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Odets mss., 1921-1963

Summary Information

Repository
Lilly Library (Indiana University, Bloomington)
Lilly Library
Indiana University
1200 E. Seventh St.
Bloomington, IN 47405-5500
Phone: 812-855-2452
Fax: 812-855-3143
Email: liblilly@indiana.edu

Creator
Odets, Clifford, 1906-1963.

Title
Odets mss., 1921-1963

Collection No.
LMC 1808

Extent
ca. 30,000 items

Language
Materials are in English

Abstract
Consists of the papers of playwright Clifford Odets, 1906-1963.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Biographical Note

Clifford Odets was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1906. He left school at age seventeen and worked as an announcer on local New York and Philadelphia radio stations, and as an actor in theater groups and traveling stock companies based in Philadelphia and New York until 1931, when the Group Theatre was formed. As one of the founding members, Odets continued acting in minor roles, but found new release for his creativity in writing plays. It was during this time that he wrote Awake and Sing!, Waiting for Lefty , and Paradise Lost. These three plays marked him as one of the most important playwrights of the period, but not without some controversy. The proletarian themes of these early plays and his suspected affiliations with the Communist Party resulted in his testifyng before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1952.

During the production of Paradise Lost in 1935-1936, Odets made his first trip to Hollywood, where he signed with Paramount Pictures to write his first screenplay, The General Died at Dawn. In 1937 he married movie star Luise Rainer and continued to shuttle between Hollywood and New York until the Group Theatre's demise in 1940. Odets and Rainer were divorced that year, and in 1943 he married actress Bette Grayson. The two settled in Hollywood where Odets produced, directed and/or wrote screenplays for such films as None But the Lonely Heart, and, later, Sweet Smell of Success. Odets and Grayson moved their young family back to New York in 1948, where he wrote and produced two more plays on Broadway, The Country Girl and The Flowering Peach. Grayson died unexpectedly in 1954, leaving Odets to raise their two children, Nora and Walt Whitman. He and the children moved back to Los Angeles in 1955. In 1961 Odets signed with the television drama series The Richard Boone Show as editor-in-chief. He died in August 1963 before he was able to see two of his own scripts, Big Mitch and The Mafia Man , produced for the series.

Arrangement

The collection is organized into the following series: I. Correspondence; II. Diaries and Calendars; III. Group Theatre; IV. Notes/Research; V. Plays and Films; VI. Television; VII. Writings and Scripts By Others; VIII. Personal; IX. Photographs; X. Business/Financial; XI. Bound and Oversize

Scope and Content Note

The Odets collection contains approximately 30,000 items covering the years 1921-1963 and is both personal and business in nature. There is extensive correspondence with theatre and film personalities, literary and political figures, and family. Several of the diaries give detailed accounts of day-to-day events particularly those written during his time with the Group Theatre. Other items pertaining to the Group Theatre include scripts, photographs, playbills and stills. Scripts and production materials relating to his other plays and films are also present. Research materials include notes and ideas for future scripts and for character development, although there are numerous notes on family members as well. Personal papers include information on his collections of artwork, books and stamps, miscellaneous papers relating to his two wives and children, and real estate and automobile documents. There are photographs of Odets and his family as well as photographs and stills from various productions of his plays and films. The business and financial section is comprised of correspondence, contracts and royalty statements with his publishers, production companies and agents, items concerning investment ventures, cancelled checks, receipts, account books, bank statements, ledgers, insurance and tax papers. Several disc and wire recordings, films, and Odets's death mask complete the collection.

Note on Indexing Term - "Labor unions and socialism": Regarded as one of the most gifted of the American social-protest dramatists of the 1930s. Odets is known for his "Waiting for Lefty", a drama about the awakening of the impoverished working classes. Included is some material from when Odets was investigated by the House Committee on Un-American Activities for his alleged Communist connections.

Indexing Terms

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information
Acquired: 1992, 2001, 2003

Usage Restrictions
Prior arrangements are not necessary before coming to the Library, however, patrons from out of town are encouraged to communicate with the Library in advance of their visits to ascertain availability of materials.

Photocopying permitted only with permission of the Curator of Manuscripts, Lilly Library.

Preferred Citation
[Item], Odets mss., Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

Processing Information
Processed by Lilly Library Staff.

Completed in 2003

Series: Boxes

1-8

Correspondence, 1921 - 1963

Arranged chronologically.

Correspondents include the following:

View All (41)
Adler, Luther
Adler, Stella
Aronson, Boris
Atkinson, Brooks
Bogdanovich, Peter
Breuer, Bessie
Cerf, Bennett Alfred
Chaplin, Charles Spencer
Clurman, Harold Edgar
Copland, Aaron
Crawford, Cheryl
Davis, Bette
Dreiser, Theodore
Eisler, Hanns
Frank, Waldo David
Gershwin, Ira
Gibson, William Walker
Girdleston, Cuthbert Morton
Gordon, Ruth
Grant, Cary
Green, Paul Eliot
Hart, Moss
Hepburn, Audrey
Kazan, Elia
Lindsay, Howard
Lyons, Leonard
MacLeish, Archibald
Meisner, Sanford
Nizer, Louis
O'Hara, John
Patchen, Kenneth
Rainer, Luise
Renoir, Jean
Roosevelt, Eleanor
Saarinen, Aline (Bernstein)
Selznick, Irene Mayer
Strasberg, Lee
Swope, Herbert Bayard
Vechten, Carl Van
Wald, Jerry
Wray, Fay

Box 1 1921-May 1938

Box 2 June 1938-December 1942

Box 3 January 1943-February 1948

Box 4 March 1948 - June 1953

Box 5 July 1953 - November 1955

Box 6 December 1955 - July 1958

Box 7 August 1958 - October 1963

Box 8 Fan letters to George Gershwin and Burt Lancaster

Series: Box 8 Diaries and Calendars

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