Anderson Lawler was a stage and screen actor, later a producer. Born in Russellville, Alabama, in 1902 (some sources say 1904), Anderson Lawler acted in several stage plays in the 1920s, went to Hollywood in 1929, and acted in a number of films...
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Anderson Lawler was a stage and screen actor, later a producer. Born in Russellville, Alabama, in 1902 (some sources say 1904), Anderson Lawler acted in several stage plays in the 1920s, went to Hollywood in 1929, and acted in a number of films over the next ten years, including BE YOURSELF! (1930) with Fanny Brice, George Cukor's GIRLS ABOUT TOWN (1931), Frank Capra's AMERICAN MADNESS (1932), RIPTIDE (1934) with Norma Shearer, and EVER SINCE EVE (1937) with Marion Davies. Lawler also worked as a talent scout, and after 1939 he gave up acting and served as an associate producer for 20th Century Fox, for whom he produced Joseph L. Mankiewicz' SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT (1946). Returning to New York in the 1950s he produced several plays, including OH MEN, OH WOMEN. Anderson Lawler died of a heart attack on April 6, 1959. The Anderson Lawler correspondence spans 1927-1959, and consists mostly of telegrams, most of them from Lawler to his mother sending best wishes on various holidays and other occasions, and sometimes giving updates on his career. In addition to the notes from Lawler, there are brief messages and invitations from such Hollywood notables as George Cukor, Janet Gaynor, and Tallulah Bankhead. A late 1920s program from the Mayfair Club of Los Angeles displays two pencilled caricatures of actress Lupe Velez.
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