- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"5.25 lin. ft.", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"10 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- unitid
-
{"value"=>"*T-Mss 1992-017", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"21775", "type"=>"local_mss"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1908-1954", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1908/1954"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1908
- date_inclusive_end
-
1954
- keydate
-
1908
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Arthur Hopkins papers"}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. <span class=\"subarea\">Billy Rose Theatre Division.</span></span> <div class=\"address\"> <span class=\"addressline\">New York, New York</span></div>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Contains promptbooks, scripts and programs for plays produced and/or directed by Arthur Hopkins, scripts and articles he wrote, a small amount of correspondence and legal papers, drafts and notes for a biography about him, photographs, and scrapbooks of clippings."}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"<p>Arthur Hopkins Papers, *T-Mss 1992-017. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.</p>"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Hopkins, Arthur, 1878-1950", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Arthur Hopkins, theatrical producer and director, was born in Cleveland, Ohio on October 4, 1878, the ninth son and tenth and last child of David Hopkins, a mill worker who had immigrated from Wales with his widowed father as a small boy and Mary Jeffreys, a preacher's daughter. Hopkins, like his brothers before him, worked in the mills to put himself through school. His career began in New York in newspapers, then press agentry and booking vaudeville acts. His first production was <span class=\"title\">Poor Little Rich Girl</span>, 1913. He produced over seventy plays in the course of his career, directing most of them. He valued artistic over commercial merit and while he had many successes, he had even more failures.</p> <p>Early successes included <span class=\"title\">On Trial</span>, 1914, <span class=\"title\">Good Gracious Annabelle</span>, 1916, <span class=\"title\">A Successful Calamity</span>, 1917, <span class=\"title\">Redemption</span>with John Barrymore, 1918, and <span class=\"title\">The Jest</span>with John and Lionel Barrymore, 1919. His notable Shakespeare productions were <span class=\"title\">Richard III</span>, 1920, and <span class=\"title\">Hamlet</span>, 1922, both with John Barrymore and <span class=\"title\">Macbeth</span>, 1921, with Lionel Barrymore. He produced Ibsen revivals of <span class=\"title\">Wild Duck</span>, <span class=\"title\">Hedda Gabler</span>and <span class=\"title\">A Doll's House</span>, all with Alla Nazimova. He also directed Eugene O'Neill's <span class=\"title\">Anna Christie</span>, 1921, and <span class=\"title\">The Hairy Ape</span>, 1922, <span class=\"title\">What Price Glory</span>by Maxwell Anderson, 1924, and Philip Barry's <span class=\"title\">Paris Bound</span>, 1927 and <span class=\"title\">Holiday</span>, 1928. He slowed down after 1930 but staged a successful <span class=\"title\">Petrified Forest</span>with Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart in 1935 and a successful <span class=\"title\">Magnificent Yankee</span>in 1946.</p> <p>Hopkins had a light touch as a director wanting to preserve the \"spontaneity of acting.\" He labored over the script with the playwright, but then his rehearsals were short. He studied theatrical production in Europe and developed the revolving stage in America. A biographical source credits him with discovering Katharine Hepburn and furthering the success of Robert Edmond Jones. He introduced unusual plays and new ideas to the Broadway theater of the 1910s.</p> <p>Hopkins was also an author of numerous articles on the theater and other topics, and books including the novel <span class=\"title\">The Glory Road</span>, 1935, <span class=\"title\">To A Lonely Boy</span>, 1937, and <span class=\"title\">Reference Point</span>, 1948, both somewhat autobiogaphical, and <span class=\"title\">How's Your Second Act</span>. Arthur Hopkins was married to Eva O'Brien, an actress. He died on March 22, 1950 in New York City.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>Collection consists of promptbooks and scripts for shows produced and/or directed by Arthur Hopkins; his writings, including plays, articles and speeches; a few letters and legal papers; programs; photographs; scrapbooks of clippings; and research materials of his granddaughter Rosemary Sprague who worked on a biography about him. The material documents the career of producer and director Arthur Hopkins.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Arthur Hopkins papers are arranged in eight series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21775#c463008'>Series I. Personal Papers</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1908-1950</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>4 folders</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This small series consists of correspondence about Hopkins' articles, legal and financial papers and obituaries and other clippings about him.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21775#c463013'>Series II. Writings by Arthur Hopkins</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1913-1949 and n.d.</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>2 boxes</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Consists of plays, articles, speeches and other writings by Arthur Hopkins.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21775#c463056'>Series III. Promptbooks and scripts</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1918-1946 and n.d.</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>3 boxes</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Promptbooks and scripts are for plays produced and sometimes directed by Arthur Hopkins. All are typescript, most undated: the promptbooks are heavily annotated while the scripts are mostly clean.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21775#c463092'>Series IV. Programs and publicity</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1925-1946</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>8 folders</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Consists of theater programs for Hopkins productions, the bulk at the Plymouth Theatre. Also a few publicity brochures and a photocopied scrapbook of clippings on Ethel Barrymore in <span class=\"title\">The Joyous Season</span>.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21775#c463101'>Series V. Research materials for biography on Hopkins by Rosemary Sparague</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1950-1954 and n.d.</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>20 folders</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Consists of working files of Rosemary Sprague, a published novelist, for her biography of her grandfather, Arthur Hopkins. Includes drafts, notes and notebooks of the biography in various stages. As part of her research, Sprague corresponded with many people who had known and worked with Hopkins. Of interest are the letters she received from Maxwell Anderson, Brooks Atkinson, Lynn Fontanne, Clark Gable, and Edward G. Robinson, among others.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21775#c463123'>Series VI. Personal papers of Rosemary Sprague</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1939-1951</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>5 folders</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Mostly personal letters to Rosemary Sprague or her mother Eleanor. Also telegrams and a few programs reflecting Rosemary's involvement in the theater in Ogunquit, Maine in the summer of 1939.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21775#c463129'>Series VII. Visual materials</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1926-1946 and n.d.</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>1 box</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Mostly photographs. Includes a photo of Hopkins with John Barrymore and another with Lillian Gish. Also family photographs and a scrapbook of photos of his production of <span class=\"title\">The Magnificent Yankee</span>.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/the/21775#c463143'>Series VIII. Oversized scrapbooks</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1926-1948</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>2 boxes</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Three scrapbooks of clippings in poor condition. Also includes a published version of Hopkins' <span class=\"title\">Letters to a Lonely Boy</span>, found inside one of the scrapbooks.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p> <ul> <li>Series I. Personal papers</li> <li>Series II. Writings of Arthur Hopkins <ul> <li>Sub-series 1. Scripts</li> <li>Sub-series 2. Articles, speeches and other writings</li></ul></li> <li>Series III. Promptbooks and scripts</li> <li>Series IV. Programs and publicity</li> <li>Series V. Research materials for biography on Hopkins by Rosemary Sprague</li> <li>Series VI. Personal papers of Rosemary Sprague</li> <li>Series VII. Visual materials</li> <li>Series VIII. Oversized scrapbooks</li></ul></p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Received from the estate of Rosemary Sprague, the granddaughter of Arthur Hopkins, in 1992.</p>"}
- accessrestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>Photocopying prohibited.</p>"}
- userestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Billy Rose Theatre Division.</p>"}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by ; Machine-readable finding aid created by.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by ; Machine-readable finding aid created\n by .</p>"}
- extent_statement
-
5.25 linear feet (10 boxes)
- date_start
-
1908
- date_end
-
1954