Papers (1929-1987), including correspondence, articles, playscripts, and telegrams regarding the "Land of Plenty" radio broadcast series; writings on theatre in Moscow, and other miscellaneous items.
Dr. Lucile Charles was born in Chicago on August 31, 1903, to Charles Ferdinand Hoerr and Lillie Anna Sophia Oberman Hoerr. She eventually adopted her father's given name as her professional surname. Dr. Charles earned the following degrees: a Ph.B degree in 1930 from the University of Chicago, an M.A. degree from Columbia University in 1941 and in the following year, a master's degree from Yale University. She went on to acquire a Ph.D degree in educational psychology from Yale in 1943.
Dr. Charles served as the drama director at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House in New York from 1930 until 1934 and was associated with the American People's School from 1934 to 1936. During this time, she conducted a radio drama series for the Columbia Broadcasting System. By 1946, Dr. Charles was teaching as associate professor of English at East Carolina College and was the college's director of dramatic arts. She became the recipient of a Bollingen Foundation Fellowship in 1955 to study at the famous C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. Dr. Charles returned to East Carolina University in 1957 and taught courses in English, speech, and drama until her death on March 7, 1965.
Source: Lucile Marie Hoerr Charles Papers (#0105), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J.Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
Among the papers are a number of letters (May-June 1929) from Dr. Charles, her mother, and brother, in diary form, from various places in England and France. Much of the correspondence (1935-1940) concerns her activity as coordinator of a radio drama series with CBS Radio. Included are letters, telegrams, and post cards to and from several noted playwrights, dramatists, and novelists concerning the radio dramatic series "The Land of Plenty" for which Miss Charles was coordinator. The "Land of Plenty" was a series of cultural and educational broadcasts with dramatic presentations on food, education, public health, and housing. Correspondence concerning the dramatic series includes letters from Sherwood Anderson, Leopold Atlas, Albert Bein, Stuart Chase, Evans Clark, Paul De Kruif, Martin Flavin, Willard E. Hawkins, James Langston Hughes, Alfred Kreymborg, John Howard Lawson, Sinclair Lewis, Albert Maltz, Leopold T.Osmon, Elmer L. Rice, Lynn Riggs, Upton Sinclair, and I. Keith Tyler. Numerous letters applauding the segment "Supply and Demand" by Irwin Shaw are also included. The radio series was terminated on 13 May 1938, by William Paley, president of CBS, despite favorable reaction from the public press.
Dr. Charles's writings are also part of this collection. Among these writings include an article on the theatre in Moscow (1935-1936); a report containing suggestions for the establishment of a Drama Department at New College, Columbia University; an article "Drama Among Primitives and in our Schools;" and an account of Dr. Charles's battle with Gullain-Barre disease (1961).
Various materials from East Carolina College include a copy of the pageant commemorating the first fifty years of East Carolina College; a mock-up from the News and Observer on the "Little Normal School that Grew Up" (1958); minutes from an English Department meeting (1963); course outline and class notes; student examinations from an acting and interpretation course (1961); photographs from two East Carolina productions, "Alice in Wonderland" (1950) and "Our Town" (1951); and a history of dramatics at East Carolina College (1946-1953).
Other items include materials from the Teachers College Summer Session in Theatre at Yale University (1940); programs from European theatres; play and radio scripts; information on the Chinese theatre and the Chinese actor Mei-Lan-Fang (1930); assorted newspaper and magazine clippings and publications such as the two compilations from the WPA Federal Theatre Project (English Miracle, Morality, and Mystery Plays and Plays for Marionette Theatre.)
Gift of Dr. Ralph Hardee Rives, Greenville, N.C., and Mrs. Mildred H. Lysle
Processed by J. Layne, February 1988 and N. Hardison, December 2024
Encoded by Apex Data Services
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