The Burnet Hershey papers arrived at the Historical Society in great disorder, a collection whose research value was masked by voluminous deteriorating clippings. At one time the research clippings may have once been central to Hershey's literary and journalistic success, for Elsa Maxwell wrote in 1943 that Hershey could “unerringly” put his hands on the item he was seeking. But, when Leslie Fishel, director of the Historical Society, visited Burnet in 1966 he described files of clippings of the “most indiscriminate kind, “a complete mess” and the collection as a whole, “a disappointment.”
In the Archives the deteriorating clippings, the majority of which came from the widely circulated New York newspapers, were discarded, while scrapbooks and loose clippings that documented Hershey's career were photocopied. Other reference materials that had limited distribution such as mimeographed releases from government and military press offices were retained as samples of Hershey's research methods. The remaining material was arranged as five series: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION, CORRESPONDENCE, WRITINGS, SUBJECT FILES, and PHOTOGRAPHS.
Taken as whole, the collection is a disappointing addition to the Historical Society's mass communications collections because the aspect of Hershey's career that attracted the Historical Society - his eyewitness reporting on many important individuals and events of the early 20th century - is seldom documented with anything more than what appeared in print. For example, there is no background information on his story, “Germany's Meekest Hour,” which has been considered among the best news reporting of the century. There are exceptions, of course, such as his unpublished 1918 article on the Paris Bolsheviks and handwritten notes on an interview with Mahatma Gandhi in 1920. But in the main, such items are limited. The collection does improve on the research possibilities that may be made of his news reporting from 1915 to 1923 in that the scrapbooks identify his stories that appeared without a byline. Even better, after sorting and arrangement, the papers present research possibilities on aspects of Hershey's diverse career that were unsuspected by the archivists who first solicited the papers. Of particular interest are the script materials that supplement the important Vitaphone Studio records owned by the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) at the Wisconsin Historical Society; the correspondence which concerns his work as a theatrical and motion picture producer, albeit an unsuccessful one; and his public relations and international trade career.
The BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION consists of brief biographical sketches and photocopied career scrapbooks. Not only do the clippings identify Hershey's unbylined news stories, but they also provide the only information in the papers regarding the production history of many of his scenarios and treatments. The CORRESPONDENCE is arranged under two headings: special files concerning individuals with whom Hershey had extensive or important exchanges, which is filed alphabetically; and general mail, which is filed chronologically. The chronological correspondence begins in 1913, but it is spotty through the early 1920s. It is also limited after 1952. There is virtually no contemporary correspondence about the Ford Peace Expedition, although Hershey later corresponded with several members of the party. Letters from World War I and the immediate postwar period, when Hirsch traveled extensively to cover international conferences and meetings, is also scarce, although the letters to his family often contain some background information on his assignments. There are also some letters and cables from the newspapers that employed him during this period.
The correspondence of the 1920s contains many exchanges with literary agents and publishers, but little about his writing for the New York vaudeville stage. During the 1930s the correspondence with theatrical and literary agents continues, with the addition of letters from screenwriters and studio employees with whom he sometimes collaborated such as Georgette Carneal, Pauline Crawford, Lyon Mearson, Stanley Rauh, and Congressman Blair Taylor. These letters document Hershey's untiring efforts to bring his freelance work to the attention of motion picture executives, while the letters he received contain Hollywood news and gossip. Of Hershey's other documented friends in the motion picture industry, Samuel Bronston is most prominent.
During the 1920s Hershey carried on an extended correspondence with academic research libraries in an attempt to sell the documents he collected while covering the Paris Peace Conference. Unsuccessful on his own, during the Depression Hershey hired Symon Gould of the American Library Service. He was also without success. Eventually, in 1952, Hershey presented his bound collection to Yeshiva University. (In 2010 when the Hershey Papers were processed, Yeshiva University's rare book library was unable to locate the collection.)
The foray Burnet made in the public relations field during the 1920s is represented by exchanges with André Citroën, the French automobile manufacturer, for whom he served as the American representative. Although Hershey maintained a lifelong association with Edward Bernays the correspondence about this is limited. After World War II international business was again a prominent aspect of Hershey's activities. His clients were primarily French, probably based on his fluency in that language and contacts made during his residence there. During the post World War II years Hershey worked with several French businessmen to improve the sale and distribution of French wines and French films in the United States. Airplane manufacturer Etienne Romano was part of an industrial group with which Hershey worked on several projects, the most notable being efforts to develop machinery to manufacture fiber from banana plants. The correspondence with all of these individuals is extensive, and many of the exchanges are written in French.
Hershey's leadership in the Overseas Press Club (OPC), and later the American War Correspondents Association, is represented in the correspondence dating from the World War II era. Many of the letters reflect his responsibilities as OPC president and his efforts to develop the club's reputation and importance. Occasional OPC correspondents include Drew Pearson, Herbert Bayard Swope, and Lowell Thomas. The correspondence also reflects Hershey's efforts to make the OPC an information clearinghouse for military and foreign government press officers. Social invitations and appeals from patriotic, humanitarian, and international relief organizations are also plentiful in his wartime correspondence. Of these, correspondence with the American Palestine Committee is of particular interest.
