Dallas Public Library

Margo Jones Collection, 1936-1960, (bulk 1945-1960)

eng

no index present

non fiction

Margo Jones Collection

Margo Jones was a Dallas, Texas theater director. This collection includes her personal papers, the business papers of the Margo Jones Theatre, including correspondence, scripts, photographs, and reviews. Her personal correspondence dates to the mid-1930s, but the bulk of the collection dates from the inception of the Theatre in 1945 to its close in 1960. The collection includes correspondence; photographic prints and negatives; set and costume-design renderings; scripts, including approximately 131 unproduced play scripts; scrapbooks; play bills and programs; magazine and newspaper clippings; contracts and other financial records; and box and office statements. Jones' personal records include income tax materials; life insurance policies; a daily journal; and materials relating to her speaking engagements, television appearances, and publications. Of particular interest in the correspondence files are letters from Rockefeller Foundation, Gulf Oil Corporation, Joanna Albus, Tad Adoue, Rosamund Gilder, Billy Goyen, Vera Matthews Marshall, Billie Baker, Violet Burch, Mabel Duke, Arthur Kramer, Jr., and Jonathan Seymour. Despite Jones' involvement with the early career of Tennessee Williams, there is little in the collection that sheds light on the playwright. A manuscript copy of his poem "The Sunshine Special or the Silver Victrola," his one-act play Side Light on a Convention, and an inscribed copy of A Streetcar Named Desire are included in the collection. Additionally, materials for other Dallas-area theaters are a part of the collection, including, the business records for the Maple Theater just prior to its merger with the Margo Jones Theatre, and the Round-Up Theater, an all-black theater group for whom Jones directed its first play, Walls Rise Up