Press Release

Archive of Film and Stage Legend Lillian Gish Given to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Letters from George Abbott, Noel Coward, John Gielgud, Helen Hayes, Mary Pickford, and Many More--Plus Photos, Contracts, Scrapbooks, Clippings, and Mementos Included in Actress's Vast Collection

Julie Harris, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Irene Worth, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Other Colleagues Remember Gish in Public Programs Starting in March

January 21, 1997, New York City--The raft of letters, personal documents, scrapbooks, photographs, books, and other papers collected by the legendary actress Lillian Gish throughout her lifetime have been given to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, Library President Dr. Paul LeClerc announced today. Working with pioneering director D.W. Griffith, Gish helped forge the modern cinema with appearances in such groundbreaking silent films as "Birth of a Nation" (1915), and "Intolerance" (1915). In a career which stretched almost 90 years, she also achieved widespread acclaim for her appearances on stage, on television, and in later motion pictures. "These materials will be of invaluable use to scholars investigating any aspect of the 20th-century's dramatic arts," said Dr. LeClerc. "We are thrilled that we can preserve them and make them accessible as part of our Billy Rose Theatre Collection."

The cornerstone of the Gish collection is a huge assortment of correspondence from an array of the most accomplished and recognizable figures of her era's theatre, film, literature, journalism, and politics. From such close, longtime friends, as Mary Pickford, Helen Hayes, and John Gielgud, there is a half century or more of correspondence.

Others represented extensively include George Abbott, Maxwell Anderson, Brooks Atkinson, Ruth Gordon, Alec Guinness, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Edmund Jones, Eva LeGallienne, H. L. Mencken, and Sean O'Casey. There also are noteworthy letters from such figures as Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Katharine Hepburn, Charles Laughton, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Lily Tomlin, and Thornton Wilder.

The collection provides an invaluable, unfiltered perspective on a century of the country's entertainment, particularly the early growth of the film industry. "You probably have heard that I have bought "Coquette" and am going to make it an all talking picture," wrote Mary Pickford in 1928 of her first film with sound. Of course we shall also make a motion picture which will be an entirely separate technique and is to be made after the talking edition." Pickford goes on to write of celebrities who visited with her and her husband, Douglas Fairbanks. "Lindbergh just came in with Douglas. He seemed embarrassed because Douglas invited him to look at my dressing room."

A letter written by renowned playwright Eugene O'Neill in the 1920s demonstrates the typical respect and admiration felt by so many toward Gish. "It is good to know that you thought so well of the scripts as screenable drama. I am not at all sure of myself and your favorable verdict means a lot. I grasp your point about Stephanie in the first part of 'Desire' and appreciate it's rightness....I would be only too happy to have you speak to United Artists about 'Desire.'"

Nearly as impressive as the correspondence, is Gish's archive of photographs documenting the majority of her appearances on stage and screen. There are stills from most of the films she made with D. W. Griffith, including "An Unseen Enemy" (1912), "Musketeers of Pig Alley" (1912), "Birth of a Nation" (1915), "Broken Blossoms" (1919) and "Orphans of the Storm" (1922). There also are photos of her Broadway appearances, and shots representing her later film work, and television appearances. A fascinating selection of family photographs as well as portraits by James Abbé, Nell Dorr, Edward Steichen, and others, is also included.

Lillian Gish and The New York Public Library's Theatre Collection
The materials in the Gish Archive also shed light on Gish's long association with The New York Public Library. "She was the first actress to use the Theatre Collection when it was formed in 1931," said the Performing Arts Library's Executive Director Robert Marx. "Actually, she was admitted slightly ahead of its scheduled opening to research her appearance in 'Camille,' which she played on Broadway. We are thrilled with this opportunity to preserve the rich first-hand account of American art and culture contained in her archive." According to Robert Taylor, Curator of the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, the Gish Archive will be available to researchers in the fall of 1997, once it is fully catalogued and any necessary preservation work is completed.

"Lillian Gish Remembered" -- Friends and Colleagues Pay Tribute in Public Programming Series
To commemorate Gish and highlight materials in the collection, the Library will present "Lillian Gish Remembered," a series of public programs running March 6 through June 2, featuring readings and reminiscences from such noteworthy friends and colleagues as Julie Harris, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Hal Holbrook, Barnard Hughes, Lauren Hutton, and Irene Worth. There will also be screenings of several of the actress's rarely shown films, including "Broken Blossoms" (1919), "The Scarlet Letter" (1926), "The Wind" (1928), "The White Sister" (1923) and a new print of "Romola" (1924), which has never before been shown in New York. (See full schedule of events.)

Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish was born October 14, 1893 in Springfield, Ohio. Her itinerant father moved the family often before finally abandoning them. Gish's mother moved Lillian and sister Dorothy to New York where Mrs. Gish earned a living working in a department store and taking in boarders. One of her boarders, an actress, convinced Mrs. Gish to allow Lillian to tour in the play, "In Convict's Stripes," to earn additional funds for the family. Dorothy and Mrs. Gish each also soon began careers with theatrical touring companies and the family was often separated much of the year.

In 1909, Lillian and Dorothy recognized their friend Gladys Smith in a motion picture short. Eventually the Gishes called on Gladys (who had changed her name to Mary Pickford) at Biograph Studios where she introduced the sisters to director D.W. Griffith. The Gishes worked in their first Griffith film that day, beginning for Lillian a succession of appearances in his movies, including such successful and acclaimed productions as "The Birth of a Nation" (1915), "Way Down East" (1920) and, their last film together, "Orphans of the Storm" (1922).

Although she worked steadily in films once sound was added, Gish never achieved the same success on screen as in the silent era. So she returned to Broadway in the 1930s, appearing in such productions as "Uncle Vanya" (1930), "Camille" (1932), and "Hamlet" (1936), as Ophelia opposite John Gielgud.

Gish continued making film appearances throughout the subsequent decades of her life and returned often to the stage, on Broadway and in stock. She also made well-received appearances on television, appearing in the Philco Playhouse in 1948 and in a notable production of "Arsenic and Old Lace" with Helen Hayes (1968). Gish made her final appearance on screen in "The Whales of August," a 1987 movie in which she played opposite Bette Davis.

Although she was pursued for more than a decade by critic George Jean Nathan, and had many other admirers, Gish never married. She wrote three autobiographical books and, in 1970 was awarded an honorary Academy Award. Lillian Gish died at home in Manhattan on February 27, 1993.

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