The Melvyn Douglas Papers consist of material relating to both his private life and his professional career. The papers are best on his post-1951 acting career and on his political and humanitarian concerns dating from 1938 through the 1940's. (This aspect of his activities is also the focus of an additional collection of Melvyn Douglas Papers at the University of Oklahoma.) There are only scattered references to the career and activities of Helen Gahagan Douglas in the papers.
The papers are arranged as Acting Files, Speeches and Writings, Correspondence, Subject Files, and Biographical Material.
The ACTING FILES are divided by genre and then arranged chronologically by production. The theatre files, which are the most extensive, date from a program for a high school production of Quality Street to files on First Monday in October in which he appeared in 1975. Also relating to his early stage career is a combined file which relates to his experience with several theatrical troupes during the 1920's. These files, portions of which are available only on microfilm, include programs, clippings, and photographs. Also notable among the early theatrical documentation is the correspondence and production files on Call Me Mister, the review Douglas produced with Herman Levin in 1946, which featured returning GIs.
Files on Douglas' post-1951 stage career are more complete, variously including correspondence, contracts, scripts (some annotated in the actor's own hand), playbills, clippings, and musical scores. Photographs received with the papers which pertain to these productions have been separated to the WCFTR Theatre Title File. Most extensive of the stage files are holdings on Time Out for Ginger (1952), Inherit the Wind (1955), Juno (1959), The Gang's All Here (1959), The Best Man (1961), Spofford (1967), and First Monday in October. For none of these, however, except Inherit the Wind is the correspondence extensive, and even for this production the correspondence is primarily made up of letters of congratulation rather than information about the production. Single items of note elsewhere in the section include letters from Lawrence and Lee (in First Monday in October), a letter from a biographer of Jack MacGowran (Douglas' costar in Juno) containing information about the staging of the musical, and correspondence with Hume Cronyn about character interpretation for The Man in the Dog Suit.
Except for clippings and a script for Tonight or Never the collection contains no documentation on Douglas' motion picture work during the 1930's and 1940's, the period when he earned his reputation as one of Hollywood's most prominent leading men in light comedies. The material presented by Douglas did include, however, a large quantity of photographs from his films of this period, which are now available by production title in the WCFTR Stills File. Douglas' work after 1962 as a motion picture character actor is more fully represented in the papers, but even here documentation on some of his most acclaimed roles is disappointing. Hud, for example, is represented only by contracts and clippings, although there are variant scripts, box office statements, and correspondence (some from Barrie Stavis) for I Never Sang for My Father and Being There. Also notable among the motion picture files is a letter from Robert Redford and chapters from The Genuine Article, both of which concern the making of The Candidate.
Documentation on Douglas' television work is similarly incomplete, although the collection includes scripts for Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, for which he received an Emmy Award, as well as for several other notable performances. Filed under the heading of oral interpretations are scripts and recordings of various radio plays and documentation pertaining to various commercial recordings in which Douglas was featured.
Also grouped with the Acting Files are contracts, which primarily relate to his association with the William Morris Agency, and several scripts apparently sent to Douglas for review. These include Morning's at Seven, which was sent to him by Paul Osborn, and a typescript play by his friend Dan Totheroh.
The papers also include three folders of chronologically-arranged SPEECHES AND WRITINGS and some poetry written by Douglas as a young man. The majority of the speeches and writings concern Douglas' political activities during the 1940's. Printed copies of a few articles he wrote about Hollywood are included with the microfilmed biographical clippings.
Four boxes of the collection consist of chronologically-arranged general CORRESPONDENCE. With the exception of several notable letters from his agent in 1935 and a copy of a letter from Sean O'Casey in 1936, the early correspondence is fragmentary and unremarkable. With the beginning of Douglas' political activism during the late 1930's, however, the documentation becomes more extensive and this continues until 1950 when the coverage again becomes incomplete. Correspondence from the late 1930's and early 1940's relates to his increasing interest in politics through involvements in such groups as the Hollywood Committee of Fifty-Six, the Motion Picture Democratic Committee, and the Fight for Freedom Committee. There is also extensive material relating to Douglas' appointment to the Office of Civil Defense and to his membership on the California Citizens Committee of the White House Conference on Children in Democracy, which grew out of his appointment to the California Welfare Board. There is also extensive documentation of his charitable contributions and the vitriolic personal criticism which he experienced as a result of his political views and activities. Prominent correspondents during this period include Clark Eichelberger, Harold Ickes, James Landis and Selma Hirsch of the OCD, Burgess Meredith, George Norris, and Daniel J. Tobin.
The post-war correspondence refers to participation in Americans for Democratic Action, the American Veterans Committee, and the Southern Conference for Human Welfare. There are also references to contract negotiations during this period and incidental letters from Robert W. Anderson, Brooks Atkinson, Ralph Bellamy, Kermit Bloomgarden, Donald Hyatt, Loring Mandel, Worthington Miner, Barrie Stavis, Dan Totheroh, and Walter Wanger referring to theatrical topics and other matters. Of special note is correspondence with Louis Nizer concerning Douglas' involvement in litigation concerning the inspiration for The Great Dictator. Prominent political correspondents in the post-war section include Paul H. Douglas, William O. Douglas, Abba Eban, James T. Farrell, Elmer Gertz, Lady Bird Johnson, Paul O'Dwyer, Joseph L. Rauh, Walter Reuther, Eleanor Roosevelt, James Roosevelt, and Benjamin Spock. Much of the later correspondence reflects participation in commemorative or fund-raising events rather than administrative involvement.
The correspondence is supplemented by the alphabetically-arranged SUBJECT FILES, which include minutes, newsletters, press releases, lists, memoranda, and other documents on organizations in which Douglas was active such as the California Citizens Committee of the White House Conference on Children in a Democracy, the Motion Picture Democratic Committee, and the Office of Civilian Defense. The microfilmed Army 201 file, which is also listed here, contains copies of orders and other official documents relating to his military
service. Also available only on microfilm is a clipping scrapbook documenting the activities of the Entertainment Production Unit which he created in the China-Burma-India Theater.
BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL consists of microfilmed clippings and scrapbooks about Douglas' career, awards and memorabilia, financial miscellany, and research material apparently collected by biographer Tom Arthur. The research files include several on members of Douglas' family and on his first wife Rosalind Hightower. Of special note is the correspondence Arthur collected on Douglas' activities during the period 1939-1947. This file, which originally consisted of poor quality xerox pages, has been microfilmed to preserve its content. Unfortunately, the value of the file is diminished by the fact that there is no information on the sources of the original correspondence that Arthur consulted.
Oral history interviews which Arthur conducted in the course of his research on Douglas have been deposited with the Oral History Project of Indiana University. A copy of Arthur's dissertation, “The Political Career of an Actor: Melvyn Douglas and the New Deal,” is available on microfilm in the SHSW Library. See You at the Movies, which he co-authored with Douglas, is available in the WCFTR office.
