Basil Dean Archive
Date range: 1902–1976
Medium: Archive
Papers of Basil Dean (1888–1978), actor, dramatist and theatrical impresario.
In 1907 Dean joined Annie Horniman’s Gaiety Theatre in Manchester, leaving in 1911 to become the first Controller of the Liverpool Repertory Theatre, later to be called the Liverpool Playhouse. In 1919, with Alec Rea, he formed the Reandean company and this partnership made an outstanding contribution to the British theatre in the 1920s.
Basil Dean was among the first to make British talking pictures. In 1929, with Reginald Baker, he founded Associated Talking Pictures Ltd which later became Ealing Studios, and in the 1930s his career combined both stage and films. In 1939 he created E.N.S.A. (the Entertainments National Service Association) and became its Director General. The war over, he returned to the theatre, presenting new plays and reviving earlier successes such as Hassan.
The archive consists of some 16,000 items covering most aspects of Dean’s career over sixty years. It is an indispensable source for students of the British theatre and cinema during the first half of the 20th century. It includes 11,000 items of correspondence with figures such as:
- Richard Aldington
- J. M. Barrie
- H. E. Bates
- Arnold Bennett
- Lilian Braithwaite
- James Bridie (Osborne Henry Mavor)
- Harold Brighouse
- Benjamin Britten
- Sir Alfred Butt
- Agatha Christie
- Sir Charles Cochran
- Fay Compton
- Gladys Cooper
- Noël Coward
- Clemence Dane (Winifred Ashton)
- Robert Donat
- Godfrey Elton
- St John Ervine
- Gracie Fields
- John Galsworthy
- Sir John Gielgud
- Sir Eugene Goossens
- Graham Greene
- Annie Horniman
- Sir Barry Jackson
- Margaret Kennedy
- Gertrude Lawrence
- Sir Gerald Du Maurier
- Daphne Du Maurier
- Walter MacQueen-Pope
- Walter Monckton
- Sir Laurence Olivier
- Louis Parker
- Sir Ralph Richardson
- Flora Robson
- George Bernard Shaw
- Dodie Smith
- Sir Godfrey Tearle
- Sybil Thorndike
- Robert Vansittart
- Edward Willis
There is a separate block of correspondence addressed to Arnold Bennett, comprising over 600 letters and replies relating to the theatre. There is also material relating to Dean’s directorship of Associated Talking Pictures Ltd during the 1930s, and papers concerning two American film companies, Radio-Keith-Orpheum (R.K.O.) and Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation. In addition, there are press cuttings of articles and reviews, scripts, prompt books, set and costume designs, programmes and photographs.
The Library also holds two books produced by the Moscow Art Theatre in 1923 and 1925 which were inscribed and presented to Basil Dean during his visit to Moscow in 1926.
See also:
Further information:
Catalogue available online via ELGAR.
Alternative formats:
Published microfiche: Theatre History Series, No. 2: The Basil Dean Collection in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester (Haslemere: Emmett Publishing Ltd, 1990).
Location:
<< Back to A-Z list