Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy

A Register of Their Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Laura J. Kells with the assistance of John Maniha

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

1997

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress
Manuscript Division, 2003

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms003013

Latest revision: 2006 June

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Names:

Subjects:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Transfers:

Copyright Status:

Preferred Citation:

Biographical Notes

Cronyn, Hume

Tandy, Jessica

Scope and Content Note

Organization of the Papers

Description of Series

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The papers of Hume Cronyn, actor, director, producer, and writer, and Jessica Tandy, actress, were deposited in the Library of Congress between 1966 and 1995 and converted to a gift in 2003. A small portion of the papers was donated to the Library in 1967.

Preliminary processing on the early accessions was conducted in 1967 by Kevin J. Keaney.

Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Some photographs and posters have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. Sound recordings have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy Papers.

Copyright in the unpublished writings of Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress is controlled by the heirs of Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Notes

Scope and Content Note

The papers of Hume Cronyn (1911-2003) and Jessica Tandy (1909-1994) span the years 1885-1994 with the bulk of the material covering the period 1935-1993. They document the lives and careers of a distinguished husband and wife acting partnership. Separately and together the two worked in various capacities for over fifty years on the Broadway and London stages, in regional theater productions and repertory companies, in films, on television, and on radio. Their papers are arranged in four series: Family Papers, Annual File, Productions and Projects, and Miscellany.

The Family Papers series contains correspondence between Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, and members of their families. Cronyn retained typescript copies of much of his correspondence, which are filed with the incoming letters under the name of the correspondent. In addition to discussing family events and concerns, some of these letters offer details about Cronyn and Tandy's professional lives. Cronyn's letters to his sisters in the 1940s describe his thoughts about his early films, and his later letters to his children detail Cronyn and Tandy's activities. Cronyn and Tandy's letters to each other discuss projects that kept them apart, such as her work on the play A Streetcar Named Desire and the film The Birds and his work on the film Cleopatra. Letters from Tandy's mother written from London during World War II describe life during the blitz. Other material in this series includes legal records relating to divorces and family estates, scrapbooks on the career of Cronyn's father, Hume Blake Cronyn, who served as a member of the Canadian House of Commons, and a copy of the diary of Tandy's brother, Edward James Tandy, who was held as a prisoner of war by the Japanese in World War II.

The Annual File contains yearly correspondence and subject files apparently maintained by Cronyn's secretary. The bulk of these files covers the years of Cronyn and Tandy's marriage and relates to their personal and professional activities and contacts. Hume Cronyn is the main correspondent, although his letters and memoranda often describe Tandy's activities and concerns as well. Files on agents, motion picture studios, publicists, theatrical organizations, lawyers, accountants, and office staff document different aspects of Cronyn and Tandy's careers. Correspondence with friends and professional contacts is filed in individual alphabetical files for each year. Subjects include optioning one-act plays by Tennessee Williams in 1941 for fifty dollars a month, files from 1955 in which Cronyn refuted charges that caused him to be blacklisted, and Cronyn and Tandy's support for regional theater such as the founding of the Guthrie Theater and their work as the first members of Tyrone Guthrie's Minnesota Theatre Company. Prominent correspondents include Richard Coe, Cheryl Crawford, Sir John Gielgud, Jerome Hellman, Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and Robert Whitehead, Cronyn's cousin.

The Productions and Projects series relates to Cronyn and Tandy's professional endeavors. The material is organized into sections on films, radio, television, theater, writings, and miscellaneous productions and projects. Within these sections, material is arranged by title of the work or production. Also included are "deal" memoranda which outline terms of agreements for impending film, television, and theater projects. Cronyn and Tandy's projects are filed together within each section. During the course of their careers, Cronyn and Tandy performed works from a wide range of playwrights, including Edward Albee, Samuel Beckett, Anton Chekhov, Noël Coward, Jan de Hartog, Sean O'Casey, William Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, and Edmund Wilson. They were directed by such stage and screen directors as José Ferrer, Sir John Geilgud, Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Mike Nichols, and Alan Schneider.

The largest section in this series relates to theatrical productions and contains files on plays in which Tandy and/or Cronyn performed as well as those which Cronyn directed or produced. On some projects Cronyn worked in more than one capacity, and these responsibilities are reflected in the files. For example, The Gin Game contains business and legal material relating to his work as coproducer as well as scripts and performance notes relating to the couple's work as actors. Foxfire files document the development of this play by Cronyn and Susan Cooper, the efforts to get it produced, and the collaboration between Cronyn and Tandy in performing it. There is material on all ten of the Broadway plays in which Cronyn and Tandy appeared together. Under miscellaneous plays are playbills for Jessica Tandy's early stage appearances in England.

Although it is not comprehensive, the television section documents Cronyn and Tandy's work on live dramatic anthology programs in the early years of the medium as well as their work in later years on televised film specials. There is an extensive file on their own series, "The Marriage," which aired first on radio and then briefly on television. Hume Cronyn's writing projects include treatments of two Alfred Hitchcock films, Rope and Under Capricorn. Another section in the series consists of scripts considered or read but apparently not produced. They include stage plays and screenplays, some of which relate to successful films and stage productions. Files on Tandy's work are less extensive than Cronyn's.

The Miscellany series contains a number of small sections relating to various personal and professional matters. Financial material includes records on corporations and theatrical productions in which Cronyn invested, and office material contains files maintained by office staff. Among personal files is material relating to Tandy's life prior to her marriage to Cronyn, including personal correspondence, fan mail relating to her stage performances in the 1930s, and a small amount relating to her relocation to the United States and search for employment. Residence files include records on the purchase of an island in the Bahamas, building a home there, and the construction of another dwelling years later in New York. Other sections contain material relating to the theater and over twenty-five years of correspondence between Cronyn and Tandy and their friends William and Greta Wright.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in five series:

• Family Papers, 1885-1993, n.d.
• Annual File, 1935-1993
• Productions and Projects, 1928-1993, n.d.
• Miscellany, 1914-1994, n.d.
• Oversize, 1918-1980, n.d.

Description of Series

Container List