Scope and Contents
This small, but significant collection contains material from Laurette
Taylor's early acting days, ca. 1907, through her retirement years to her
glorious return to the stage in her legendary performances of
The Glass Menagerie (1945) by Tennessee
Williams. Her career spanned the era of vaudeville and silent film to the war
years of the mid-1940s. Included in this collection are correspondence,
personal and theater photographs, photograph albums, press reviews, articles,
legal documents, and contracts. Also included are writings of her son, Dwight
Taylor, as well as papers and works of her second husband, J. Hartley Manners,
the playwright whose partnership accounted for her early roles. Unfortunately,
in contrast to Taylor's prolific professional life, little remains to document
her career. According to her daughter, Marguerite Courtney, Laurette destroyed
all press books, letters, programs, photograph albums, and other memorabilia
associated with her life with Manners upon his death in 1928. Her most
significant work during this time was her highly successful and long-running
portrayal of Peg in
Peg O' My Heart, written by Manners and
produced in New York and London. For approximately a decade after her husband's
death, Taylor retired from the stage, suffering with bouts of depression and
alcoholism.
Correspondence consists of Laurette's letters to Dwight Taylor
documenting her financial hardships, her tremendous success with
The Glass Menagerie, including mention of
Tennessee Williams, and her failing health beginning in 1945. Dwight's
childhood letters chronicle his private school years and accompany typescript
memories of his life with his famous mother. Correspondents also include John
Barrymore, Booth Tarkington, James Cagney, and George Cukor.
Newspaper reviews cover Taylor's plays in the late 1930s, extensive
coverage of
The Glass Menagerie, and numerous
obituaries. A large number of publicity and personal photographs are present,
documenting her characters in plays such as
The Bird of Paradise,
L'Enfant Prodigue,
Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire,
Outward Bound,
One Night in Rome,
Humoresque, and
The Glass Menagerie. A charming remnant of
her many awards is the hand-lettered Barter Theatre Award presented by Eleanor
Roosevelt in May 1939 for Taylor's portrayal of Mrs. Midget in
Outward Bound. The award provides Miss
Taylor with one acre of land on the side of a mountain
near Abingdon, Virginia and one sugar-cured
Virginia ham.
Estate papers of J. Hartley Manners are included as well as a clothbound
typescript edition of his 1920 play
One Night in Rome, prepared for the farewell
performance at the Garrick Theatre.
A number of published works and recordings were transferred to the HRHRC
book collection. Included in this group are Lorette Taylor's
The Greatest of These.....;
Peg O' My Heart,
Happiness and Other Plays,
The Harp of Life, and
The National Anthem by J. Hartley Manners;
and
Blood & Thunder and
Joy Ride by Dwight Taylor. Taylor's
recordings, mostly 78 RPM, include music cues for The Glass Menagerie (1945); a 1939 WJZ radio
broadcast of
Peg O' My Heart;
Among My Souvenirs (1943); a segment of
We The People (1945); a Rudy Vallee radio
program (1939); and a very early 1913 voice recording trial done of Laurette
Taylor in New York.
This collection received minimal rehousing, retaining the original
annotated folders and document groupings. Some preservation photocopying was
provided for fragile newspaper reviews.
See also Marguerite Courtney's biography,
Laurette: The Intimate Biography of Laurette Taylor.
New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc., 1955. (HRC PN
2287.T25.C6.1955c)