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Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm2003084949
Collection material in English, with Russian and Armenian
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of Rouben Mamoulian, theatrical and film director, were given to the Library of Congress by the estate of Azadia Mamoulian in 2002 and 2003.
The Rouben Mamoulian Papers were processed in 2009 by Laura J. Kells with the assistance of Tammi Taylor, Nicholas Newlin, Maribeth Theroux, and Lena Wiley.
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Some photographs, photograph albums, posters and other illustrated matter have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. Mamoulian's book collection has been transferred to the Rare Book and Special Collections Division; theater programs, playbills, and miscellany from the collection are described in a finding aid at https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/eadrbc.rb010003. Audiovisual material and motion picture stills have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Rouben Mamoulian Papers.
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Rouben Mamoulian is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
Restrictions apply governing the use, photoduplication, or publication of items in this collection. Consult reference staff in the Manuscript Division for information concerning these restrictions. In addition, many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Rouben Mamoulian Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Rouben Mamoulian (1897-1987) span the years 1740-1987, with the bulk of the material dating from 1906 to 1987. They document the life and work of this innovative stage and film director who interacted with major figures in the arts and entertainment of the twentieth century. Mamoulian's Armenian heritage and his contacts with other Armenians is also well documented. The papers are primarily in English, but also contain material in Russian and Armenian. The collection is organized into the following series: Family and Personal File, Diaries and Diary Notes, General Correspondence, Productions and Projects, Speeches and Writings, Subject File, Miscellany, Oversize, and Artifacts.
Family papers are a significant part of the Family and Personal File. Much of the material relating to Mamoulian's parents is written in Russian or Armenian. Included in the family correspondence are letters in Russian from Rouben to his parents during his early years in the United States. His mother, Virginie, was an actress and director of the Armenian theater in Tiflis, Georgia. Later, his parents were active members of the Armenian community in California. The Virginie Mamoulian files contain information on her life and career as well as material she compiled relating to her son. Included in her notebooks are her autobiography and notes on Rouben's life. Items relating to Mamoulian's wife, Azadia, concern her work as a portrait painter as well as her life with Rouben.
Personal files provide information on the Mamoulians' home, the cats that featured prominently in their household, and their social life. Files pertaining to his employees contain correspondence from personal secretaries describing household activities and business conducted in his absence. Address books and party guest books list Mamoulian's extensive personal and professional contacts. Notes on his book collection are also in this series.
A series of Diaries and Diary Notes covers over sixty years in Mamoulian's life, but the material varies from extensive personal and office diaries to listings of appointments and engagements to jotted notes. A few diaries appear to have been maintained by secretaries. Some of the most extensive coverage dates from the 1950s and 1960s.
The General Correspondence series documents Mamoulian's relationships with friends and colleagues from the theater and motion picture industries as well as a wide variety of artists, writers, publishers, conductors, publicists, attorneys, and admirers. Correspondents include filmmakers from around the world and people who shared his Armenian heritage. The most extensive correspondence, spanning sixty years, is with the author Paul Horgan. Articles by Horgan describing his impressions of Mamoulian at the Eastman School of Music in the 1920s can be found in the Subject File.
The Productions and Projects series documents the range of Mamoulian's professional career, though the quantity of material pertaining to each production varies. Scripts for many of his productions have been signed by the cast. Scrapbooks devoted to multiple productions are located in the Miscellany series.
Files focusing on Mamoulian's work as a film director span from the early days of sound when he made his first film,
Files relating to Mamoulian's stage productions span from 1922 to the 1950s. Mamoulian's association with the Theatre Guild is well documented, starting with his first Broadway hit,
Mamoulian's collaborations with Maxwell Anderson included developing a film version of
The Speeches and Writings series contains articles and essays with titles such as “The World's Latest Fine Art,” “Treatment of Light and Color in Films,” “Bernhardt versus Duse,” and “Stage and Screen;” book files for Mamoulian's two published books, as well as an autobiographical project entitled, “The Art of Gods and Monkeys,” that he did not complete; and poems written in Russian and in English. Among the notes and jottings section are notebooks containing notes in Russian on the theater and texts of letters written when he was living in London. Speeches, lectures, and remarks cover topics such as D. W. Griffith,
The Subject File focuses on people, organizations, and topics of interest to Mamoulian. One of the largest of the files pertains to Mamoulian's participation in the Directors Guild of America starting with its founding. Files on the Eastman School of Music document Mamoulian's earliest activities in the United States. Included is extensive press coverage of his direction of operas, operettas, and stage productions for the National American Opera Company and his founding of the Eastman School of the Dance and Dramatic Action at the school. Additional material on some of these productions is in the Productions and Projects series. A subject category titled “screenings, film festivals, and other engagements” treats Mamoulian's participation in film festivals and retrospectives of his work in the last decades of his life. A file on the USSR highlights Mamoulian's connections with the film industry in the Soviet Union, and other files contain his notes and writings on topics central to his work.
In the Miscellany series is an autograph book containing comments and drawings from the 1930s from a wide range of prominent individuals. Memorabilia from Mamoulian's life from childhood through the 1940s is included in two scrapbooks. Loose scrapbook material supplements these volumes. Other scrapbooks pertain to his film and stage productions, primarily from the 1930s. The volume relating to his films from 1931 and 1932 contain the most substantive material. Mamoulian's creativity is evident in two volumes he prepared for his wife. One features poetry, photographs, and portraits of Azadia made from collages of items such as flowers, stamps, and playing cards. His hobby of pressing flowers is represented with a sample of the flowers and leaves that were pressed in Mamoulian's books, magazines, and other printed matter. He used some of the pressed flowers to create the portraits of Azadia. Framed flower portraits and magazine articles depicting them in Mamoulian's home are included. Also in this series are originals of historic documents concerned mainly with slavery, Benito Mussolini, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Walt Whitman.
A small group of artifacts includes keepsakes from
The collection is arranged in nine series:
Correspondence, notes, notebooks, press clippings, address books, passports, financial records, travel files, and other items relating to Mamoulian's family and personal life.
Arranged in family papers and personal file groupings and alphabetically therein by type of material or name of person.
Bound volumes, typescripts, handwritten notes, calendars, and related material created by Mamoulian and his staff.
Arranged chronologically and therein by type of material.
Letters received and copies of letters sent by Mamoulian.
Arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent and therein chronologically.
Correspondence, scripts, memoranda, telegrams, schedules, press clippings, programs and playbills, scrapbooks, photographs, plans, sketches, music, and other production material.
Arranged alphabetically by name of production and type of material in three groupings: film, stage, and various other projects.
Articles, essays, book files, speeches, lectures, interview transcripts, poems, and notes and jottings.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material and therein chronologically.
Correspondence, press clippings and other printed matter, notes, memoranda, writings and other papers.
Arranged alphabetically by topic and therein chronologically.
Autograph book, drawings, historic documents, pressed flowers, scrapbook material, and scrapbooks.
Arranged by type of material and therein chronologically.
Costume and set sketches, drawings, framed flower portraits, guest books, plans, press books and other printed matter, schedules, scrapbooks, and other items.
Arranged and described according to the series, containers, and folders from which the items were removed.
Briefcase, cigarette cases, megaphones, statuettes and awards, and other memorabilia.
Arranged alphabetically by type of item and by size.