tax\" advocate, Henry George. She was also the niece of filmmaker Cecil B. De Mille. She inherited a profound identification with the theater.</p> <p>De Mille spent her early years in New York City at her family home at Merriewold in Sullivan County. In 1914, William De Mille summoned his family to Los Angeles where he had cast his lot with his brother, Cecil B. De Mille, in the nascent film industry. De Mille and her sister, Margaret, gave piano recitals and staged dramatic productions for their friends, but their parents refused to let Agnes take dancing lessons because of a widely-held contemporary belief that dancers were slightly disreputable. Nevertheless, De Mille had the opportunity to see a dance performance by Anna Pavlova, and that performance inspired in young Agnes the desire to become a famous dancer. Her father continued to oppose her wish for a career in dancing, but she was still allowed to take two lessons a week at the studios of Theodore Koslov.</p> <p>Frustrated by her family’s indifference, De Mille gave up dancing to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She graduated with a degree in English. After her parents’ divorce, she moved to New York and resumed her dancing, although she struggled to make a living in the field. Her first real dancing job came when she was hired as a dancer-choreographer for Christopher Morley’s revival of a 19th century melodrama, <span class=\"title\">The Black Crook</span>, in Hoboken. In 1932, De Mille moved to London, where she received extensive dance training at Madame Marie Rambert’s Ballet Club. She studied with, and was influenced by, fledging choreographers like Fredrick Ashton and Anthony Tudor, both of whom would later join her in her efforts to revolutionize the ballet and dance worlds. Her experience at the Ballet Club served as one of the most significant phases of her training. Throughout the 1930s, De Mille returned to the United States to take odd jobs. She danced in her uncle’s staging of <span class=\"title\">Cleopatra</span> in 1934, and she choreographed for the Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer film version of <span class=\"title\">Romeo and Juliet</span> in 1936. Most of the time, however, she battled poverty in London while trying to become a full-time choreographer.</p> <p>De Mille’s career changed for the better in the late 1930s and 1940s. In 1939, she was invited to join the American Ballet Theatre’s opening season. In 1940, she created her first ballet, <span class=\"title\">Black Ritual</span>. In 1942, De Mille choreographed her ballet, <span class=\"title\">Three Virgins and a Devil</span>, for the American Ballet Theatre. The following year, she joined Rodgers and Hammerstein to create the triumphant <span class=\"title\">Oklahoma!</span>, a musical that revolutionized the art form by integrating its choreographic numbers with the plot in a way that had never before been accomplished.</p> <p>De Mille went on to choreograph some of the biggest Broadway hits of the 1940s and 1950s, including <span class=\"title\">One Touch of Venus</span> in 1943, <span class=\"title\">Carousel</span> in 1945, <span class=\"title\">Brigadoon</span> in 1947, <span class=\"title\">Gentlemen Prefer Blondes</span> in 1949, and <span class=\"title\">Paint Your Wagon</span> in 1951. She also furthered her innovative style with <span class=\"title\">Tally-Ho</span> in 1944 and <span class=\"title\">Fall River Legend</span>, a haunting version of the Lizzie Borden axe-murder case, in 1948. Throughout the 1950s, De Mille embarked on a variety of projects. In 1952, she published the first volume of her autobiography, <span class=\"title\">Dance to the Piper</span>. The following year, she founded the Agnes De Mille Theater and toured with it in 126 cities during 1953 and 1954. In 1955, she choreographed the numbers for a film version of <span class=\"title\">Oklahoma!</span> During the 1960s, De Mille continued to produce many memorable ballets, including <span class=\"title\">The Bitter Weird</span> in 1962, <span class=\"title\">The Wind in the Mountains</span> in 1965, and <span class=\"title\">The Golden Age</span> in 1967. She also published several more dance books, such as <span class=\"title\">To a Young Dancer</span> in 1962, <span class=\"title\">The Book of the Dance</span> in 1963, and <span class=\"title\">Lizzie Borden Dance of Death</span> in 1968. From 1973 to 1974, De Mille founded and toured with the Agnes De Mille Heritage Dance Theater. She suffered a stroke in 1975, but fought her way back to health in time to receive the Handel Medallion, New York’s highest award for achievement in the arts, in 1976. De Mille continued to be involved very actively with artistic endeavors up until her death in October 1993.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection contains musical scores, correspondence, writings, legal and financial papers and office files. The bulk of the collection consists of annotated musical scores, representing the productions choreographed by Agnes De Mille. De Mille’s writing is also represented, with various essays, stories and other writings included in various states of completion. Although much of that material is fragmentary or in poor condition, it provides an invaluable look into De Mille’s life and work. De Mille writes about her family life and relationships, her professional endeavors, and her appraisals of her colleagues and predecessors in the dance world. At the same time, the collection lacks completed drafts of any of De Mille’s numerous books on her life and career or on the art of dance.