Agnes de Mille Papers, 1980-1993
General International Standard for Archival Description
Sophia Smith Collection Smith CollegeNorthampton, MA
Finding aid encoded using Perl scripts and edited in XMetal 2.0. Encoded by Brook Hopkins. 2003-06-05
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Agnes De Mille Papers
Creation of Agnes De Mille Papers
Time of Creation of Agnes De Mille Papers
De Mille, Agnes
Biographical History for: Agnes De Mille Papers
Biographical Note Agnes George de Mille was born in New York City, September 18, 1905, daughter of film producer, William de Mille and Anna (George) de Mille, daughter of economist Henry George. When Agnes was nine years old the family moved to Hollywood where her uncle, Cecil B. de Mille, was a motion picture director. Agnes entered university at age sixteen graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a degree in English. Although she began dancing in her early teens, it was not until after her graduation from college that she seriously considered dancing as a career. She studied with Theodore Koslov, Marie Rambert, Antony Tudor, and Tamara Karasvina, becoming a proficient ballet dancer. In 1925 her parents divorced and she and her sister, Margaret, moved back to New York with their mother. De Mille's first New York performance was in MacKlin Marow's production of Mozart's La Finta Giardiniera in 1927. She choreographed productions through the early 1930s, returning to Hollywood in 1934 to participate in Cecil B. de Mille's Cleopatra, from which she withdrew after differences arose over the dances. De Mille spent the 1937-38 season in England helping to form a ballet troupe in Oxford and choreographing Cole Porter's The Nymph Errant starring Gertrude Lawrence. She staged dances for Leslie Howard's Hamlet (1936), Ed Wynn's Hooray for What?(1937), Swingin' the Dream (1939), and a jazz version of A Midsummer's Night Dream. In 1939 she joined the New York Ballet Theatre as choreographer and performer. During her first season she choreographed Black Ritual, the first ballet of a classical American ballet company to be danced by all black dancers. She then established a company of her own and began a national tour. In 1941, de Mille devised a scenario for Rodeo for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo which was presented in 1942. In 1943 she did the choreography for Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein's hit musical Oklahoma!. She was one of the first women choreographers to work on Broadway doing the choreography for One Touch of Venus (1943), Bloomer Girl (1944), Carousel (1945), Brigadoon (1947), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), and Paint Your Wagon (1951). De Mille also published articles on dance and several books. These include two autobiographical works: Dance to the Piper (1952), and Promenade Home (1958), To A Young Dancer (1960), The Book of Dance (1963), Lizzie Borden: A Dance of Death (1968), The Dance in America (1971), and Speak to Me, Dance With Me (1973). Despite a stroke and heart attack in the mid 1970s, de Mille continued her writing, publishing two memoirs, Where the Wings Grow (1978) and Reprieve (1981). She also choreographed the ballets The Informer (1988) and The Other (1992). Agnes de Mille combined American folk dances and American music into classic art and was an innovator in dance who transformed the world of musical comedy forever. She received many awards including twelve honorary degrees, the Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for best choreography (1947 and 1962), Theatre Hall of Fame (1973), Handel Medallion (1976), John F. Kennedy Center Career Achievement Award (1980), and the National Medal of the Arts (1986). On June 14, 1943 Agnes de Mille married Walter Foy Prude. They had one son, Jonathan. She died October 7, 1993 in Manhattan at the age of 88.
Scope and Contents of the Collection The Agnes de Mille Papers consist of four linear feet of correspondence, biographical and autobiographical material, research notes, manuscripts and typescripts, printed material, photographs, published writings, and memorabilia. The bulk of the papers date from 1914 to 1960 and focus on both personal and professional aspects of de Mille's life. Personal material can be found in the correspondence, especially to her mother, Anna George de Mille, and in the manuscript and research material for her two autobiographical books, Dance to the Piper and Promenade Home. Her professional life is reflected in the clippings and material related to her other writings about dance.
Dancers--United States--History--20th century--Sources
lcsh
Performing Arts--History--20th century--Sources
Theater--History--20th century--Sources
Ballet--United States--History--20th century--Sources
Choreographers--United States--History--20th century--Sources
Dance--History--20th century--Sources
Coward, Noel, 1899-1973
lcnaf
De Mille, Cecil B., (Cecil Blount), 1881-1959
George, Henry, 1839-1897
Graham, Martha
Hurst, Fannie, 1889-1968
Lawrence, Gertrude
Millay, Edna St. Vincent, 1892-1950
St. Denis, Ruth, 1880-1968
West, Rebecca, Dame, 1892-
De Mille family
series
SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL (1908-93)
This series contains clippings and articles, photographs, theater programs, and miscellaneous memorabilia. The clippings and articles cover de Mille's career from 1933 to her death in 1993 and include several short pieces authored by her. A group of clippings copied from photostats of her press books located at the New York Public Library and those specifically related to And Promenade Home, Fall River Legend, and Nymph Errant are located in SERIES III. WORKS AND WRITINGS. There are two portraits of de Mille, a photograph of Leicester Square Theater in London with de Mille's name on the marquee, and a Christmas card with a young Agnes de Mille on the front. All are undated. Theater programs include five from various theaters in England in the 1930s and one from the Majestic Theatre in New York (1941). Miscellaneous memorabilia includes an unidentified verse and a sketch; and locks of hair (1908-34) from Anna, Agnes, and Margaret de Mille and Margaret's daughter Judy.
SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE (1897-1945)
The correspondence comprises the most significant portion of the Agnes de Mille papers. This series consists of letters from and to Agnes de Mille and Anna George de Mille. Letters Agnes de Mille wrote to Margaret Storrs Grierson in 1963 are also included. They describe the circumstances under which the correspondence was written and provide identification and personal information about the correspondents and people mentioned in the letters. The letters to Grierson in conjunction with the rest of the correspondence provide a fascinating look into de Mille's relationships with family, friends, and acquaintances and an aggregate picture of the theater in New York and London in the 1930s and 40s. Her lengthy letters to her mother (1914-46) and her husband (1944-45), are of particular interest. They describe her life and activities in great detail and provide insights and gossip about many notable people including Cecil B. de Mille, Rebecca West, Gertrude Lawrence, Noel Coward, Fannie Hurst, Cole Porter, Elizabeth Bowen, Martha Graham, Ruth St. Denis, Oscar Hammerstein, and Richard Rogers. This series also contains several letters from William de Mille to Anna George de Mille (1897-1903).
SERIES III. WORKS AND WRITINGS (1920-1970)
This series contains notes, manuscripts, typescripts, printed material, and clippings relating to both the choreography works and published and unpublished writings of Agnes de Mille. Choreography works include original scripts for Act II of Carousel (1945); sketches, notes, scenes and drawings from the dream ballet from Oklahoma! (1943); Fall River Legend (1946) with an article written in 1968 about the play; and clippings and the program from Nymph Errant (1933). Published writings include Dance to the Piper (1951), "Edwardian Lady" (McCalls,1961), "Goodnight C. B." (Esquire, n.d.), The Book of the Dance (1963), "Russian Journals" (Dance Perspectives #44, 1970), "One Hundred and Fifty Dollars Away From Anything" written for The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Souvenir Program, "Methods of Choreography" (Vogue, n.d.), And Promenade Home, (1958), and To A Young Dancer (1960). Unpublished manuscripts include an article on Alicia Markova (n.d.); a lecture on Marquis de Cuevas (n.d.); and "Handbook for Dancers" which may have been an early draft of To A Young Dancer. This series also includes copies of clippings (1924-48) from de Mille's press book located at the New York Public Library.
[See also SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS]
SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL
Contents
Clippings and articles, 1933-93
[See also SERIES III. WORKS AND WRITINGS]
Photographs, n.d.
Theater programs, 1933-41
Miscellaneous memorabilia, 1908-34, n.d.
SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE
From Agnes de Mille
Bently, Madison, 1937
de Mille, Anna George
Grierson, Margaret Storrs, 1963
Hammerstein, Dorothy (Mrs. Oscar), 1963
Prude, Walter, 1944-45
To Agnes de Mille
Anthony, Joseph, 1939-43
Barton, Craig, 1943, 1945
Bliss, Arthur, n.d.
Cochran, Charles B., 1932
Ferdinand (Twitch) Davis, 1933
de Mille, Anna George, 1937-45
de Mille, Clara, 1946
de Mille, Margaret, 1945
Dix, Beulah Marie, 1935
Fiske, Gladys, 1944
Haskell, Arnold, 1933
Keeler, Leonarde, 1943
Laing, Hugh, n.d.
Ludlum, Mabel Stuart, 1930
Madsen, Arthur W., 1934
Martin, John, 1929-35
Menuhin, Diana (Mrs. Yehudi), n.d.
Prude, Walter, 1952
Read, Ramon, n.d.
Smith, Oliver, 1945
West, Rebecca, 1934?
Miscellaneous, 1922-33, n.d.
Anna George de Mille to Judy Fineman, 1946
To Anna George de Mille
de Mille, Margaret 1925-37
de Mille, William C., 1897-1903
Prude, Walter, 1943-46
Read, Ramon, 1934
SERIES III. WORKS AND WRITINGS
Dance To The Piper, 1951
Notes and early drafts, n.d.
Original manuscript, n.d.
Notebooks (12), n.d.
Various versions with editorial comments, n.d.
Final manuscript, n.d.
Published work (Boston, Little Brown and Co.), 1951
"Edwardian Lady," 1961
"Goodnight C.B.," n.d.
"Alicia Markova," n.d.
"Methods of Choreography," n.d.
"Marquis de Cuevas," n.d.
Carousel: original script for Act II, n.d.
Fall River Legend
Original script, 1946
"Lady With An Ax: The Dramatic Story of Fall River Legend," McCalls, 1968
Oklahoma: sketches, notes and scenes for Dream Ballet, 1954
Nymph Errant: clippings, program and telegrams, 1933
And Promenade Home, 1958
Original manuscript (chapters not in book)
Incomplete and revised chapters
Manuscript with Catherine Bowen's comments
Clippings, 1958
Notebooks (11)
Typescripts and carbon copy, n.d.
To A Young Dancer, 1960
Chapters for Atlantic with letters from the editor, 1959
Notes
"Handbook For Dancers," n.d.
Book of the Dance, 1963
Manuscript
Draft of Chapter VIII
Miscellaneous
Clippings, 1928-48
The Dance In America, United States Information Agency, n.d.
"Russian Journals," Dance Perspectives vol. 44, 1970
"One Hundred and Fifty Dollars Away From Anything," The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Souvenir Program, 1969
Poster for a Paris dance recital, 1938
Photostats of clippings, 1942