- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"29 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"42 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- unitid
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{"value"=>"*T-Mss 1990-026", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"21836", "type"=>"local_mss"}
- unitdate
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{"value"=>"1817-1963", "type"=>"inclusive"}
{"value"=>"1905-1963, dates", "type"=>"bulk"}
- date_inclusive_start
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1868
- date_inclusive_end
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1962
- keydate
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1868
- unittitle
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{"value"=>"Helen Hayes papers"}
- repository
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{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.</span> <span class=\"subarea\">Billy Rose Theatre Division.</span> <div class=\"address\"><span class=\"addressline\">New York, New York</span></div>"}
- abstract
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{"value"=>"The Helen Hayes papers span the years 1817–1963 and consist of correspondence, the majority from friends and colleagues; speeches and writings, including drafts and handwritten index cards of speeches; clippings from her earliest days in theater and covering her work in film, television, and radio; programs for theatrical productions and awards ceremonies; awards and ephemera including her honorary degrees, appointments to committees, and citations for her charitable work; designs including costume designs for theatrical productions and artwork created by friends and colleagues; photographs, including family photographs, candid shots and professional portraits from childhood, production stills and publicity from theater, film, and radio, and portraits by famous photographers; and scrapbooks, some dedicated to particular theatrical productions and others that cover all aspects of her career and life."}
- prefercite
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{"value"=>"<p>The Helen Hayes Papers, *T-Mss 1990-026. Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.</p>"}
- origination
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{"value"=>"Hayes, Helen, 1900-1993", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>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 talent and cast her in the New York production of <span class=\"title\">Old Dutch</span> in 1908. Deeming Helen Hayes Brown too long to fit on a theater marquee, Fields shortened her name to Helen Hayes.</p> <p> In over twenty-five productions, from 1908 until 1917, Hayes appeared on Broadway, in summer stock, and with numerous touring companies. The 1918 production of <span class=\"title\">Dear Brutus</span> garnered her positive notices, began her lifelong association with James M. Barrie plays, and introduced her to William Gillette. Gillette, best known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, became an important mentor and acting coach throughout Hayes’s life. In the 1920s, Hayes made the transition from young adult to ingénue roles. By 1926, she appeared in another James M. Barrie play, the revival of <span class=\"title\">What Every Woman Knows</span>, achieving her first true critical and commercial success; the character, Maggie, remained her favorite role throughout her lifetime.</p> <p> Hayes married Charles MacArthur, playwright, in 1928. They had a daughter, Mary, in 1930, and in 1937 adopted a son, James. Mary, an aspiring actress, died of polio in 1949, at the age of nineteen. James became an actor and had a successful career in film and television. Charles MacArthur died in 1956; Hayes never remarried.</p> <p> During the early years of her marriage to MacArthur, the couple relocated to Hollywood in order for Helen to try her hand at movies and MacArthur at screenwriting. Hayes won the Academy Award for her first film, <span class=\"title\">The Sin of Madelon Claudet</span>. In general, Hayes was dissatisfied with her Hollywood experience, as she did not feel her acting style suited film and was disappointed in the quality of scripts. In 1934, after the negative experience of filming <span class=\"title\">What Every Woman Knows</span>, Hayes declared she had given up film for good. Hayes and MacArthur decided to re-settle their family in Nyack, NY. Hayes did not have a significant role in film for another 13 years.</p> <p> With the success of <span class=\"title\">Mary of Scotland</span> in 1933, followed by her triumph in <span class=\"title\">Victoria Regina</span> in 1938, Hayes’s reputation as one of the great actresses of the theater was established. Although she worked steadily in radio, film, and television, Hayes’s first love was theater, and the majority of her career was focused in that direction. She appeared in plays by Shakespeare, O’Neill, Thorton Wilder, and Tennessee Williams. Her last major appearance was in 1971 as Mary in <span class=\"title\">Long Day’s Journey Into Night</span>; after which she was forced to retire due to asthma and allergic reactions to stage dust.</p> <p> In addition to her artistic career, Hayes was a dedicated activist for various political, charitable, and social causes. She campaigned vigorously for Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon, and at the request of Franklin Roosevelt, gave speeches and organized programs to rally support for American intervention during World War II. She was a tireless fundraiser and spokesperson for the March of Dimes; in particular, during the first vaccination trials in 1953. Other organizations with which she was involved include the American National Red Cross, Stage Door Canteen, Girl Scouts of the USA, Actor’s Equity, and ANTA. Throughout her life, she advocated the importance of theater to American culture. In 1961, at President Kennedy’s behest, she led the Theatre Guild’s American Repertory Company on a worldwide tour featuring productions of <span class=\"title\">The Glass Menagerie</span> and <span class=\"title\">The Skin of Our Teeth</span>.</p> <p> Hayes is one of only nine people to win an Emmy, a Tony, a Grammy and an Oscar. In addition to acting awards, Hayes received numerous appointments, honors, and honorary degrees. Helen Hayes’ impressive career spanned eight decades during which she saw major success, both artistic and commercial, in the media of stage, screen, television, and radio. Because of her dedication to theater, she earned the title of “First Lady of the American Theater”. Helen Hayes died in 1993 at her home in Nyack, NY.</p>"}
