John Charles Brownell papers relating to Mississippi Rainbow, 1923-1961

The collection consists of correspondence, scripts, contracts, photographs, a production program, press clippings and other materials documenting the script development and production history of John Charles Brownell's play, Mississippi Rainbow. Correspondents include Rowena Woodham Jelliffe of the Karamu Theatre, Playhouse Settlement, Cleveland; Frank J. Sheil of Samuel French Play Publishers and Authors' Representatives; Richard Madden of the Richard J. Madden Play Company; staff members of the Works Progress Administration and the Federal Theatre Project in New York and Chicago, including Shirley Graham (later Shirley Graham DuBois), Thomas J. McElhany, Bennet R. Finn, George Kondolf, and Hallie Flanagan; Theodore Ward, an actor in the Chicago production of Mississippi Rainbow, and an aspiring playwright whom Brownell mentored; New York theater critic Brooks Atkinson; and other correspondents from whom Brownell sought financial and professional assistance. Undated typescripts for Mississippi Rainbow and a one-act play, The Closet, are also included. Photographs include portrait photographs of Brownell and production photographs from the New York production of Brainsweat and the Chicago production of Mississippi Rainbow