IOWA WOMEN’S ARCHIVES
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARIES
IOWA CITY, IOWA
EDNA MEANS (1887-1979)
PAPERS, 1908-1986
2.5 linear feet
|
ACQUISITION: |
The papers
(donor no. 248) were donated by Bernie
Lowe in 1994. |
|
ACCESS: |
The papers
are open for research. |
|
COPYRIGHT: |
Copyright has been transferred to the University of Iowa. |
|
PHOTOGRAPHS: |
In boxes 4
and 5. |
|
ARTIFACTS: |
In box 6. |
|
PROCESSED BY: |
George Mullally, 1995. |
Biography
Edna Means, nationally known
"characterist" and dramatic reader, was born in Tama, Iowa, on
February 24, 1887. Upon graduating from
Tama High School at the head of her class, she taught for one year at a rural
school before enrolling at Highland Park College in Des Moines, Iowa, where she
earned a bachelor of oratory degree.
Wanting further specialization she enrolled at Emerson School of Oratory
in Boston, Massachussetts, graduating at the head of her class once again. She was then hired as a "teacher of
expression" in the Chicago Public Schools (La Salle/Peru High
School). Her speaking skills soon came
to the attention of the Redpath Lyceum Bureau and for two years she travelled
the lyceum circuit with violinist and character singer Eve Anderson. For sixteen weeks in 1911 they toured the
deep South states of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,
and Louisiana.
In the fall of 1911, Means returned to Des Moines,
having been named Dean of the Oratory Department at her alma mater, Highland
Park College. Here she organized an Oratory
Club and thus came to coach and tutor Keokuk native, Conrad Nagel, who would
later achieve huge success in Hollywood by starring in 225 movies over a period
of forty years.
Means left Highland Park College after World War I
to form her own company and began to make personal appearances around Iowa and
the Midwest. Eventually she came to be
booked in all states of the union.
Beginning in the late 1910s until approximately the mid-1920s, Means
spent each summer on the chautauqua circuits, traveling with the Redpath-Vawter
Chautauqua units, managed by Keith Vawter of Cedar Rapids. Means collected as many press clippings as
possible relating to her performances.
Her diary for 1921-1923 contains the following clipping from the Albany (Mo.) Capital: "Miss Means' clever readings yesterday afternoon
displayed a talent, in its wide range of characters portrayed and the faultless
manner in which each was impersonated, that simply places her in a class by
herself when it comes to furnishing laughs and sermons for an audience. Her faultless program caused some of us to
positively regret that the 'males and minstrelsy' could not have been cut out
and the job of entertaining the big night audience turned over to Miss Edna Means."
While on circuit, Means appeared often with Edgar
Bergen, already a popular ventriloquist.
Bergen admired Means so much that he had a puppet named
"Laura" dressed up to look like her.
The two frequently went swimming together after hot August afternoon
performances. During the winter seasons
Means at first stayed with her mother and stepfather in Tama and accepted
speaking engagements around the Midwest.
By 1924 her engagements had increased to such a point that she relocated
to Chicago and hired Miss Eleanor Ogden, whom she had met on the chautauqua
circuit, as her personal agent and business manager. They formed the Edna Means Dramatic Service and ran it for the
next fifty-two years. Means had by now
become a speaker of great fame
throughout
the country. Billing herself as a
"characterist," she became a favorite of the national civic club and
women's clubs speaking circuit, traveling to every state, often speaking to
men's groups that had never before engaged a female speaker. From the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s, Means
accepted bookings with independent chautauquas through the Redpath Bureau in
addition to those arranged by her own service.
The dramatic service was also formed
so that Means could pursue another interest, that of publishing adaptations
from famous literary works as well as her own original compositions, thereby
providing material suitable for the newly expanding field of school speech
study and contests. Means thus became a
pioneer in promoting speech work in schools and her service became the nation's
foremost publisher and supplier of readings, orations, and monologues for
schools, colleges, and theater groups.
In 1952, after more than twenty-five
years in Chicago, Means moved her service back to her parental home in Tama,
Iowa. She was now sixty-five years old
and with this move she was finally able to say "no" to the constant
invitations to speak before organizations nationwide. Her mail order service continued to flourish and Means continued
to write and adapt well-known writers' works for school speech materials for
the next twenty-four years.
In 1956, while living in Tama, Means
wrote an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" for Jean
Seberg, then a Marshalltown High School senior, and coached her in its
performance so that the Iowa oratorical champion would do well in her audition
for the role of Joan of Arc in Otto Preminger's forthcoming movie of the same
name. Miss Seberg was selected for the
role and gained instant fame as an actress.
Means finally retired at age
eighty-nine and died three years later, on November 12, 1979, at age
ninety-two.
(Biographical
data taken chiefly from the Waterloo
Courier, Nov. 30, 1980)
Scope and
Content Note
The Edna Means papers date from 1908 to 1986 and measure 2.5
linear feet. The papers are arranged in seven
series: Biography, Yearbooks,
Diaries, Scrapbooks, Writings, Photographs, and Artifacts.
The first series, Biography
(1916-1980), consists chiefly of three obituary notices and an article on her
career from the Waterloo Courier.
