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Creator
Draper, Paul, 1909-1996
Call number
(S) *MGZMD 250
Physical description
2.94 linear feet (7 boxes)
Preferred Citation

Paul Draper papers, (S) *MGZMD 250. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library

Repository
Jerome Robbins Dance Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

Paul Draper (1909-1996) was a dancer, choreographer, writer, and educator best known for his innovative combination of ballet and tap. The Paul Draper papers (1909-1991) contain correspondence, memorabilia, and clippings spanning both his youth and his 60 year career.

Biographical/historical information

Paul Draper (1909-1996) was a dancer and choreographer, best known for his innovative combination of ballet and tap. Draper was born to a prominent New York family and was encouraged as a student to become an engineer. After only 6 tap dance lessons in the 1930s, he set off for London to find work as a dancer, where he spent a year perfecting his tap routines. When he returned to the United States, he enrolled in the School of American Ballet and from that experience developed his Ballet-Taproutines in 1932. This trademark style integrated ballet technique and vocabulary into tap dance routines. Draper often performed tap to classical music.

Draper not only toured the country in a very popular routine with harmonicist Larry Adler, but also choreographed for Broadway, the American Dance Festival, and Goodspeed Opera House. In 1941 he married Balanchine dancer Heidi Vossler.

Draper's act with Adler ended in 1949 when they were blacklisted as Communist sympathizers. He fought the accusations, filing a libel lawsuit against the Connecticut housewife who had accused him of communist leanings, but still had to leave the country briefly. Draper did not resume performing until 1955. Upon returning to the stage, Draper worked on several Broadway shows and also appeared at the New York City Center. He also wrote articles for Dance Magazine during the years 1954-1963. In 1967 he became a professor at Carnagie Mellon University, where he taught in the theater department until 1978. He retired in Woodstock, NY.

Scope and arrangement

The Paul Draper papers (1909-1991) contain correspondence, memorabilia, and clippings spanning both his youth and his 60 year career.

Series I includes personal and business correspondence, clippings regarding Draper's dance engagements, photographs, programs, certificates, and invitations. These general files are arranged by year, however specific items can be located by looking both in the subject files as well as under the files by year. For example, looking under the year a specific Broadway production occurred would yield that material if any existed, but the clippings section of the subject files should also be consulted. Even though there is a trial and blacklist section within the subject files, additional materials relating to Draper's blacklist and its subsequent effect on his career can be seen by looking under the years 1950-1954. Most materials focus on his performance career, but there are also teaching materials from Carnegie Mellon, personal birthday cards, and notes.

Draper's subject files contain clippings not integrated into the yearly files, his writings for Dance Magazine, a transcript of an interview he gave in the 1940s discussing his childhood and early career, and materials relating to his blacklist and trial in the 1950s. The interview material is roughly 120 pages of an extremely detailed discussion about Draper's childhood, training, and early work.

Series II consists of of documents relating to various members of Draper's immediate family. Files may contain letters, certificates, and photographs with the exception of Muriel Draper, his mother. These files contain bound reproductions of some of her family correspondence and her obituary.

The Paul Draper papers are arranged in two series:

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by Katie and Susan Draper, 2009

Processing information

Compiled by Lea Jordan.

Users should note that in some instances, original letters or documents were removed by the family and replaced with facsimiles. Collection rehoused into archival boxes, original order and folders maintained.

Compiled by Lea Jordan.

Using the collection

Location

Jerome Robbins Dance Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Conditions Governing Use

Donor retains copyright of materials. Library policy on photocopying will apply. For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Access restrictions

To request materials, please contact the Jerome Robbins Dance Division (dance@nypl.org) in advance.