Contents

Collection Overview

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Organization of the Collection

Search Terms

Agnes de Mille Papers, 1980-1993

Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by Susan Boone.

Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

2003

Biographical Note

Agnes George de Mille was born in New York City, September 18, 1905, daughter of film producer, William de Mille and Anna (George) de Mille, daughter of economist Henry George. When Agnes was nine years old the family moved to Hollywood where her uncle, Cecil B. de Mille, was a motion picture director. Agnes entered university at age sixteen graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a degree in English. Although she began dancing in her early teens, it was not until after her graduation from college that she seriously considered dancing as a career. She studied with Theodore Koslov, Marie Rambert, Antony Tudor, and Tamara Karasvina, becoming a proficient ballet dancer. In 1925 her parents divorced and she and her sister, Margaret, moved back to New York with their mother. De Mille's first New York performance was in MacKlin Marow's production of Mozart's La Finta Giardiniera in 1927. She choreographed productions through the early 1930s, returning to Hollywood in 1934 to participate in Cecil B. de Mille's Cleopatra, from which she withdrew after differences arose over the dances. De Mille spent the 1937-38 season in England helping to form a ballet troupe in Oxford and choreographing Cole Porter's The Nymph Errant starring Gertrude Lawrence. She staged dances for Leslie Howard's Hamlet (1936), Ed Wynn's Hooray for What?(1937), Swingin' the Dream (1939), and a jazz version of A Midsummer's Night Dream. In 1939 she joined the New York Ballet Theatre as choreographer and performer. During her first season she choreographed Black Ritual, the first ballet of a classical American ballet company to be danced by all black dancers. She then established a company of her own and began a national tour. In 1941, de Mille devised a scenario for Rodeo for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo which was presented in 1942. In 1943 she did the choreography for Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein's hit musical Oklahoma!. She was one of the first women choreographers to work on Broadway doing the choreography for One Touch of Venus (1943), Bloomer Girl (1944), Carousel (1945), Brigadoon (1947), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), and Paint Your Wagon (1951). De Mille also published articles on dance and several books. These include two autobiographical works: Dance to the Piper (1952), and Promenade Home (1958), To A Young Dancer (1960), The Book of Dance (1963), Lizzie Borden: A Dance of Death (1968), The Dance in America (1971), and Speak to Me, Dance With Me (1973). Despite a stroke and heart attack in the mid 1970s, de Mille continued her writing, publishing two memoirs, Where the Wings Grow (1978) and Reprieve (1981). She also choreographed the ballets The Informer (1988) and The Other (1992).

Agnes de Mille combined American folk dances and American music into classic art and was an innovator in dance who transformed the world of musical comedy forever. She received many awards including twelve honorary degrees, the Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for best choreography (1947 and 1962), Theatre Hall of Fame (1973), Handel Medallion (1976), John F. Kennedy Center Career Achievement Award (1980), and the National Medal of the Arts (1986).

On June 14, 1943 Agnes de Mille married Walter Foy Prude. They had one son, Jonathan.

She died October 7, 1993 in Manhattan at the age of 88.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Agnes de Mille Papers consist of four linear feet of correspondence, biographical and autobiographical material, research notes, manuscripts and typescripts, printed material, photographs, published writings, and memorabilia. The bulk of the papers date from 1914 to 1960 and focus on both personal and professional aspects of de Mille's life. Personal material can be found in the correspondence, especially to her mother, Anna George de Mille, and in the manuscript and research material for her two autobiographical books, Dance to the Piper and Promenade Home. Her professional life is reflected in the clippings and material related to her other writings about dance.

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Search Terms

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Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into three series:

• I. Biographical Material
• II. Correspondence
• III. Works and Writings

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SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL (1908-93) 2.5 linear in.

This series contains clippings and articles, photographs, theater programs, and miscellaneous memorabilia. The clippings and articles cover de Mille's career from 1933 to her death in 1993 and include several short pieces authored by her. A group of clippings copied from photostats of her press books located at the New York Public Library and those specifically related to And Promenade Home, Fall River Legend, and Nymph Errant are located in SERIES III. WORKS AND WRITINGS. There are two portraits of de Mille, a photograph of Leicester Square Theater in London with de Mille's name on the marquee, and a Christmas card with a young Agnes de Mille on the front. All are undated. Theater programs include five from various theaters in England in the 1930s and one from the Majestic Theatre in New York (1941). Miscellaneous memorabilia includes an unidentified verse and a sketch; and locks of hair (1908-34) from Anna, Agnes, and Margaret de Mille and Margaret's daughter Judy.

SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE (1897-1945) 10 linear in.

The correspondence comprises the most significant portion of the Agnes de Mille papers. This series consists of letters from and to Agnes de Mille and Anna George de Mille. Letters Agnes de Mille wrote to Margaret Storrs Grierson in 1963 are also included. They describe the circumstances under which the correspondence was written and provide identification and personal information about the correspondents and people mentioned in the letters. The letters to Grierson in conjunction with the rest of the correspondence provide a fascinating look into de Mille's relationships with family, friends, and acquaintances and an aggregate picture of the theater in New York and London in the 1930s and 40s. Her lengthy letters to her mother (1914-46) and her husband (1944-45), are of particular interest. They describe her life and activities in great detail and provide insights and gossip about many notable people including Cecil B. de Mille, Rebecca West, Gertrude Lawrence, Noel Coward, Fannie Hurst, Cole Porter, Elizabeth Bowen, Martha Graham, Ruth St. Denis, Oscar Hammerstein, and Richard Rogers. This series also contains several letters from William de Mille to Anna George de Mille (1897-1903).

SERIES III. WORKS AND WRITINGS (1920-1970) 2.5 linear ft.

This series contains notes, manuscripts, typescripts, printed material, and clippings relating to both the choreography works and published and unpublished writings of Agnes de Mille. Choreography works include original scripts for Act II of Carousel (1945); sketches, notes, scenes and drawings from the dream ballet from Oklahoma! (1943); Fall River Legend (1946) with an article written in 1968 about the play; and clippings and the program from Nymph Errant (1933). Published writings include Dance to the Piper (1951), "Edwardian Lady" (McCalls,1961), "Goodnight C. B." (Esquire, n.d.), The Book of the Dance (1963), "Russian Journals" (Dance Perspectives #44, 1970), "One Hundred and Fifty Dollars Away From Anything" written for The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Souvenir Program, "Methods of Choreography" (Vogue, n.d.), And Promenade Home, (1958), and To A Young Dancer (1960). Unpublished manuscripts include an article on Alicia Markova (n.d.); a lecture on Marquis de Cuevas (n.d.); and "Handbook for Dancers" which may have been an early draft of To A Young Dancer. This series also includes copies of clippings (1924-48) from de Mille's press book located at the New York Public Library.

SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL

SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE

SERIES III. WORKS AND WRITINGS