Title: Jane Crusinberry Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1933-1960, 1983

Creator:

• Crusinberry, Jane, 1892-

Call Number: U.S. Mss 199AN

Quantity: 16.2 c.f. (40 archives boxes and 1 oversize box)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society Archives / Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
Contact Information

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of the author of the popular radio serial The Story of Mary Marlin. Includes a complete run of scripts of the original show, 1934-1945, and of an Australian version broadcast in 1959-1960, character sketches, show music, outlines, publicity, commercials, reference material, scenarios, story summaries, and synopses. Personal and business papers include a biographical sketch written by Crusinberry's daughter, personal correspondence, fan mail, music and poems by Crusinberry, newsclippings, and correspondence with substitute authors, advertising agencies, networks, lawyers, and the show's sponsor, Procter and Gamble.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0199an

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

Jane Crusinberry was born Henrietta (Harriet) Jane McConnell on October 3, 1892, in Grand Rapids, Michigan to Frank and Bertha McConnell. Both parents were traveling salespeople; Frank sold Malta Vita cereal and Bertha, using her maiden name of B. Skeels, sold soap. Jane and her brother, Thomas Frank, stayed with relatives or were boarded out while their parents traveled. The family moved several times during this period, to Regina, Saskatchewan, Milwaukee, and Chicago.

As a child, Crusinberry took piano and voice lessons, and as a teenager in Chicago she began to earn money as a singer at weddings and funerals. She studied under William Beard and was invited to sing for Frederick Stock, conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. When she was 18, the Violinists Guild of America offered her a scholarship to study in Europe. Instead, she married Jim Crusinberry, a sportswriter for a Chicago newspaper. The couple had one daughter, Patricia. The marriage was unhappy and a series of separations and reconciliations took place.

Jane Crusinberry later tried to resume her career as an opera singer; for three summers she studied in Europe while her parents cared for her daughter. However, in 1933, after the Depression impoverished the McConnells, Jane Crusinberry returned to Chicago permanently. She got a job as a teacher at the Chicago Commons, a settlement house on West Grand Avenue.

Crusinberry's writing career began in 1934 when she wrote a dramatic radio skit to advertise a friend's beauty products. The idea for the skit was “Could a woman over thirty-five find love and romance?” Although the skit was never produced, the idea became the basis for Crusinberry's long-running and successful radio soap opera, The Story of Mary Marlin (originally entitled The Story of Mary Martin). In February 1934 the show was auditioned in Chicago for NBC and a prospective sponsor, the Kleenex Company, but was rejected at the advice of Kleenex's advertising agency. However, the owners of the Kleenex Company liked the show and in October Kleenex purchased the serial for thirteen weeks of local broadcasting. The Story of Mary Marlin was a success and on January 1, 1935, it was picked up by NBC for national broadcasting.

The Story of Mary Marlin continued on the air at least until 1945, earning generally high ratings until its last two years. Through its history, the show was sponsored by Kleenex Co. and Procter and Gamble.

The collection has been arranged in two series, Personal and Business Papers, and Records of The Story of Mary Marlin. The PERSONAL AND BUSINESS PAPERS are quite fragmentary, containing a biographical sketch of Jane Crusinberry written in 1983 by her daughter, Patricia Hayes; a few contracts and legal agreements; general correspondence, including letters to and from Mary Marlin actors; and files of correspondence and script drafts from several authors (or candidates) who substituted for Crusinberry during her summer vacations. Other correspondence primarily was with New York and Chicago advertising agencies which handled relations with the networks and sponsors, CBS and NBC, and Procter and Gamble Co., long-time sponsor of The Story of Mary Marlin. There are only a few folders of fan mail concerning the show, with summaries of some letters and form letter responses drafted by Crusinberry. The remaining files consist of a few examples of music and poetry written by Crusinberry, publicity, the “Seymour Sentinel” created by Mary Marlin actress Anne Seymour to communicate news of her friends and associates (including Crusinberry) to others, unproduced story projects, and a few tax returns and withholding statements.

RECORDS OF THE STORY OF MARY MARLIN consist primarily of a complete run of scripts, 1934-1945, and scripts from the show's revival in Australia, 1959-1960. Many of the earliest scripts (see Boxes 9-11) apparently were sent to Australia for production; these scripts bear extensive handwritten changes and annotations. In some cases, draft scripts are also present, as is copy for the commercials read before and after the 15-minute show. There are also scripts prepared for auditions of new actors, and for proposed television and film versions of The Story of Mary Marlin (which were never produced).

