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Abel, Walter, 1898-1987.
Collection is open to the public. Library policy on photography and photocopying will apply. Advance notice may be required.
The papers of Walter Abel consist primarily of correspondence, contracts, speeches, and clippings documenting his work as an actor. The professional correspondence is not extensive: the bulk is single letters received from a wide variety of individuals, much of it letters of thanks. A few outgoing letters discuss proposed productions. Correspondents include John Golden,Robert Edmond Jones and Eugene Ormandy. The contracts file is incomplete. Speeches, for the most part lectures on Shakespeare, theater history, and the psychology of acting, reflect his tireless work promoting the theater tocollege students and others. Clippings consist of production reviews and interviews with Abel. Production materials are mostly miscellaneous single items such as call sheets and schedules from films in which Abel appeared. Organizational work consists of minutes and correspondence pertaining to his work with ANTA, the Hollywood Victory Committee and other war service organizations. The collection also contains personal material on his family, awards, and a few scrapbooks of photographs.
An actor on stage, film, radio, and television, Abel's career spanned sixty years. He was born on June 6, 1898in St. Paul, Minnesota and studied for the stage at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, 1917-1918. He made hisfirst professional appearance in the 1918 film Out of a Clear Sky, and his Broadway debut in Forbidden at the Manhattan Opera House in 1919. His early career was on the New York stage where he appeared in plays by Eugene O'Neill and others. His film career began in earnest whenhe starred as D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers in 1935. He appeared in over sixty films, usually in supporting roles, often playing district attorneys or harrassed fathers. Abel returned to the stage after World War II and in his later years was also a concert narrator or reader.
Abel was active in many professional theatrical associations, serving as a council member of Actor's Equity, a vice president of the Screen Actor's Guild and of the Episcopal Actors Guild, a member of the board of the American National Theater and Academy (ANTA), and president of ANTA (1966-1970). Through ANTA he visited colleges and universities, lecturing and acting in and directing plays. Abel was married to Marietta Bitter, a concert harpist.
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