Inventory of the Montgomery Clift Papers, 1933-1966 (Part I)

En la biblioteca pública de Nueva York (NYPL) se conserva una interesantísima documentación sobre Montgomery Clift. Se trata nada menos que de un archivo - inventario que abarca desde 1933 hasta su muerte en 1966. He contactado con la biblioteca y me han proporcionado un dossier que es el índice del archivo. Aquellos que tengan la ocasión de ir a la biblioteca pública neoyorquina les recomiendo (o casi les pido encarecidamente el favor) que hagan una visita y "vean" esos documentos. Yo daría algo por ver la correspondencia de Montgomery Clift.

Como es un dossier muy largo, he dividido la información en varios post que iré subiendo.

(English text)



Inventory of the
Montgomery Clift Papers, 1933-1966

Descriptive Summary

Title: Montgomery Clift Papers, 1933-1966.

Collection ID: *T-Mss 1967-006
Creator: Montgomery Clift .
Extent: 12.3 lin. ft. (30 boxes)


Administrative Information

Access: Collection is open to the public. Photocopying prohibited. Advance notice required
Preferred Citation: Montgomery Clift Papers, *T-Mss1967-006, Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Processing Information: The collection was conserved, rehoused, and reprocessed in 1995. Clippings and scrapbooks were photocopied for conservation purposes.


Biographical Note

Montgomery Clift was born in Omaha, Nebraska on October 17, 1920, hours after his twin sister Roberta (Ethel). He lived with his father William Brooks Clift, his mother Ethel "Sunny" Fogg Clift, and his older brother William Brooks, Jr. In the mid 1920's his family moved to Chicago and later, in the early 1930's the family settled in New York City.

At the age of twelve, Montgomery Clift made his first stage appearance in an amateur production of As Husbands Go in Sarasota, Florida. His professional stage debut was in a Stockbridge, Massachusetts production of a new comedy called Fly Away Home. In 1935, he made his Broadway debut in a New York production of Fly Away Home. Later that year he opened in a Broadway musical Jubilee. Other Broadway plays include Yr. Obedient Husband, Eye on the Sparrow, Dame Nature, The Mother, There Shall Be No Night with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne , The Skin of Our Teeth with Tallulah Bankhead, The Searching Wind, Foxhole in the Parlor, and Tennessee Williams' You Touched Me! Montgomery Clift and his longtime friend Kevin McCarthy also wrote a screenplay of You Touched Me!, but it was never produced. Other plays he appeared in are The Wind and the Rain, Out of the Frying Pan, Our Town, and Mexican Mural. The Sea Gull in 1954 was his final stage appearance.

In 1946 Clift made his first film, a western entitled Red River, opposite John Wayne. Due to a delay in the release however, his film debut was The Search in 1948 which earned him an Academy Award nomination for best actor. Later that same year Red River was finally released. In 1949 he co-starred with Olivia DeHavilland in the film The Heiress and went to Germany to film a World War II movie The Big Lift. He earned two more Academy Award nominations for best actor for his performances in A Place in the Sun (1951) and From Here to Eternity (1953). His co-star in A Place in the Sun, Elizabeth Taylor, became one of his long time friends. He made two more films with Elizabeth Taylor, Raintree County (1957) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959).

On May 12 1956, Montgomery Clift was involved in a near fatal car accident after leaving a dinner party at Elizabeth Taylor's house in Beverly Hills. The accident disfigured his face, leaving it half paralyzed. Despite his injury he continued to make movies. He appeared with Marlon Brando, Dean Martin, and Hope Lange in The Young Lions (1958). He co-starred with Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable in the film The Misfits (1961). He also earned his fourth Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor for his 7-minute performance in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). In 1966, he made his last film entitled The Defector. Other films include I Confess (1953), Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953), Lonelyhearts (1958), Wild River (1960), and Freud (1962).

He died in New York on July 23, 1966 in his sleep. The cause of death was occlusive


Scope and Content Note

The papers of Montgomery Clift contain correspondence, scripts, photographs, notes, and scrapbooks. The collection is divided into eight series correspondence, writings, four series of scripts, personal papers, and scrapbooks.

The strength of the collection is the scripts. Some of the scripts, especially the produced scripts, range from early drafts to final drafts and most contain annotations by Montgomery Clift providing the researcher insight into Clift's involvement with the roles he created. Another aspect of the collection reveals Montgomery Clift's ambition to do his own writings. The collection contains original manuscripts of the screenplay You Touched Me! from the play by Tennessee Williams. The screenplay, written by Montgomery Clift and his long time friend Kevin McCarthy, was never produced.

En otro post completo la información.