Other production materials include charts summarizing the action and characters of each episode; lists and charts of characters, places, flashbacks, dates, telephone numbers, addresses, and events used in the story, kept by Crusinberry as a reference; music written by her for the show; story outlines; scenarios; story summaries; synopses; and reference material on subjects later incorporated into the story. Publicity materials consist of draft material and the final version of Life and Radio and Television Mirror magazine articles about the show; and scattered publicity material created by advertising agencies, including a copy of the publicity newspaper, “Cedar Springs Times.”

For related material, see also the Master Logs, 1941-1944, of station WMAQ, located in the NBC Records (U.S. Mss 17AF).

Acquisition Information

Presented by Patricia Hayes, Mequon, Wisconsin, 1983. Accession Number: MCHC83-17, MCHC83-31

Processing Information

Processed by Menzi Behrnd-Klodt and Ann Bloczynski, October 1984.

	Series: Personal and Business Papers
Box   1 Folder   1	Biographical Sketch and Notes, by Patricia Hayes, 1983
Box   1 Folder   2	Miscellaneous Bills, 1937
Box   1 Folder   3	Contracts and Legal Agreements, 1939-1957
	Correspondence and Related Material
Box   1 Folder   4-6	General Correspondence, 1936-1954
	Correspondence with Authors
Box   1 Folder   7	Correspondence and Scripts of Henry Barbour, 1939-1940
Box   1 Folder   8	Correspondence and Poems of Mary Clark Case, 1939-1945
Box   1 Folder   9	Correspondence with Doria Folliott, 1942- 1943
Box   1 Folder   10	Correspondence and Scripts of W. Nelson Fuqua, circa 1941
Box   1 Folder   11	Correspondence and Scripts of Herbert Futran, 1941
Box   1 Folder   12	Script by Ed Harvey, undated
Box   1 Folder   13	Correspondence, Scripts, and Outline by Edward H. Heth, 1944
Box   1 Folder   14	Correspondence and Scripts of William Hodapp, 1940
Box   1 Folder   15	Correspondence and Scripts of Peter J. Koestler, 1940-1941
Box   1 Folder   16	Correspondence with Arthur M. Landau (re: Consideration of The Story of Mary Marlin as a film), 1935-1940
Box   1 Folder   17	Correspondence with Ted Maxwell, 1941
Box   1 Folder   18	Script of Bob Singer, undated
Box   2 Folder   1-2	Benton and Bowles, Inc., New York, 1941-1946
Box   2 Folder   3	CBS, 1935-1944
Box   2 Folder   4-8	Compton Advertising, Inc, New York, 1937-1941
Box   2 Folder   9	Henry Souvaine, Inc., New York, 1941-1942
Box   2 Folder   10	J.T. Ainley Co., Chicago, 1940-1941
Box   2 Folder   11	J. Walter Thompson Co., New York, 1943-1944
Box   3 Folder   1	John Gibbs and Co., New York, 1941-1943, 1951-1953, 1957, 1959
Box   3 Folder   2	Lord and Thomas Advertising, Chicago, 1935-1936, 1941, 1943
Box   3 Folder   3	NBC, 1936-1943
Box   3 Folder   4	Osborne, Kline, and McGurren, Chicago, 1938-1940
Box   3 Folder   5	Procter and Gamble Co., Cincinnati, 1938-1943
Box   3 Folder   6	Reeves and Knox Advertising, Inc., Minneapolis, 1942-1943
Box   3 Folder   7	Ted Bates, Inc., New York, 1942-1943
Box   3 Folder   8	William Morris Agency, 1943-1945
	Fan Mail
Box   3 Folder   9-10	1935-1944
Box   4 Folder   1	Fan Mail Summaries, 1935
Box   4 Folder   2	Form Letters for Answering Fan Mail
Box   4 Folder   3	Music and Poems, 1933-1936
Box   4 Folder   4	Publicity, 1936
Box   4 Folder   5	“Seymour Sentinel,” December 1941
Box   4 Folder   6	Story Projects
Box   4 Folder   7	Tax Returns and Withholding Statements, 1937-1946
	Series: Records of The Story of Mary Marlin	⇧
Box   4 Folder   8	Cast Lists, 1941-1943, with Lists of Names Available for Characters
Box   4 Folder   9	Characters, Lists of and Character Sketches
Box   4 Folder   10	Characters, Places, Flashbacks, and Dates, Chart of
Box   4 Folder   11-12	Charts of Episodes, #1-2598
Box   4 Folder   13	Descriptions and Settings
Box   4 Folder   14	Music - Correspondence, Statements, and Recapitulations, 1939-1944
