Diana Hunt papers

1926-1995

Diana Hunt worked in the theater from the 1920s through the 1990s, first as a performer, and later as a production assistant to the Shubert family, as a talent agent, and sometimes as a director. Her papers date from 1926 to 1995, and include biographical information, business correspondence, photographs, and contracts. The collection contains her letters to, from, and regarding her clients, and photographs of clients such as Paul Roebling, Billy Dee Williams, Cherry Hardy, and Hunt's friend Beverly Sills. There are contracts for Maria Karnilova and Theodore Ward. The bulk of the correspondence is short letters. The collection includes a copy of a three-page letter from David O. Selznick, dated 1956, in which he critiques Hunt's proposed contract for Roebling. There are also memoranda to and from John Shubert, dating from 1944 to 1950, when Hunt was his assistant. The collection includes some production photographs, notably of The Corn is Green (1948), which Hunt co-directed. There is a letter, a program, and photographs from the Broadway-Hollywood Revue with Perry Como, which Hunt directed in 1949. The earliest materials in the collection are 1926 photographs of Cherry Hardy and of vaudeville performers Virginia and Maxine Loomis.