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.”