- scopecontent
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{"value"=>"<p>The Helen Hayes papers primarily span the years 1905–1963 and consist of a wide variety of material. There is correspondence, the majority from friends and colleagues; speeches and writings, including drafts and handwritten index cards of speeches; and clippings from her earliest days in theater and covering her work in film, television, and radio. The collection includes programs for theatrical productions and awards ceremonies; awards and ephemera including her honorary degrees, appointments to committees, and citations for her charitable work; and designs including costume designs for theatrical productions and artwork created by friends and colleagues. There are photographs, including family pictures, candid shots and professional portraits from childhood, production stills and publicity from theater, film, and radio, and portraits by famous photographers. Also included are a significant number of scrapbooks, some dedicated to particular theatrical productions and others that cover all aspects of her career and life. In fact, the scrapbooks comprise fully half of the collection.</p> <p>The strength of this collection lies in its ability to illuminate all aspects of Hayes’s public life by documenting not only her professional activities, but also the political, social, and charitable causes near to her heart. Hayes’s life as a performing artist and public figure brought her into contact with influential figures in politics, medicine, and the arts, such as Maxwell Anderson, Presidents Eisenhower and Roosevelt, Anita Loos, Dr. Jonas Salk, and Alexander Woollcott. The collection provides a window into how Hayes’s interest in the human condition manifested itself through the public realm of her art.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Helen Hayes papers are arranged in nine series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21836#c509571'>Series I: Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1868; 1912 - 1962</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>1 box; .5 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains letters and telegrams from Hayes’s friends and colleagues, including a few letters and notes from her immediate family. Correspondents include Brooks Atkinson, Stephen Vincent Benet, Carrie Chapman Catt, Mamie Eisenhower, Mary Martin, Paul Muni, Eleanor Roosevelt, Kim Stanley and Thorton Wilder. Of particular note is the correspondence from actor William Gillette and screenwriter and director Nunnally Johnson. Gillette’s handwritten correspondence, written in an idiosyncratic, poetic style, reveals him to be a highly creative, emotional personality and a somewhat unusual paternal figure in Hayes’s life. The Nunnally Johnson correspondence provides a witty window into Hollywood, containing anecdotes about casting sessions, writing, and producing films.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21836#c509607'>Series II: Speeches and Writings</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1935 - 1960; Undated</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>1 box; .25 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains drafts of various speeches Hayes gave at award ceremonies and convocations and includes handwritten index cards and edits. Further information about Hayes’s honorary degrees can be found in Programs, Awards and Ephemera, and Oversized material. While this series also includes a few sides and show rundowns, it contains no scripts from any of Hayes’s theatrical, film, or television productions.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21836#c509640'>Series III: Clippings</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1873; c. 1909-1960</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>2 boxes; 1 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains clippings covering all aspects of Hayes’s career including her early days in theater and film, various honors, her public appearances, and profiles in magazines and newspapers.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21836#c509701'>Series IV: Programs</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1911 - 1963</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>1 box; .5 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains programs from theatrical and radio productions and award ceremonies. Those interested in Hayes’s honorary degrees and awards should also see the Awards and Ephemera series and the Oversized materials. Of special note is the <span class=\"title\">It’s Fun to Be Free</span> program, a rally in support of American intervention in World War II. The program contains messages from President Roosevelt, Helen Hayes and Burgess Meredith; essays by Wendell Willkie and Alexander Woollcott; and a poem entitled <span class=\"title\">What is America?