Catherine Turney Papers, 1761-1998, bulk 1934- 1985

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Summary

Creators:
Turney, Catherine.
Abstract:
This collection contains the papers of American screenwriter and writer Catherine Turney (1906-1998) chiefly dating from 1934-1985 and including manuscripts, research notes and files, correspondence, and ephemera. Among the manuscripts are drafts of her screenplays, television and movie treatments, biographies, and novels. The correspondence reflects Turney's communication with many people involved in or associated with the film, literary and art worlds in both America and England. Subjects in this collection also include: Hermione Baddeley; Empress Josephine; Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley; Percy Shelley; George and Martha Washington; Warner Bros.; actresses; literary agents; women authors; California fiction and history.
Extent:
Approximately 4,000 items in 36 boxes and 5 volumes.
Language:
English, French, Spanish, and German.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains the papers of American screenwriter and writer Catherine Turney (1906-1998) chiefly dating from 1934-1985 and including manuscripts, research notes and files, correspondence, and ephemera.

There are 711 items in the manuscript section which are arranged alphabetically by author and then title. Materials without author and title are arranged alphabetically by type. Oversize materials are located in boxes 34 and 35. The manuscripts consist of various screenplays, television and movie treatments, biographies, and novels, both published and unpublished, written by Turney throughout her career (some written with co-authors such as Jerry Horwin and Stephen Longstreet). The collection includes an unproduced screenplay, written for Bette Davis titled “Angel Manager.” A version of the screenplay for “Of Human Bondage” is located in the manuscripts. Also included is one of the first scripts for “Japanese War Bride,” originally titled “East is East.” There are materials related to Turney’s first play, “Bitter Harvest,” including two published copies with Turney’s edits, and her most successful play, “My Dear Children.” The manuscripts contain drafts of Byron’s Daughter and Turney’s research notes for that book. Other manuscripts include: a draft of her biography “The Patriarch,” which was intended to illuminate the lives of the women in George Washington’s life; a fictional trilogy regarding early California entitled “Light in the Spring,” “Manifest Destiny,” and “Fruit of the Vine”; and a biography of Aimée Dubuc de Rivery entitled “The Beautiful One.” Research notes and materials for her biographies and novels are listed under “Note cards” and “Notes.” There are reviews of Turney’s biographies and novels, two interviews with Catherine Turney, and poetry written by Turney while she attended Bishop’s School. Of note are seventeen drawings by the artist Stephen Longstreet. There are also manuscripts relating to the creation and early days of the Pasadena Community Playhouse and two manuscripts regarding Catherine Turney’s experiences with John Barrymore in the 1930s while he played the leading role in “My Dear Children.”

Correspondence consists of approximately 2,000 items arranged alphabetically by author. The majority of the correspondence is either to or from Catherine Turney. The topics range from business matters regarding her scripts and book deals to personal matters. Many of the letters to and from publishing companies are requests and permissions for the use of copyrighted material in Catherine Turney’s published works. The most common topic of her business correspondence in the late 1970s was her dispute with the heirs of Lord Byron regarding her use of the book Lord Noel Byron and the Leighs. The financial and legal debates prevented her from finishing her work on George Washington for the bicentennial. Catherine Turney corresponded with many people involved in or associated with the film, literary and art worlds in both America and England. Notable participants include: L.E. Berman; Muriel Box; Shirley Burke; Virginia Scott Steele; Stephen Longstreet; John Collier; Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwyck; and Eric Portman. Also included are: Elaine Barrie Barrymore; John Barrymore; Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer; Charles Scribner, Charles Scribner’s Sons; Byron Society (American Committee); CBS; KABC; KHJ-TV; Jerry Horwin; Pasadena Playhouse Association; Screen Writers’ Guild; and the Writers Guild of America, West. A friend of Catherine Turney, Jeane Oldham, wrote to her about the funeral of Paul von Hindenburg and descriptions of Germany in mourning, including German reactions to Hitler’s speech on the occasion. A box of correspondence was found later and added to the collection which contains letters by Lenard Kester to Catherine Turney and a letter by Arthur Schwartz.

The ephemera section consists of 938 items arranged alphabetically by type and then subject where appropriate. The ephemera includes records pertaining to both of Turney’s divorces, property that she owned in Pasadena, her contracts with movie and television studios, publishing agreements for books and magazine articles, and royalty statements. There are copies of magazines which published her work, research materials for her various works, and newspaper and magazine clippings regarding her works. Research materials for “The Patriarch” include photocopies of letters from George Washington, Martha Washington, and Nathanael Greene. The Turney Family Ephemera consists of newspaper clippings regarding her mother’s singing career, ephemera associated with that career and ephemera related to her father’s company. The Catherine Turney Ephemera includes a wedding book from her second marriage and applications she filled out for the Producer-Writers Guild of America Pension Plan and Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital. Also included in this folder is a photocopy of her interview from the book Screenwriter by Lee Server. The ephemera pertaining to the Pasadena Community Playhouse consists of one brochure from 1937, three copies of the “Pasadena Playhouse Hall of Fame 1982,” and two newspaper clippings regarding the 1979 fundraiser.

There are photographs of Catherine Turney and her family as well as photographs of friends, including a personalized, autographed photo of Bette Davis.

The volume section consists of five items. There is a children’s book that was a gift to Turney from her father and a religious text. Seven items were transferred to the Rare Books Department. They are listed at the end of the finding aid.

