This collection is also available in Archives & Manuscripts
View In Archives »
Collection Data
- Description
- The Paul Muni papers span the years 1920 through 1967 and consist of correspondence, photographs, clippings, scrapbooks, personal papers and writings documenting his career as an actor of stage and screen. The correspondence contains letters from many notables of the day and often discuss Muni's political and professional opinions. Correspondents include: Maxwell Anderson, Sherwood Anderson, Rex Beach, Noel Coward, Albert Einstein, Lion Feuchtwanger, John Golden, Arthur Hopkins, Helen Morgan, Dick Powell, Billy Rose and Blanche Yurka. Personal papers contain many programs and personal photographs as well as a notebook written by Muni in Hebrew or Yiddish and a sketch of him by Staats Cotsworth. Scrapbooks in the collection are primarily clippings with reviews and articles about Muni and his roles in plays and movies. However three of the scrapbooks document trips taken by him and his wife to Paris, Vienna and Israel. Other items of note include autographed photographs from friends and a photograph of Muni with Amelia Earhart on the set of The WOMAN I LOVE.
- Names
- Muni, Paul, 1895-1967 (Creator)
- Anderson, Maxwell, 1888-1959
- Anderson, Sherwood, 1876-1941
- Beach, Rex, 1877-1949
- Cotsworth, Staats, 1908-1979
- Coward, Noel, 1899-1973
- Crawford, Cheryl, 1902-1986
- Earhart, Amelia, 1897-1937
- Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955
- Feuchtwanger, Lion, 1884-1958
- Golden, John, 1874-1955
- Hopkins, Arthur, 1878-1950
- Morgan, Helen, 1900-1941
- Muni, Bella
- Powell, Dick, 1904-1963
- Rose, Billy, 1899-1966
- Warner, Harry Morris, 1881-1958
- Yurka, Blanche
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1920 - 1967 (Approximate)
- Library locations
- Billy Rose Theatre Division
- Shelf locator: *T-Mss 1967-005
- Topics
- Acting
- Motion picture actors and actresses
- Actors
- Black fury (Motion picture)
- Bordertown (Motion picture)
- Commandos strike at dawn (Motion picture)
- Dr. Socrates (Motion picture)
- Good earth (Motion picture)
- I am a fugitive from a chain gang (Motion picture)
- Juárez (Motion picture)
- Last angry man (Motion picture)
- Life of Emile Zola (Motion picture)
- Scarface (Motion picture : 1932)
- Seven faces (Motion picture)
- Story of Louis Pasteur (Motion picture)
- We are not alone (Motion picture)
- Woman I love (Motion picture)
- Genres
- Photoprints
- Scrapbooks
- Notes
- Content: 4 linear feet (10 boxes)
- Biographical/historical: Paul Muni (Mehilem Weisenfreund), actor of stage and screen, was born in Austria on September 22, 1895. Muni's early career on the American stage was in the Yiddish theater where he acted under the name Muni Weisenfreund. His first role was in the production Two Corpses at Breakfast in 1908. During the years 1908 through 1926 he toured in Yiddish theater productions becoming a member of the Yiddish Art Theatre in 1918. Paul Muni married Bella Finkel an actress of the Yiddish theater on May 8, 1921.
In 1926 he played Morris Levine in the play We Americans followed in 1927 by the play Four Walls. In 1930 he began using the name Paul Muni. Plays he starred in after that date include Counseller-At-Law, Key Largo, A Flag Is Born, They Knew What They Wanted, Death of a Salesman and Inherit the Wind for which he won a Tony Award.
Muni was also a successful motion picture actor, appearing in many notable Hollywood films including Scarface, I Am A Fugitive From a Chain Gang, Black Fury, Dr. Socrates, The Story of Louis Pasteur for which he won an Oscar in 1936, The Good Earth, The Woman I Love, The Life of Emile Zola, We Are Not Alone, Commandos Strike At Dawn and The Last Angry Man.
Paul Muni had a great interest in the plight of European Jews and this can be seen in the correspondence with his friends and professional contacts. He starred in Ben Hecht's pageant A Flag Is Born which rallied support for Israel. Paul Muni died in California on August 25, 1967.
- Content: The Paul Muni papers span the years 1920 through 1967 and consist of correspondence, photographs, clippings, scrapbooks, personal papers and writings documenting his career as an actor of stage and screen. The correspondence contains letters from many notables of the day and often discuss Muni's political and professional opinions. Correspondents include: Maxwell Anderson, Sherwood Anderson, Rex Beach, Noel Coward, Albert Einstein, Lion Feuchtwanger, John Golden, Arthur Hopkins, Helen Morgan, Dick Powell, Billy Rose and Blanche Yurka. Personal papers contain many programs and personal photographs as well as a notebook written by Muni in Yiddish containing an adaptation of a work by Sholem Aleichem and a sketch of him by Staats Cotsworth. Scrapbooks in the collection are primarily clippings with reviews and articles about Muni and his roles in plays and movies. However three of the scrapbooks document trips taken by him and his wife to Paris, Vienna and Israel. Other items of note include autographed photographs from friends and a photograph of Muni with Amelia Earhart on the set of The Woman I Love.
- Type of Resource
- Text
- Identifiers
- Other local Identifier: *T-Mss 1967-005
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b14547365
- MSS Unit ID: 21461
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 8cf0d190-4ba1-0134-9c27-00505686d14e
