Scope and arrangement
Collection consists of promptbooks and scripts for shows produced and/or directed by Arthur Hopkins; his writings, including plays, articles and speeches; a few letters and legal papers; programs; photographs; scrapbooks of clippings; and research materials of his granddaughter Rosemary Sprague who worked on a biography about him. The material documents the career of producer and director Arthur Hopkins.
The Arthur Hopkins papers are arranged in eight series:
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1908-19504 folders
This small series consists of correspondence about Hopkins' articles, legal and financial papers and obituaries and other clippings about him.
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1913-1949 and n.d.2 boxes
Consists of plays, articles, speeches and other writings by Arthur Hopkins.
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1918-1946 and n.d.3 boxes
Promptbooks and scripts are for plays produced and sometimes directed by Arthur Hopkins. All are typescript, most undated: the promptbooks are heavily annotated while the scripts are mostly clean.
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1925-19468 folders
Consists of theater programs for Hopkins productions, the bulk at the Plymouth Theatre. Also a few publicity brochures and a photocopied scrapbook of clippings on Ethel Barrymore in The Joyous Season.
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1950-1954 and n.d.20 folders
Consists of working files of Rosemary Sprague, a published novelist, for her biography of her grandfather, Arthur Hopkins. Includes drafts, notes and notebooks of the biography in various stages. As part of her research, Sprague corresponded with many people who had known and worked with Hopkins. Of interest are the letters she received from Maxwell Anderson, Brooks Atkinson, Lynn Fontanne, Clark Gable, and Edward G. Robinson, among others.
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1939-19515 folders
Mostly personal letters to Rosemary Sprague or her mother Eleanor. Also telegrams and a few programs reflecting Rosemary's involvement in the theater in Ogunquit, Maine in the summer of 1939.
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1926-1946 and n.d.1 box
Mostly photographs. Includes a photo of Hopkins with John Barrymore and another with Lillian Gish. Also family photographs and a scrapbook of photos of his production of The Magnificent Yankee.
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1926-19482 boxes
Three scrapbooks of clippings in poor condition. Also includes a published version of Hopkins' Letters to a Lonely Boy, found inside one of the scrapbooks.