</span> by Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21836#c509731'>Series V: Awards and Ephemera</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1817; 1857; 1887; 1935-1960; Undated</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>1.5 boxes; .75 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains Hayes’s honorary degrees from such institutions as Carnegie Institute of Technology, Columbia University, New York University, and Princeton University. Those interested in Hayes’s honorary degrees and awards should also see the corresponding institution folders in Awards and Ephemera series and the Oversized materials. The Ephemera in this series contains an advertisement for a performance by Edwin Booth as Hamlet, most probably from Helen Hayes’s maternal grandmother.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21836#c509780'>Series VI: Artwork</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1921] - 1963; Undated</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>.5 boxes; .25 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Of particular interest in this series are Vincent Price’s pencil sketch of Hayes in her <span class=\"title\">Victoria Regina</span>costume, Fred Gwynne’s watercolor and ink of <span class=\"title\">Mrs. McThing</span>, and Hayes’s collage, created for Charles MacArthur, containing a telegram from Hayes to MacArthur. The collection also includes reproductions of Hirschfield drawings. Those interested in designs should also see the Designs and Artwork folders in Oversized Materials.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21836#c509792'>Series VII: Photographs</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1905-1963; Undated</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>6 boxes; 3 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains both production stills and publicity photographs from Hayes’ theatrical, film, television, and radio productions; professional portraits by distinguished photographers; photographs of Hayes’s public appearances; autographed portraits from Hayes, in addition to autographed portraits from friends and colleagues; both personal and professional photographs from Hayes’s childhood, including candid photographs from her 1917 cross-country tour of <span class=\"title\">Pollyanna</span>. Included in her personal photographs are portraits taken by Charles MacArthur, an amateur photographer. Professional photographs include those by Cecil Beaton, Charles Sinclair Bull and Vandamm Studios.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21836#c510075'>Series VIII: Scrapbooks</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1926-1959</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>21 boxes; 13.25 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The scrapbooks contain clippings, programs, photographs, artwork, correspondence, and telegrams covering Hayes’s career in theater, film, and television. Several scrapbooks were done professionally and are dedicated to particular productions. Several volumes created by Elmer Lewis, Hayes’s Nyack neighbor, include correspondence to various theaters seeking information and memorabilia about Hayes’s tours. Lewis includes both the outgoing and incoming correspondence in the scrapbooks, offering significant insight into the difficulties and triumphs of touring the United States in the 1930s. The highlight of this series is the <span class=\"title\">Ladies and Gentlemen</span> scrapbook which contains opening night telegrams, a backstage visitors log, a crayon drawing of Hayes and Orson Welles by Mary MacArthur, a colored pencil drawing by Beatrice Lillie, and Charles MacArthur’s Academy Award nomination certificate for <span class=\"title\">Jane Eyre</span>.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21836#c510103'>Series IX: Oversized</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1914-1962; Undated</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>8 boxes; 9.5 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The oversized material is organized to mirror the earlier series in this collection and therefore includes programs, awards and ephemera, designs and artwork, and photographs. Further material and information can be found by consulting the corresponding folders in each of the series. Included in this series are autographed portraits of Marlene Dietrich and Joan Crawford, costume designs, an autographed set design for <span class=\"title\">Ladies and Gentlemen</span> by Boris Aronson, and an architectural drawing for the proposed National Theatre.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p> <ul> <li>Series I: Correspondence, 1868; 1912-1962</li> <li>Series II: Speeches and Writings, 1935-1960; Undated</li> <li>Series III: Programs, c.1909-1960</li> <li>Series IV: Clippings, 1911-1963</li> <li>Series V: Awards and Ephemera, 1817; 1857; 1887; 1935-1960; Undated</li> <li>Series VI: Artwork, [1921]-1963; Undated</li> <li>Series VII: Photographs, 1905-1963; Undated</li> <li>Series VIII: Scrapbooks, 1926-1959</li> <li>Series IX: Oversized, 1914-1962; Undated</li></ul></p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- acqinfo
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{"value"=>"<p>The Helen Hayes Papers were purchased in 1990.</p>"}
- userestrict
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{"value"=>"<p>For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Billy Rose Theatre Division.</p>"}
- altformavail
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{"value"=>"<p> {manditory if applicable - statement regarding availability of collection on microfil, in published form, etc.}manditory if applicable - statement regarding availability of collection on microfil, in published form, etc.</p>"}
- relatedmaterial
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{"value"=>"<p>Helen Hayes correspondence with Anita Loos, *T-Mss 2005-016 at the Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts</p>"}
- processinfo
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{"value"=>"<p>Processed by Kathleen O'Neill; Machine-readable finding aid created by Kathleen O'Neill and Lee Spilberg.</p>"}
- extent_statement
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29 linear feet (42 boxes)