WARD MOREHOUSE PAPERS

(available in the NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY ARCHIVES & MANUSCRIPTS)

 

Ward Morehouse, journalist and playwright. The papers include correspondence, interviews, writings articles and ephemera documenting his career in the theater world.

Click here to access this collection of papers on the website of the NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY ARCHIVES & MANUSCRIPTS

 

BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL INFORMATION

Ward Morehouse was a journalist and playwright. He was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1898 to Augustus Ward Morehouse and Sallie McIntosh Morehouse. He began writing plays in high school and found he had a knack for the written word. Later he became a newspaper man, writing for such papers as ,The Savannah Press, The Atlanta Journal, The New York Tribune and The Herald Tribune. In 1926 he began writing for The New York Sun first as the writer for the column “Broadway After Dark” and later as the drama critic and roving correspondent. Some of his best writings were theatrical interviews of which he was called a master.

He also wrote articles for periodicals such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Theatre Arts, Pageant, Look, Pic, American Mercury, Playboy, The Reader’s Digest and The New York Times Sunday Magazine.

Ward Morehouse was a playwright as well. Among his works are Gentlemen of the Press, U.S. 90, The Boss and Miss Quis. Other writings include theater histories and biographies such as American Reveille, George M. Cohan : Prince of the American Theatre, Matinee Tomorrow : 50 Years of our Theatre and the autobiographical works Just the Other Day and Forty-Five Minutes Past Eight.

Ward Morehouse received the Silurian Award and the Literary Achievement Award from the Georgia Writers Association. He died in 1966.

 

SCOPE AND ARRANGEMENT

The Ward Morehouse papers contain correspondence, interviews, writings, articles and ephemera documenting his career as a journalist, drama critic and playwright. The materials are rich in information on the theater community in the mid part of the 20th century. Through the interviews one gains a sense of Morehouse’s writing style which brings the personalities to life through his sharp and often witty characterizations. Personalities of note documented in the collection include Irving Berlin, William A. Brady, Billie Burke, William Gillette, Moss Hart, Helen Hayes, Katharine Hepburn, Elia Kazan, Lunt and Fontanne, Clifford Odets, Marjorie Rambeau, Richard Rodgers and Dwight Deere Wiman.

Other materials in the collection include research notes, correspondence and drafts for a proposed biography of Dwight Deere Wiman. Information included encompasses not only Wiman himself but his family including the Deere family.

 

HISTORICAL POSTS

The following are several columns and stories written by Ward Morehouse and Ward Morehouse III over their careers. These have been included in the book Broadway After Dark.

William Gillette – Ward Morehouse

Laurette Taylor - Ward Morehouse

Joan’s Tribute – Ward Morehouse III

New Diamond in Giant’s Cap – Ward Morehouse III