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Creator
Hayward, Brooke, 1937-
Call number
*T-Mss 1997-021
Physical description
12.7 linear feet (13 boxes)
Preferred Citation

Brooke Hayward Papers, *T-Mss-1997-021. Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Repository
Billy Rose Theatre Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

Brooke Hayward is the oldest child born to stage and screen actress Margaret Sullavan and super-agent and producer, Leland Hayward. She is a writer, having authored the book Haywire in1977. Her early career choices were actress and model. Hayward has been married three times: Michael Thomas, 1959, Dennis Hopper, 1961-1969, and Peter Duchin, 1985.

Biographical/historical information

Brooke Hayward, the writer, was born July 5, 1937. Hayward is the oldest of three children born to Margaret Sullavan and Leland Hayward. Bridget Hayward was born in 1939. William Bill Hayward was born in 1942.

Haywards growing up years, were chaotic. There were several moves between California and Connecticut with the last to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1948, after Margaret Sullavan divorced Leland Hayward.

Sullavan wanted her children to have a normal childhood, and isolated them from the evils of Hollywood. The children lived in a separate house with a nurse (nanny) and a cook. A tutor taught Hayward and her siblings at home for the first few years of their life. When they were older, Brooke and Bridget attended Greenwich Academy a private girls school, where Jane Fonda was a classmate. Bill Hayward and Peter Fonda attended Brunswick, a boys school around the corner from Greenwich Academy.

In the fall of 1953, the Hayward children (Brooke, Bridget and Bill) all left home to attend boarding schools. Hayward attended Madeira, a private girls school in McLean, Virginia. Bridget went to Gstaad, Switzerland and Bill to Lawrenceville in New Jersey. Brooke attended Madeira her junior and senior years, graduating in 1955 going to Vassar and Yale.

By the time Hayward was 22 years of age she had married Michael Thomas, an art historian and budding investment banker, whom she met at Yale. They had two children, Jeffrey and Willie. After Hayward divorced Thomas, she and the children moved to New York City, and she began a modeling and acting career.

In December 1959, Hayward was starring in an Off-Broadway production of Marching Song, when she learned of her mothers death. Margaret Sullavan died of an accidental drug overdose January 1, 1960. At this time, both Bridget and Bill were patients in mental asylums, Austen Riggs in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and Menningers in Topeka, Kansas, respectively.

In October 1960, Bridget Hayward died of a drug overdose just 8 months after her mother. Leland Hayward died in 1971 at home, after an extensive hospital stay following an unsuccessful surgery.

Hayward was married to Dennis Hopper, 1961-1969; they had one child, a daughter, Marin. Hopper worked closely with Peter Fonda (a long-time Sullavan/Hayward family friend) and Bill Hayward on the movie Easy Rider.Hayward married Peter Duchin, the orchestra leader in December 1985. She has three grandchildren, Anna, Cooper and Violet.

Scope and arrangement

The collection is separated into two unequal sections: the material in the smaller section concerns Haywards writing of the book Haywire. The bulk of the collection consists of Haywards mother, Margaret Sullavan's papers.

The Haywire material consists of correspondence, edited draft manuscripts, transcripts of taped interviews, and galley proofs. There is almost no personal material from or about Brooke Hayward in this collection. What little personal material there is, is from her childhood and was part of the scrapbooks that her mother, Margaret Sullavan, created.

The Sullavan material contains correspondence, photographs, and scrapbooks. Sullavan herself meticulously created the scrapbooks. Where possible photographs have been labeled. The material is divided into Sullavans theatre work, motion picture work, and home and personal life.

The Brooke Hayward papers are arranged in five series:

  • Series I: Correspondence
    1860 - 1976
    1 Box

    This series consists of correspondence to Brooke Hayward. Most of this correspondence is concerning the publication of her book Haywire, including interview notes, rejects, and a first chapter. Also included is a copy of a chapter about Leland Hayward used for research.

  • Series II: Scrapbooks
    1928 - 1955
    1 Box

    This series contains material that Margaret Sullavan saved and put into scrapbooks. Because of the fragile state of some of the material the scrapbooks were separated and photocopies were made onto archival paper. Photographs were separated into their own series. Correspondence was separated into their own series also.

  • Series III: Photographs
    1920s - 1960
    2 Boxes

    Movies, theatre, and personal photographs. The photos have been removed from scrapbook pages. For the most part there is no identification on or about the photos. When the photo was labeled in the scrapbook, it was transferred to the photo, when it was removed from the scrapbook.

  • Series IV: Haywire
    undated
    3 Boxes

    This series contains two copies of edited drafts of the book Haywire. Also included are transcripts of interviews that Hayward conducted with colleagues of both her mother and father (Fredric March, Joseph Cotton), friends of the family (Josh Logan, Tom Mankieweicz), and family members (ex-husband Henry Fonda, ex-wife Nancy Slim Hawks, brother Bill Hayward). The transcripts are not dated. Audiotapes of the interviews are part of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound

  • Series V: Oversized Material
    1938 - 1976
    3 Boxes

    Draft proofs and galley proofs of Haywire. Also included are enlarged and mounted photographs, copies of magazines and artwork.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

The Brooke Hayward Papers were donated to the Billy Rose Theatre Collection in June 1997 by Brooke Hayward.

Processing information

Processed by Leslie Reyman; Machine-readable finding aid created by Leslie Reyman.

Separated material

Audiovisual materials separated from archival collections are cataloged individually and can be found in the Library catalog. Search CATNYP, The New York Public Library catalog.

  • George Axelrod, undated
  • Truman Capote, undated
  • Joseph Cotton, undated
  • Charles Eames & Ray Eames, undated
  • Henry Fonda, undated
  • Jane Fonda, undated
  • Peter Fonda, undated
  • Bill Francisco, undated
  • Josh Logan, undated
  • Kathleen Malley, undated
  • Tom Mankieweicz, undated
  • Frederic March & Florence March, undated
  • Paul Osborn & Millicent Osborn, undated
  • Slim Nancy Hawks, undated
  • Jules Stein, undated
  • Diana Vreeland, undated
  • King Vidor, undated
  • Billy Wilder, undated
  • Bill Wright & Greta Wright, undated
  • William Wyler, undated

Using the collection

Location

Billy Rose Theatre 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, Billy Rose Theatre Collection.

Access restrictions

Photocopying prohibited.