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Creator
Grassi, Amata
Call number
(S) *MGZMD 160
Physical description
4.25 linear feet (7 boxes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation

Amata B. Grassi Papers, (S) *MGZMD 160, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

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

The Amata B. Grassi Papers document the personal life and professional career of the early twentieth-century dancer. The collection contains correspondence and personal papers; performance notes; newspaper and magazine clippings; two of her personal diaries; and personal and professional photographs, including some negatives and slides. The focus of the collection covers her dancing years.

Biographical/historical information

Amata Grassi was born in New York on June 1, 1894. Originally named Anna Beatrice Koch she chose her stage name after her mother, Caroline Grasse (1837-1917). Amata Grassi began her dancing career with Anna Pavlova in 1917. In the following year, while touring in Buenos Aires, she met her future first husband, Chester Hale (Chamberlin). Soon after they left the famous dancer to form their own company. She also danced with the Adolph Bolm Ballet Intime and the Chicago Opera Co., toured in vaudeville, musical comedy and concert. In 1928 she was a premier dancer of Paul Whiteman’s Rio Romance. During World War II she was company manager of a Major Bowes unit that made a USO tour of Army camps. She was married to Chester Hale from September 1918 until May 1931. Around the mid-1940s she remarried, to Walter Hussen. After she ended her career as a dancer she began working at the Sheraton Hotel, and started to raise French poodles. In 1950 she is reported to have been an assistant at the hotel’s payroll department. Sources: · Amata Grassi Papers, An inventory of her papers at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Retrieved November 2, 2005 from http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/specialcoll/services/rjd/findingaids/AGrassib.html · Chicago Sunday Times, Thursday June 22, 1950, section two-2

Scope and arrangement

The Amata B. Grassi papers contain documents, photographs and clippings documenting her personal life and her professional career as a dancer. Both aspects are covered equally. Although the collection spans over almost a century, the majority of the materials cover the period of Amata Grassi’s dancing years, from the mid-1910s to 1930s. Her personal diaries (Box 2, folder 4) offer an interesting insight to her personality and everyday life for the periods covered. The collection also contains a considerable number of professional photographs (Box 6), both of herself and other performers of the period, which might be of interest to the researcher. Several letters in the correspondence series (Box 1) provide interesting primary sources to the Spanish Civil War and World War II (folders 6 and 8 respectively). There are no audiovisual materials in this collection, while the later period of Amata Grassi’s life is rather underrepresented.

The Amata B. Grassi papers are arranged in five series:

  • Series I: Correspondence, and
    1916 - 1971
    1 box, 10 folders

    This series contains mostly personal letters and postcards to Amata Grassi from friends and family. Legal, business and financial correspondence can be found in the Personal Papers series. In cases where the sender’s last name is unknown, documents are filed under sender’s first name.

  • Series II: Personal Papers, and
    1878 - 1961
    1 box, 18 folders

    This series contains records from Amata Grassi’s personal and professional life. It includes several business, financial and legal documents. Of particular interest are two diaries (1917, 1932) handwritten by Amata Grassi herself; programs and several handwritten notes, receipts, costume plans and dancing notes related to various of her performances; and an (otherwise unmarked) book on the Russian Ballets. This series also includes records from Amata Grassi’s early childhood, letters related to her parents and second husband, Walter Hussen; business cards, function passes and events invites; a few sketches of portraits, a small number of music scores, two telephone number booklets with personal contacts, and a small stamp collection. Empty envelopes found scattered among her papers or previously containing photographs; as well as a few cooking recipes can also be found here.

  • Series III: Clippings, 1916 - 1960s and
    undated
    2 boxes, 11 folders

    This series is divided into two sub-series. The first includes loose clippings from newspapers and magazines, and the second consists of five clippings booklets.

    • Subseries 1: Loose Clippings
    • Subseries 2: Clippings Booklets

  • Series IV: Photographs
    undated
    2 boxes 12 folders

    This series is divided into two sub-series. The first sub-series includes photographs of Amata Grassi’s personal life, and the second photographs of her dancing career.

    • Sub-series 1 - Personal photographs
    • Sub-series 2 - Professional photographs

  • Series V: Oversized Materials
    1913 - 1950
    1 box, 12 folders

    This series contains several oversized souvenir programs, clippings, a magazine issue and several professional photographs of both Amata Grassi and other performers.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

The Amata B. Grassi Papers were donated to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division in August 1977 by Brigitte E. Peterhans.

Processing information

Processed by Aikaterini Dimitriadou-Shuster; Machine-readable finding aid created by Aikaterini Dimitriadou-Shuster.

Related Material

Materials related to Amata B. Grassi and complementing the present collection can also be found at the University of Illinois at Chicago (http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/specialcoll/services/rjd/findingaids/AGrassib.html).

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

For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.