The collection consists of correspondence, scripts, contracts, photographs, a production program, press clippings and other materials documenting the script development and production history of John Charles Brownell's play, Mississippi Rainbow. Correspondents include Rowena Woodham Jelliffe of the Karamu Theatre, Playhouse Settlement, Cleveland; Frank J. Sheil of Samuel French Play Publishers and Authors' Representatives; Richard Madden of the Richard J. Madden Play Company; staff members of the Works Progress Administration and the Federal Theatre Project in New York and Chicago, including Shirley Graham (later Shirley Graham DuBois), Thomas J. McElhany, Bennet R. Finn, George Kondolf, and Hallie Flanagan; Theodore Ward, an actor in the Chicago production of Mississippi Rainbow, and an aspiring playwright whom Brownell mentored; New York theater critic Brooks Atkinson; and other correspondents from whom Brownell sought financial and professional assistance. Undated typescripts for Mississippi Rainbow and a one-act play, The Closet, are also included. Photographs include portrait photographs of Brownell and production photographs from the New York production of Brainsweat and the Chicago production of Mississippi Rainbow
Description:
John Charles Brownell was born in Burlington, Vermont in 1877. He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York City, and worked as a professional actor and scenario editor for film companies before undertaking a playwrighting career. His plays include The Nut Farm, Her Majesty the Widow, and A Woman of the Soil. His play Mississippi Rainbow, a comedy written for an all-black cast, was first produced as Nothin' but Trouble by an amateur cast at the Karamu Theatre, Playhouse Settlement in Cleveland, Ohio in 1934. The play went through rewrites and title changes, and was produced on Broadway as Brainsweat (1934), and by the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago as Mississippi Rainbow (1937). He was married to Estelle Wyne of Cincinnati. Brownell died in Starksboro, Vermont in 1961. and In English.
Subject (Geographic):
United States.
Subject (Name):
Atkinson, Brooks, 1894-1984., Brownell, John Charles., Du Bois, Shirley Graham, 1896-1977., Finn, Bennet R., Flanagan, Hallie, 1890-1969., Jelliffe, Rowena Woodham., Kondolf, George., McElhany, Thomas J., Sheil, Frank J., Ward, Theodore, 1902-1983., Federal Theatre Project (Chicago, Ill.), Federal Theatre Project (Chicago, Ill.). Negro Unit., Federal Theatre Project (New York, N.Y.), Playhouse Settlement (Cleveland, Ohio), Richard J. Madden Play Service., Samuel French, Inc., and United States. Works Progress Administration.
Subject (Topic):
African American actors, African American theater, Dramatists, American, Literary agents, Theater, Production and direction, and Theatrical producers and directors
Papers include typescript carbon film treatment for "Love Story," by John Fante and Norman Foster (August 8, 1941); treatment (August 7, 1941) and shooting script (September 17, 1941) for "My Friend Bonito" by Norman Foster and John Fante; report with treatment of "Carnaval" subject by Orson Welles (June 22, 1942); and connecting scene treatments (September 2, 1943) and scene breakdowns (September 14, 1943) for "Its All True" by Orson Welles. Additional documents include a typescript list of members of the RKO company involved in the production of It's All True, noting their travel dates to Brazil, passport information and military draft status (1942); Mercury Productions, Inc. contracts with Louis Armstrong (October 2, 1941) and Hazel Scott as performers in the film (October 2, 1941); and Mercury Productions, Inc. contract with Dante Orgolini as "coach and advisor" on the film (December 31, 1941).
Description:
It's All True was a film project undertaken by Orson Welles and Mercury Productions, Inc. for RKO Pictures in 1941. The film was initially conceived by Welles to consist of four medium-length films based on true stories, including a short history of jazz. His appointment as goodwill ambassador to Latin America and head of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs later in 1941 resulted in his focusing his multi-story project on Latin American subjects, some of which had been part of the initial project. Welles shot segments of the film before RKO terminated the project, and his subsequent attempts to complete the film were unsuccessful. and In English.