Other subjects in the collection include: Abdülhamid I, Sultan of the Turks; Actresses; Hermione Baddeley; Sally Benson; Henry Blanke; Curtis Bernhardt; Daniel Boone and family; Sydney Box; California fiction; Church of the Ascension (Sierra Madre, Calif.); Bette Davis; Aimée Dubuc de Rivery; Baron Bryan Fairfax; Gerald Gardiner; Paul von Hindenburg; Arthur Raleigh Humphreys; Impressionism in California; Empress Josephine; literary agents; Mahmud II, Sultan of the Turks; Mildred Pierce (Motion picture); Motion Picture Association of America. Production Code Administration; Quarter Circle U Ranch (Mont.); Ben Raeburn; screenwriters; Selim III, Sultan of the Turks; Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley; Percy Bysshe Shelley; Sierra Madre (Calif.); Anne Strick; television writers; Warner Bros.; George and Martha Washington; Rebecca West; and World War II.

Biographical / historical:

Catherine Turney (1906-1998) was born on December 26, 1906, in Chicago, Illinois. Her family moved to Pasadena, California, in 1921. She graduated from Bishop’s School of La Jolla, California, in 1924.

After graduation, Turney attended the Columbia School of Journalism for a year where she took courses in playwriting, stage work, and short story writing. Due to illness, Catherine Turney returned to Pasadena where, in 1928, she began classes at the Pasadena Community Playhouse under the direction of Gilmore Brown. It was here that she began writing plays for production on stage. Her first play, “Bitter Harvest” about Lord Byron’s alleged incestuous affair and daughter, was performed locally in 1933. In 1936, the play was opened in London starring Eric Portman and was soon hailed a success. She also wrote plays and programs for radio in the 1930s.

She married Cyril E. Armbrister in 1931 and they divorced in 1938. She married Clifford Guthrie “George” Reynolds on February 18, 1940, and they divorced in 1949. After two unsuccessful marriages, Turney never married again, but she did have a long-term relationship with California artist Lenard Kester.

Her success with “Bitter Harvest” prompted MGM to offer her a writing contract for 1936- 1937. She went back to the stage in 1937, writing “My Dear Children” with Jerry Horwin, starring John Barrymore, and other plays that were produced in Chicago and New York. World War II brought a shortage of writers in Hollywood and Warner Bros. story editor Jim Geller offered her a contract in 1943. At Warner Bros., Turney developed a reputation for being a woman’s writer and wrote for Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, and Joan Crawford. She went back to MGM in 1948, but is not credited for her work there. She wrote three movies independently in the 1950s, “No Man of her Own” for Paramount Pictures, “Japanese War Bride” for Joseph Bernhard Productions Inc., and “Back from the Dead” for Emirau Productions Inc.

From the late 1950s to the early 1960s, Turney wrote for television. Her credits include, “Maverick,” “General Hospital,” “Alcoa Presents,” and “The Wonderful World of Disney.” In the late 1950s she turned her attention to fiction and biographies. Her first novel, The Other One, was published in 1952 and was made into a motion picture in 1957. Her most famous published work, published in 1974, is her biography of Elizabeth Medora Leigh, the third daughter of Augusta Leigh and the reputed daughter of Lord Byron. Titled, Byron’s Daughter, Turney spent years researching, writing, and then defending her first scholarly work. Despite her prolific writing in a variety of mediums, Catherine Turney spent much of her life suffering from financial troubles, though she did, however, have many friends. She died in 1998.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Bettina Hanson Salter, April 27, 2005.
Processing information:

  • 1. Materials pertaining to Catherine Turney’s sister, Elizabeth Turney, are listed under Elizabeth Turney Hanson.
  • 2. Virginia Scott Steele’s husband, Norman Nixon, was often referred to as Nick.
  • 3. The great majority of the collection is in English. Only a handful of items are in another language.
  • 4. Catherine Turney’s mother is referred to by her married name, Elizabeth Blamere Turney.
  • 5. The Huntington Library also has screenplay drafts of “Mildred Pierce” by Turney and some related letters (1944) - mssHM 71516-71519.
  • 6. Several items were transferred to the Huntington’s Rare Books Department:
    • Alexander, Diane. (1984). Playhouse. 1 item. Signed by author.
    • Behlmer, Rudy. Inside Warner Bros. (1935-1951). (1987). 2 items. Signed by author. Includes bookmark.
    • Dolman, Bob, and Ron Howard. (1992). Far and Away: The Illustrated Story of a Journey from Ireland to America in the 1890s. 1 item.
    • Francke, Lizzie. Script Girls: Women Screenwriters in Hollywood. (1994). 1 item. Signed by author.
    • MacDougall, Ranald, Albert J. LaValley, and James M. Cain. Mildred Pierce. (1980). 2 items. Includes 1 note from Peter to Catherine Turney.
    • Schwartz, Nancy Lynn, and Sheila Schwartz. (1982). The Hollywood Writers' Wars. 1 item. Signed by Sheila Schwartz.
    • -----. (1929). Biographical Sketch of Rev. Mother M. Hyacinth, Foundress of the Daughters of the Cross in America. 1 item. Front cover missing.

Arrangement:

The collection is organized in the following manner: Manuscripts (Boxes 1-14); Correspondence (Boxes 14-26); Ephemera (Boxes 26-33); Oversize (34-35); and Volumes.

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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