Apart from his career and business associates, the correspondence includes long friendly exchanges with Madison Corey, an early theatrical producer and writer, and with French writer Lucien Lehman. In addition to their literary and theatrical concerns, both men lived in France during World War II, and their letters suggest something about conditions during the German occupation. Also in Hershey's diverse personal circle are health food advocates David and Elizabeth Stry and theatrical agent Ruth Nathan, with whom Hershey had an affair. While there are numerous intimate exchanges with her during the 1950s and many letters from his Hirsch family relatives throughout the collection, there is virtually no correspondence touching on his two marriages.
The SPEECHES AND WRITINGS series is arranged as dramatic writings, prose writings, and oral presentations. The dramatic writings combine dialogue materials for film, radio, and the stage, all arranged together alphabetically by title. This arrangement was used because it was not always clear the genre for which a narrative was intended nor was it possible to research the history of each work. In addition, Hershey often attempted to exploit his story ideas in multiple genres, and as a result some manuscripts in the short story and motion picture sections of the collection may relate to the same work. The title used for filing the dramatic writings was the latest name on the manuscript, which, if the script was produced, may not be thematic writings, prose writings, and oral presentations. The dramatic writings combine dialogue materials for film, radio, and the stage, all arranged together alphabetically by title. This arrangement was used because it was not always clear the genre for which a narrative was intended nor was it possible to research the history of each work. In addition, Hershey often attempted to exploit his story ideas in multiple genres, and as a result some manuscripts in the short story and motion picture sections of the collection may relate to the same work. The title used for filing the dramatic writings was the latest name on the manuscript, which, if the script was produced, may not be the title under which it was released. Some manuscripts have no title. When possible they are arranged alphabetically by individual for whom the work was developed, stars such as “Fatty” Arbuckle, Edgar Bergen, Jack Dempsey, Ruth Etting, Floyd Gibbons, Shemp Howard (of the Three Stooges), and Rudy Vallee. For other manuscripts no author is indicated, although annotations sometimes suggest Hershey was involved. However, even if all of the unidentified manuscripts represented Hershey's efforts, it is clear that the collection includes only a fraction of the stories on which he worked. References in the clipping scrapbooks indicate that he worked on over 200 film titles during the period from 1930 to 1933, and Hershey later stated that he worked on over 650 Vitaphone shorts. The collection also includes scenarios and scripts by others such as Lyon Mearson, A. Dorian Otvos, and Herman Ruby. These manuscripts are arranged by author name. In addition to Hershey's efforts, the collection includes developmental materials written by others for stars such as Amos and Andy, Beverly Garland, Jack Haley, Hal Le Roy, Helen Morgan, and Ethel Waters.
The most extensively documented dramatic titles are the works for which Hershey acted as producer. It was in this capacity that Hershey demonstrated that his interest in serious drama rather than the shorts by which he made his living. Among his serious efforts was a film biography of Enrico Caruso for which there is extensive correspondence dating from 1937 with the Caruso family, Ed Smith of the Hollywood Reporter, and various studio executives, although not Hershey's script. The Caruso project eventually collapsed from funding problems and restrictions imposed by Mussolini. A Caruso biography was released in 1951, but it was produced by Jesse Lasky and Joe Pasternak.
Hershey also attempted a film biography of Joseph Petrosino, the New York City policeman murdered by the Mafia in 1909 because of his anti-crime campaign. Hershey's story idea was purchased by King Brothers in 1949. It was never produced, although a Petrosino film, Pay or Die was made by Allied Artists in 1960. Serious writing for the stage is represented by Hershey's anti-Nazi Brown Danube, for which there is a script, correspondence, and clippings. Brown Danube opened in 1939 with Fay Wray in the cast at one point, but it experienced only a brief run. It has been suggested that its lack of success was attributable to its melodramatic anti-Nazi theme. Hershey's efforts to mount a stage version of Class Reunion, the novel by Franz Werfel, were also ambitious, although unsuccessful. The Class Reunion files include correspondence (some with Werfel's widow), clippings, contracts, and financial information, but again no script.
Prose writing is divided by genre into books, short stories, and non-fiction articles, with his news stories included in the previously described biographical scrapbooks. The nonfiction articles are grouped by subject, Hershey's method of filing; while the short fiction is arranged by title. Within one non-fiction folder, researchers may find multiple articles on the same general subject, variant drafts of individual works, unidentified typed and handwritten fragments, notes, occasional correspondence, and background information. The majority of Hershey's background research, however, is filed with the Subject files.
Published versions of some of Hershey's books (Odyssey of Henry Ford and the Great Peace Ship, Case for Reappraisal of U.S. Overseas Information Policies and Programs edited with Edward Bernays in 1970) are shelved in the Historical Society Library. Those titles which are out of scope for the SHSW library (Dag Hammarskjold, It's a Small World, Skyways of Tomorrow, and You Can't Get to Heaven on a Rollerskate) are in the archival collection. Air Future is also out of scope, but no English-language version was included with Hershey's donation.
Only a few photographs accompanied the collection, and it is likely that Hershey donated the images described in the early correspondence with the Historical Society to the Overseas Press Club. The photographs in the collection consist of portraits, images apparently cut from Hershey's album about the Peace Ship and a trip to Switzerland by U.S. journalists in 1919, and material used to illustrate his writings. Of a disparate nature, the latter document Dwight Eisenhower's residence in France in 1952, Native Americans during World War II, and press photos of Turkish president Ismet Inonu.
