Meeting minutes, correspondence, scripts, theater publicity material, photographs, clippings, manuscripts, notes, sheet music, and equity theater administrative records, bulk 1952-1978, from gay actor, director and stage manager Philip Cary Jones. The bulk of the collection documents Jones' role as chairman of the Equity Theatre Project, a group of Los Angeles actors who formed in 1952 in an attempt to create a Los Angeles chapter of New York's Equity Library Theatre. Equity Library Theatre West was founded in 1961.

Philip Cary Jones was a gay actor, director and stage manager who worked in theater, on- and off-Broadway, for over 50 years. Born in 1904, Jones' first professional acting role came in 1922 working in summer stock with Jane Darwell. From the 1920s through the 1940s, Jones worked mostly on the east coast, with people such as Lunt and Fontanne, Walter Huston, Dame Edith Evans and Eva Le Gallienne. "His stages ranged from the posh theaters of Broadway to the makeshift auditoriums converted to drama houses for the Works [Progress] Administration during the Depression." Jones moved to Los Angeles, where he became associate director of the Pasadena Playhouse from 1952-1955. He continued to work as a stage manager and director at the Shakespeare Society and Theatre 40, and he was a producer and board member for Equity Library Theatre West. He was also a longtime member of ONE Incorporated. Jones died of cancer at the age of 80 in Los Angeles, 1983.

1.4 linear foot. 1 archive box + 1 archive carton.

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the ONE Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

The collection is open to researchers. There are no access restrictions.