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Agnes De Mille scores are arranged in six series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/dan/19865#c429189'>Series I: Production Music Scores</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1911 - 1987; Undated</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>112 boxes</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Production Music Scores series consists of scores for productions, many choreographed by De Mille. The scores include parts for different instruments, and they vary from classical to modern, ballet to musical comedy. Some of De Mille’s most famous triumphs are represented here, including <span class=\"title\">Oklahoma!</span>, <span class=\"title\">Brigadoon</span>, <span class=\"title\">Rodeo</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Paint Your Wagon</span>. All scores are undated, except where indicated.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/dan/19865#c433075'>Series II: General Music Scores</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1865 - 1982; Undated</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>8 boxes</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p> The General Music Scores series contains published or piano-vocal scores, many in foreign languages, lacking the instrumental parts and orchestrations of the Production Music Scores.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/dan/19865#c433237'>Series III: Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1911 - 1988; Undated</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>3 boxes</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Both personal and professional correspondence is included in this series. Some of the earliest correspondence is from De Mille’s relatives, writing to her as a child. Later material illustrates De Mille’s business dealings and her friendships, both in and out of the world of the arts.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/dan/19865#c433359'>Series IV: Writings</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1893 - 1993; Undated</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>5 boxes</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p> Agnes De Mille wrote almost as assiduously as she choreographed, and her written work took many forms. Included in this series are essays, short stories, biographical sketches, scripts, reviews, notes and introductions. Some of the short fiction dates from her college days, while her dance-related writing goes as far as the 1980s. The series contains many autobiographical stories and sketches in unfinished or fragmentary form. Although De Mille may have used them as the basis for some of her published autobiographies, they are not labeled as such. Other authors are represented as well, including her husband, Walter Prude and Warren Leonard, a former dance partner and boyfriend. The series also contains transcripts of interviews with and by Agnes De Mille, most notably a lengthy interview with Dick Cavett, commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on the occasion of her receiving the Kennedy Center Honors.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/dan/19865#c433501'>Series V: Legal & Financial Papers</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1950 - 1988</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>7 boxes</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains of bank statements, check records, contracts, expenses, bills, royalty statements and tax materials. The bulk of the series consists of professional material, but some records refer to De Mille and her husband, Walter Prude’s personal finances.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/dan/19865#c433601'>Series VI: Office Files</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1905 - 1988</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>7 boxes</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The office files consist of clippings, memoranda, newsletters, programs, and fliers. Also of note are phone books and daily appointment books for Agnes De Mille and Walter Prude.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p> <ul> <li>Series I: Production Music Scores, <date>1911-1987; Undated</date></li> <li>Series II: General Music Scores, <date>1865-1982; Undated</date></li> <li>Series III: Correspondence, <date>1911-1988; Undated</date></li> <li>Series IV: Writings, <date>1893-1993; Undated</date></li> <li>Series V: Legal & Financial Papers, <date>1950-1988</date></li> <li>Series VI: Office Files, <date>1905-1988; Undated</date></li></ul></p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p> The Agnes De Mille Scores were donated to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division in 1992, 1994, and 1997.</p>"}
- userestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.</p>"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1865
- date_inclusive_end
-
1993
- keydate
-
1865
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Lai Chu Tong ; Machine-readable finding aid created by Lai Chu Tong and Lee Spilberg.</p>"}
- extent_statement
-
84 linear feet (142 boxes)
- date_start
-
1865
- date_end
-
1993
- date_bulk_start
-
1940
- date_bulk_end
-
1988