The Library of Congress has recently received a gift of the archives of Rouben Mamoulian (1898-1987), who is regarded as one of the nation's finest motion picture and musical theater directors. The collection–a bequest of Mamoulian's widow, Adazia–arrived in December 2002 in 207 large cartons and will soon be processed in the Library's Manuscript Division. The Library's Manuscript Division originally solicited this collection from Mamoulian in 1954, and he promised his papers in 1979. The Library learned of his widow's bequest shortly after she filed her 1989 will, but the materials were not released until 2002, after her death.
Director Rouben Mamoulian - Alexander Bender
Adazia Mamoulian suffered from Alzheimer's disease toward the end of her life and was under the guardianship of Los Angeles County attorneys for the estate for some 16 years. After her death, the family furniture and valuables, including Mamoulian's famous "autographed piano," were auctioned to benefit the estate.
The Mamoulian Collection joins other major collections related to the history of American theater–George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers–which are held by the Library's Music Division; and the papers of Joshua Logan, Thomas Ince, Alla Nazimova, Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy in the Manuscript Division.
The majority of the material in the Mamoulian Collection is papers, but several other formats are also included: books and photographs, music and audio sound recordings, film elements and musical scores. The archives was in the custody of the County of Los Angeles for almost two decades, but much of it was examined and preserved by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, pending settlement of the estate. Because Mamoulian "saved everything" from about 1920 on, the collection is an exceptionally complete archives of his writings, books, scrapbooks, pictures, letters, musical scores, stage direction, personal papers and memorabilia. There are even megaphones that he used on the set.
Born of Armenian heritage in Tiflis, now Tbilisi, the capital of the modern Republic of Georgia, Mamoulian became a major creative, innovative and independent American film and theater director. After training under Yevgeny Vakhtangov and Constantin Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theatre, he worked in London and then moved to the United States in 1923. He worked in opera and musical reviews early in his career, but his first great success in musicals was in film. In l932, he directed "Love Me Tonight," with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald.
Having staged the original "Porgy" by Dorothy and DuBose Heyward, in 1927, Mamoulian worked with George and Ira Gershwin in creating their opera, "Porgy and Bess," in 1935. It opened at the Alvin Theatre in New York City, where it played for 124 performances.
In 1943, Mamoulian directed "Oklahoma!," with score once again by Rodgers, in his first collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II. It became the longest-running musical in American theater history, with 2,248 performances, until "My Fair Lady" broke its record. Mamoulian went on to direct "Carousel" by Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1945, and "St. Louis Woman" in 1946 (score by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Johnny Mercer). In 1949, Mamoulian directed "Lost in the Stars," with score by Kurt Weill and lyrics and libretto by Maxwell Anderson, which is based on Alan Paton's "Cry, the Beloved Country."
As a film director, Mamoulian was a self-taught genius. He brought in mobile and multiple cameras and experimented with new sound techniques for his first feature, the expressionistic "Applause" (1929), and created exquisite lighting for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1932). He directed both Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich in 1933: Garbo in "Queen Christina" and Dietrich in "Song of Songs." Mamoulian brought style and dash to Clifford Odets' "Golden Boy" in 1939, and he directed the masterpiece action film, "The Mark of Zorro," in 1940. His "Becky Sharp" (1939) was the first feature in three-color Technicolor. Mamoulian's last musical was the film version of Cole Porter's "Silk Stockings," in 1957, starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse.
The collection documents Mamoulian's full career as director of 44 stage plays and 16 films. These productions are amply covered in the archives with scripts, set drawings, make-up design photographs, and some posters. His many scrapbooks feature letters and drawings by George and Ira Gershwin, William Saroyan, the original cast of "Porgy and Bess," the Russian-American actress Alla Nazimova, directors William Wyler and Howard Hawks, and even J. Edgar Hoover.
Mamoulian's relationships with some of the most important names in 20th century popular entertainment are detailed in his voluminous correspondence with the likes of George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, and writers Maxwell Anderson, William Saroyan and Ray Bradbury.
The collection offers a wealth of documentary, family, and publicity photographs, and a few choice scores, such as "Porgy and Bess" signed by Gershwin and the cast. The collection also covers the career of his artist wife and includes his Armenian diaries and other unpublished autobiographical writings of particular interest to the Armenian research community.
In addition to saving everything from his own career, Mamoulian was a wide-ranging collector. The result is a heterogeneous legacy of inscribed rare books, manuscripts and realia, such as a framed Mussolini letter, several 19th-century French documents, a handkerchief (possibly Napoleon's), a Walt Whitman signature and drawing, and a letter from Frederick the Great to Louis XV of France.
After the collection is processed, it will be available chiefly through the Manuscript Reading Room, which is located in the Madison Building of the Library of Congress, at 101 Independence Ave. S.E. References will be provided for special format or Armenian language materials transferred to other custodial divisions of the Library.