The second series, Yearbooks
(1908-1914), contains four yearbooks, three from Highland Park College in Des
Moines, Iowa, and one from Emerson College of Oratory in Boston.
The
third series, Diaries (1922-1936), consists of six diaries ranging in
date from 1922 to 1936. The diaries
typically record, in very cryptic fashion, Means' travel experiences giving the
day by day locations of her performances throughout the United States. The entries frequently record the name of
the sponsoring organization, the venue of the performance, i.e., theater,
auditorium, church, or school, the name of her hotel or host family, the size
of her crowd and a brief indication of its response to her program. The entries sometimes conclude with the
titles of the readings she performed that day.
The entries for the periods of time she spent at home either in Tama or
in Chicago are devoted more to her family and social contacts, social and
cultural events attended, rehearsal sessions for herself, auditions of new talent
for the Redpath Lyceum Bureau, and business meetings with representatives of
the Bureau.
The
fourth series, Scrapbooks (1912-1945), contains six scrapbooks dating
from approximately 1912 to approximately 1945 and are devoted entirely to
Means' collection of publicity materials from the Redpath Lyceum Bureau,
letters of reference and commendation sent to Means or to the Bureau, printed
programs of events at which she performed, and newspaper clippings containing
reviews of her performances, the latter having been sent to her by chautauqua
agents or by the organization sponsoring her appearance. Most of the items in the early scrapbooks
are undated or have had their dates obliterated, making it difficult to establish
a chronology or itinerary of her travels or to link these scrapbooks to
activities described by date in her diaries.
The
fifth series, Writings (1914?-1986), contains an undated notebook
entitled "Evolution of Expression" which appears to be a set of notes
for a lecture. The series also contains
two printed catalogs dated 1978 and 1986 respectively, listing all of the
published monologues, orations, and humorous and dramatic readings available
from the Edna Means Dramatic Service.
The sixth series, Photographs
(1911?-1980) consists of two subseries.
The first, Albums, consists of three photographic scrapbooks, almost all
of which are undated. They run the
gamut from family and friends, to school activities and dramatic performances,
to all manner of activities, persons, and places connected with her
performances on the chautauqua circuit.
The second subseries, Portraits, contains photographs taken in 1980 of
the Means residence in Tama, Iowa, which served also as the offices of the Edna
Means Dramatic Service. Eleanor Ogden,
Means' friend and business associate, appears in some of the interior views of
the offices. The bulk of the unframed
photographs consist of approximately forty professional portraits of Means
taken at various stages throughout her career.
Also in this series are three framed photographs, one inscribed
"Edna [Means] with Minstrels (Chautauqua)"; a framed portrait of
Conrad Nagel inscribed "With love and best wishes to the teacher who
'learned me all I know.' Conrad"; and a framed, inscribed portrait of
Elias Day.
The
seventh and last series, Artifacts, contains five mementos of Means'
career, chief of which are an engraved silver cup and a Phi Mu Gamma pin, both
dated 1910 and presumed to have been received while attending Emerson College
of Oratory in Boston.
A gift copy of James W. Foley's Some one like you (1915), presented to
Means by Elias Day in 1936, has been removed to the printed works collection
and cataloged separately.
Related
Collections
Chautauqua Collection,
Special Collections Department, University of Iowa. Contains correspondence with the Redpath Bureau, newspaper
clippings, travel reports and expense vouchers, contracts, cancelled checks and
other personnel records of Edna Means (boxes 161-162).
Box no. Description
Box 1
Biography
Yearbooks
Highland Park College
1908
1909
Emerson College of Oratory,
1910
Highland Park College, 1914
Diaries
1922, 1923
1924, 1925
Box 2
1927-1932, 1933-1936
Scrapbooks
1912-1924 (bulk 1912-1914)
1919-1936 (2 folders,
disbound)
Box 3
1921-1922
1924-1938 (bulk 1936-1937,
disbound)
1937-1939 (disbound)
[oversize: in box 6]
1939-1942
1942-1945 (disbound)
[oversize: in box 6]
Writings
Evolution of Expression
[notebook, ca. 1914]
Edna Means Dramatic Service,
Publishers
Catalogs, 1978, 1986
Box 4
Photographs
Albums
Highland Park College/La
Salle (Ill.) High School [1911?]
1916?-1920?
1922 (Redpath-Vawter
Chautauqua System)
Portraits
Unframed
Box
5
Framed
Edna [Means] with Minstrels
(Chautauqua)
Conrad Nagel
Elias Day
Artifacts
Silver cup, engraved:
E/1910/Fifty-fifth
Lady's lapel watch
Medallion: Highland Park
College Debating Club, presented to Edna Means, 1914
Phi Mu Gamma pin, with
"A" pendant, in small leather case (from Emerson College of Oratory,
1910?)
Book mark, brass, with
yellow cord, engraved: B.P.W. 1958
Unused cover of scrapbook
with name of Means' mother, Mary Thompson, on cover [oversize: in box 6]
Box
6
Oversize:
Scrapbooks
1937-1939 (disbound)
1942-1945 (disbound)
Artifacts
Unused cover of scrapbook
with name of Mean's mother, Mary Thompson, on cover