Scope and arrangement
The papers of American playwright and screenwriter Edwin Justus Mayer contain writings and personal files.
Writings contain annotated drafts, fragments, outlines, and notes on Mayer's works. Writings include produced and unproduced plays, screenplays, short stories, and poems. Scripts for produced works may include programs, clippings or other production materials. Personal files consist primarily of personal and professional correspondence, insurance policies, wills, a small amount of photographs, and papers from Mayer's 1937 divorce from Frances O'Neill MacIntyre.
Professional correspondence includes letters between Mayer and playwright Elmer Rice; producer Max Gordon: lyricist Lorenz Hart: collaborators such as Kurt Weill; Mayer's manager Audrey Wood; producer Horace Liverlight; publishers Samuel French, Julian Messner, and Harcourt, Brace, and Co.; and Hays, St. John, Abramson & Schulman, a law firm which handled the rights to Mayer's plays. There are folders of correspondence pertaining to many of Mayer's plays, including The Firebrand of Florence, I Am Laughing, and Sunrise in My Pocket. Mayer's film career is documented with correspondence pertaining to salary payments and contractual negotiations with Myron Selznick and Company, Inc. and the John McCormick, Inc. Agency. Some contracts and salary statements are included with correspondence.
Personal correspondence documents Mayer's life and opinions through his letters with family members, including his son, his ex-wife, his sisters Estelle and Olga, friends, and his lover Dorothy Huston. Mayer's letters often offer eloquent insights into current events, including prohibition, the influence of the Holocaust on Jews in America, and the responsibilities of men during wartime. After their divorce, Mayer maintained cordial and affectionate relations with his ex-wife Frances O'Neill MacIntyre. Their correspondence concerns alimony payments; the development, behavior, and education of their son; Mayer's health and work; and the mental health and psychological treatment of Frances Mayer. The file on Mayer's son, Paul Avila Mayer, includes letters he exchanged with his father while studying at the George School and at Harvard University during the 1940s, as well as correspondence between Mayer and doctors, dentists, and his ex-wife pertaining to Paul Mayer. Paul Mayer's report cards from the George School are also included. One folder contains several 1905 notes between Mayer's father, Paul Mayer, and his brother, Oscar Mayer.
Correspondence with Joseph Verner Reed concerns Reed's discussion of Mayer's relationship with the actress May Ellis in Reed's 1935 memoir, The Curtain Falls. Mayer's correspondence with novelist Felizia Seyd contains discussions of a trip she took to her home country of Germany during the late 1930s, and the rise of Hitler, the threats to Jews living in Germany, and the attitudes of Americans to Hitler. There are also several letters to, from, and concerning Mayer's cousin, Dr. Ludwig Thalheimer, regarding Mayer's long (and ultimately unsuccessful) struggle to assist Thalheimer (who had been interned at Dachau) and his family to seek refuge in the United States during World War II. Mayer's correspondence with William Garson, Warren Marsh, and various realtors, furniture sellers, workmen, and insurance agents concerns the purchase, preparation for habitation, grounds maintenance, renovation, repairs, and upkeep of Mayer's house in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Some correspondence is sorted alphabetically by subject or correspondent's name, while there is also a run of correspondence sorted chronologically. There is some overlap of subjects and correspondents between the alphabetically and chronologically arranged correspondence, so researchers should be sure to peruse both sections. Bank books are ledgers which document Mayer's personal expenses from 1931 to 1946 .
Arrangement
The Edwin Justus Mayer papers are arranged in the following sections: Writings, Personal Files, and Bank Books.