- unitid
-
{"value"=>"*T-Mss 1977-005", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"18982", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"b20307326", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1847-1972", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1847/1972"}
{"value"=>"1910-1945", "type"=>"bulk", "normal"=>"1910/1945"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1847
- date_inclusive_end
-
1972
- keydate
-
1847
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Lula Vollmer papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"18.48 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"44 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- repository
-
{"id"=>"THE", "value"=>"Billy Rose Theatre Division"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Lula Vollmer (d. 1955) was an American folk dramatist. The collection dates from 1847 to 1972 and documents her writing career through dramatic and literary manuscripts, correspondence, contracts, and other materials relating to the publication and production of her work."}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"<p>Lula Vollmer papers, *T-Mss 1977-005. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library.</p>"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Vollmer, Lula", "type"=>"persname", "role"=>"creator"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Lula Vollmer (d. 1955) was an American folk dramatist whose stories often centered on the lives of independent mountain women. Born Louisa Smith Vollmer in North Carolina, she spent her childhood traveling around the Southern United States wherever her father found work as a lumberman. Vollmer began writing as a child and published her first work in The Nickel Magazine at the age of seventeen. After high school she worked for a short time as a reporter on a weekly newspaper, then as an auditor at the Hotel Piedmont in Atlanta, Georgia before moving to New York in the early 1920s. She completed her first play, Sun-Up, while selling tickets at the Theatre Guild. The play, which would become her best-known work, debuted on Broadway at the Provincetown Playhouse in 1923. The show was made into a motion picture in 1925 and a television movie in 1939. Vollmer's other plays included The Shame Woman (1923), The Dunce Boy (1925), and Trigger (1927), which was made into a silent film in 1934 called Spitfire, starring Katherine Hepburn.</p> <p>Vollmer frequently wrote multiple versions of a single title for vaudeville, theater, radio, television, motion pictures, and short stories, sometimes attempting publication or production between each adaptation. In the 1930s, Vollmer began writing more extensively for radio serials, including The Widow's Son, Grits and Gravy, Moonshine and Honeysuckle, and It's Your Business. She had several short stories published in Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post, including The Road That Led Afar (1939), which was later adapted into an episode of The General Electric Theater in 1956. This and a few other works were published or produced after her death.</p> <p>Lula Vollmer died of a heart attack in New York City in 1955.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection dates from 1847 to 1972 and documents Vollmer's writing career through dramatic and literary manuscripts, correspondence, contracts, and other materials relating to the publication and production of her work. Also present are estate papers that document the activities of the administrator of Vollmer's estate, nephew N. Cecil Hill, after her death in 1955. They consist of legal documents, Hill's own writings from the 1930s, and correspondence regarding the promotion and sale of Vollmer's work following her death.</p> <p>Vollmer's writings make up the bulk of the collection and consist of hand and typewritten manuscripts for essays, speeches, short stories, novels, and scripts for radio, television, motion pictures, and theater. The writings are arranged by title. Works are usually represented through multiple adaptations for television, radio, theater, short stories, and books. Writing files dated after 1955 contain correspondence, reviews, and scripts for works distributed or produced by Vollmer's family after her death.</p> <p>The best-represented works in the collection include Sun-Up, The Shame Woman, The Hill Between, and Sentinels. Material for Sun-Up consists of several adaptations of the work from 1918 to 1956, including the 1952 opera with libretto by Polish composer Tadeusz Zygfryd Kassern. The Shame Woman is represented through drafts of several working titles in multiple formats, including the short stories Lize (1921, published in Yes or No: The Yellow Magazine) and The Rider, and drafts of a novel entitled Through Closed Doors. Early drafts of Sentinels under the title The Honor and the Glory are present. Many of the files, such as those for The Last Bottle, document the development of Vollmer's work from the original, handwritten drafts to publication.</p> <p>Radio serial scripts are for episodes of The Widow's Son, Grits and Gravy, Moonshine and Honeysuckle, It's Your Business, and Gabriel Heatter's A Brighter Tomorrow. Moonshine and Honeysuckle is the best represented radio serial in the collection, with scripts and notes for 139 consecutive episodes from 1930 to 1933. Files for Moonshine and Honeysuckle also contain drafts for other adaptations, such as a short story, novel excerpts, and scripts for vaudeville and theater. Some radio files contain additional materials, such as screenplay synopses of The Widow's Sons, or research material gathered by Vollmer for episode ideas.</p> <p>Essays and speeches in the collection discuss women in theater, playwriting, and autobiographical sketches. Essay titles include My Experiences in Theatre, Careering and Housekeeping, and Why Girls Should Go on Stage. Speeches include those for radio and the Poe Society. One folder of Vollmer's unpublished poetry is also present.</p> <p>Correspondence is largely professional in nature and discusses contracts with media stations, royalty agreements, box office statements, letters of admiration, rejection letters, and the distribution, publication, and production of Vollmer's works. The box office statements and contracts themselves are also present. Primary correspondents include Vollmer, the National Broadcasting Company, publicity agents, theater managers and directors, and magazine editors. Letters from actress Lucille La Verne are both professional and personal; other personal correspondence consists of family letters from 1867 to the 1920s.</p> <p>The collection holds a small amount of newspaper clippings and programs for plays Vollmer wrote from 1921 to 1950, such as The Shame Woman, Sun-Up, Moonshine and Honeysuckle, The Hill Between, and She Put Out To Go.</p> <p>Estate papers date from Vollmer's death in 1955 to 1972 and document the activities of the administrator of the estate, nephew N. Cecil Hill. Correspondence, legal documents, and Hill's unpublished writings from the 1930s are present. Correspondence is mostly between Hill, Mercia Matthews, and Vollmer's niece, Elizabeth Brown, regarding their efforts to distribute and publish Vollmer's works in 1956. Other materials relate specifically to Hill's role as the administrator of her estate, such as correspondence regarding copyright of Vollmer's works, and invoices and memorandums pertaining to unpaid bills and other financial matters.</p>"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection is arranged in the following categories: Box Office Statements, Contracts, and Correspondence; Clippings and Programs; Estate Papers; and Writings. Writings are arranged alphabetically by title or genre. All other groups are arranged chronologically.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Unknown.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"type"=>"processing", "value"=>"<p>Compiled by <span class=\"name\">Robyn Hjermstad</span>, <span class=\"date\">2014</span></p>"}
- userestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>The author/creator retains copyright of materials. For information on obtaining permission to publish, contact the Theatre Division at theatrediv@nypl.org.</p>"}
- dsc_type
-
combined
- extent_statement
-
18.48 linear feet (44 boxes)
- date_start
-
1847
- date_end
-
1972
- date_bulk_start
-
1910
- date_bulk_end
-
1945