Box   5 Folder   1	Outlines
	Publicity
Box   5 Folder   2	“Cedar Springs Times” Promotional Newspaper
Box   5 Folder   3	Life Magazine Article - Article and Copy, 1944; Radio and Television Mirror Article, , March 1942
Box   5 Folder   4	Newsclippings
Box   5 Folder   5	Promotional Booklet for Television
Box   5 Folder   6	Publicity
Box   41	Scrapbooks of Newspaper Clippings
Box   5 Folder   7	Ratings
	Reference Material
Box   5 Folder   8	General
Box   5 Folder   9	On Brazil
Box   5 Folder   10	On War, the Military, and the Government
Box   5 Folder   11	Scenarios, 1936
Box   5 Folder   12	Spot Announcements
	Story Summaries
Box   5 Folder   13-14	Episodes #1-575
Box   6 Folder   1	Episodes #576-1287 (incomplete); Episodes #1-4, Fall Series 1940
Box   6 Folder   2-3	Synopses of Episodes #1-530
Box   6 Folder   4	Telephone Numbers, Addresses, and Places and Events Mentioned in Scripts, Lists of
Box   6 Folder   5-6	Translations of Chinese and Russian Phrases, with Phonetic Spellings; and Portuguese and Spanish Phrases
	Scripts of The Story of Mary Martin
Box   6 Folder   7	Audition Scripts
Box   7 Folder   1-6	#1-4, 6-10, 14-15, 19-20, 24-26, 29, 31-64, October 3-December 31, 1934
	Scripts of The Story of Mary Marlin
Box   8 Folder   1-6	#1-89, January 1-May 3, 1935 (Annotated for use in Australia)
Box   9 Folder   1-7	#90-194, May 6-September 27, 1935 (Annotated)
Box   10 Folder   1-6	#195-297, September 30, 1935-February 21, 1936 (Annotated)
Box   11 Folder   1-6	#298-397, February 24-September 25, 1936
Box   12 Folder   1-6	#398-482 September 28, 1936-January 15, 1937, including Contest Rules, , Fall 1936
Box   40 Folder   1-3	#483-540, January-April 16, 1937
Box   13 Folder   1-6	#541-650, April 19-September 17, 1937
Box   14 Folder   1-5	#651-715, September 20-December 17, 1937 (Some variant drafts)
Box   15 Folder   1-6	#716-825, December 20, 1937-May 20, 1938
Box   16 Folder   1-5	#826-925, May 23-October 7, 1938
Box   17 Folder   1-5	#926-1020, October 10, 1938-February 17, 1939
Box   18 Folder   1-6	#1021-1090, February 20-May 26, 1939
Box   18 Folder   1-6	Summer Series #1-20, Summer 1939 (Summer scripts by Sandra Michaels)
Box   19 Folder   1-8	Summer Series #21-65, Summer 1939 (Summer scripts by Sandra Michaels)
Box   19 Folder   1-8	#1166-1205, September 11-November 3, 1939
Box   20 Folder   1-5	#1206-1285, November 6, 1939-February 23, 1940
Box   21 Folder   1-7	#1286-1380, February 26-July 5, 1940
Box   22 Folder   1-7	#1381-1382, 1384-1490, July 8-December 6, 1940 (Summer scripts by Gerda Michaels)
Box   23 Folder   1-6	#1491-1590, December 9, 1940-March 25, 1941
Box   24 Folder   1-5	#1591-1640, Summer Series #1-50, April 28-September 12, 1941 (Summer scripts by Ted Maxwell)
Box   25 Folder   1-5	Summer Series #51-55, #1696-1765, September 15-December 26, 1941
Box   26 Folder   1-6	#1766-1835, December 29, 1941-April 3, 1942
Box   27 Folder   1-5	#1836-1930, April 6-August 14, 1942
Box   28 Folder   1-5	#1931-2035, August 17, 1942-January 8, 1943
Box   29 Folder   1-5	#2036-2135, January 11-May 28, 1943
Box   30 Folder   1-5	#2136-2233, May 31-October 15, 1943
Box   31 Folder   1-5	#2234-2302, October 18, 1943-January 21, 1944
Box   32 Folder   1-5	#2303-2377, January 24-May 5, 1944
Box   33 Folder   1-5	#2378-2454, May 8-August 23, 1944 (Summer scripts by Edward Heth)
Box   34 Folder   1-5	#2455-2539, August 28-December 22, 1944
Box   35 Folder   1-5	#2540-2544, New Series #1-54, December 25, 1944-March 16, 1945
	Scripts as Rewritten and Produced in Australia
Box   36 Folder   1-4	#2-121, May-October 1958
Box   37 Folder   1-5	#123-200, 202-205, 207-209, October 1958-April 1959
Box   38 Folder   1-5	#230-264, 280-302, 304-317, 341-344, 346-381, April-October 1959
Box   39 Folder   1-5	#382-387, 390-466, November 1959-March 1960
Box   39 Folder   6	Scripts for Television and Film Versions