Item Page

ARCHIVE: Correspondence and personal material.

From the Ballets Jooss to a Magic Carpet

The archive of Joy Bolton Carter, Dancer (1916-2006)

This considerable archive was accumulated by someone who couldn’t throw anything away.
It comprises a massive correspondence, a large collection of photographs, detailed diaries and journals, documents and printed ephemera, and includes the following areas of interest:

a. Attendance at the Mary Wigman School in Dresden (c.1934-1936; including performing at the Berlin Olympiada)
b. Involvement with the Ballets Jooss (1936-1947; see DNB for details concerning Kurt Jooss – “dance as an image of modern social reality”)) in American, UK and European tours (including ENSA tours)
c. Involvement with Musicals in their Golden Age (c.1947-1953)
d. Involvement with Margaret Morris (Celtic Ballet/Scottish National Ballet) and Ted Shawn (Jacob’s Pillow etc).
e. Her (and her husband’s) successful careers as a specialist variety act (oriental fantasy and a flying carpet, dancing-cum-magic)


See Joy Skinner, Over the Hill with a Magic Carpet (1999) where she has put her writings to good, if selective, use.

Joy Bolton Skinner (Jayne of the specialist act, Emerson & Jayne) was an inveterate scribbler and communicator, particularly with her mother and father, and her husband (when separated). The resultant correspondence forms a virtually day-by-day account of her life and career, hence of her ballet education, important tours with the Ballets Jooss, and theatrical experiences over a long period. She takes us from pre-War Germany, to the USA and S. America during the War years (well documented in letters, diaries and photographs), to war-ravaged Europe. Their speciality act, a mixture of dance and magic which they evolved in the early 1950s as opportunities in their earlier areas of expertise dried up, took her and her husband on provincial UK and European tours, even to Haifa and Tehran. The decline and fall of variety is chronicled in their lives (and retirement).
Inconsistent dating and the occasional missing page contribute to the difficulty of putting the correspondence in order. A strenuous attempt has been made to do so with the significant earlier correspondence (involving Mary Wigman and the Ballet Jooss), but later correspondence has been left as it was, much of it enclosed in desk diaries.
JBC = Joy Bolton Carter, later Joy Skinner and “Jayne”
JES = Jack Emerson Skinner.


A. Archive of the dancer Joy Bolton Carter [Joy Skinner] (1916-2006), relating to her time at the Wigman Schule in Dresden, and touring internationally with the Ballets Jooss, 1934-1947

(Writing to her old headmistress Miss Edghill on 15 July 1941 (in Part B, below), JBC gives a useful account of the Ballets Jooss’s activities up till that point. ‘When war started, the ballet was at its home in Dartington Hall, Totnes, rehearsing for its usual English and American season. The tour started in September, [...] We stayed in England until Christmas sailed for New York, from whence we commenced a three month tour of the States. This being over, we decided to try our luck in South America although very few towns had been exploited by concert people and the risk financially was great. [...] Now we are back in New York again after a very exciting South American tour through Uruguay, Argentine, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. We saw many wonderful towns and strange scenery, being long enough in each place to really study the people and their surroundings, and found often very receptive audiences. In each place we were able to raise considerable sums of money in aid air raid victims at home.’ In the same letter she describes the company and its aims as follows: ‘I would like to point out that the Ballets Jooss as a company, although being made up by people of many different nationalities, including German refugees, considers itself entirely British! Two of the Ballets it performs are anti-Nazi propaganda; and it feels its work at this time is to struggle to preserve itself through this war, that it may bring people the message that there is still something else alive beside this spirit of war; and, that when all is over, all culture has not perished.’)

I. [KURT JOOSS CONTRACT]
JBC’s Contract with Kurt Jooss, the Director of the Ballets Jooss, on behalf of the Dartington Hall Trustees, 1 August 1939, six pages, folio, typescript filled in manuscript with name, nature of employment (“dancer”), nature of engagement (“World Tour”), date, pay (“£232 including the supplement for the American Tour”, term of engagement, provision for disbandment, concluding with the BOLD SIGNATURE of “K Jooss”. The agreement takes account of national and international circumstances (war declared a month later), travel arrangements, expectations, for rehearsals, conduct, illness, exclusivity, etc.
WITH: Typed Letter Signed “Jooss”, 24 April 1938, discussing her potential activity at the school, commencing “As Mr Leeder told you already, we have made plans to keep you in our circle of work . . .”
II. Correspondence in the Jooss era (see supplement IV below):
a. [THE AMERICAN TOUR]
Approximately 50+ letters, JBC to her parents, 1939-40, some very substantial, from various locations (Baltimore, Concord, Worcester MA, Wilkes-Barre, Norfolk VA, Buffalo, NY, Miami, St Louis, Montreal, Longview Washington, Toledo, NY again, Pocotello Idaho, The Dalles Oregon, Cincinnati, San Francisco, Hamilton OH, Rosario, various ships, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Santa Fe, Rio de Janeiro). Tour conducted when Britain was at War (and USA not).
Subjects: travel by sea; submarine threat; tourist activities; snippets of American history; food; dancing; her extensive and intelligent reading; Jewish children on board; Jooss; Jack Skinner; pianist ill; planned performances; old (ballet) friends; first performance in Wilkes-Barre; advertising of Ballets Jooss; backroom team; full itinerary given (5 Jan. 1940); snow = cancellation; plan to go to Havana; “lively audience . . . all the stage hands were negroes from the college too (Norfolk VA); Americans; their habits and food; matinee in Boston; Harlem; Cuba; Havana (“totally un-American”); anticipating S. America; rehearsals; the War (eg Germany occupying Norway); anticipation of performance of Ballade; injury; film stars attending ballet in LA; Columbia Corporation cancel their N. American contract (to little effect); dancing in the Kellogg auditorium; Chronica reviewed (over-performance “spoiling Jooses [sic] prestige”); Agnes de Mille Indian dance; South American tour; reflections on the War (when USA will join in and fascism on S. America); Jooss planning two new ballets (14 June 1940); daily life; Green Table part of repertoire; etc.
b. [WITH ENSA IN EUROPE; USA AGAIN]
Approximately 65 letters, JBC mainly to JES, some to parents and others. Jack was still a Conscientious Objector serving time (of sorts) in Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge. He joins her on a tour by Ballets Jooss to the USA, following the European tour. JBC gives first-hand view of war-ravaged Europe. Locations include: Folkestone, Ostend, Brussels, Lunerminde, Minden, Buer, Munster, Detmold, Brunswick, Hamburg, Brussels, Ghent, Amsterdam, Hertogenbosch, Paris, Brussels, Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Indianapolis, Memphis, Cincinnati, Akron, Richmond.
Subjects: Jooss colleagues (Noella, Ulla, Rolf, Nigel, Sigurd, etc); living conditions (billets, food, etc); devastation in Europe; “uncooperative audiences”; training; problems of the vegetarian; cakes and oranges; news of the Company; giving notice to Jooss (28 Jan, 1946 – perhaps withdrawn this time?); tensions in the Company; hostel-life; following Beatrice Lehmann; audiences (or lack of); visiting bombed-out Essen; their repertoire; PoWs; starving Germans; “The Ramberts have had a much better deal”; stories; performances of Pandora; Jooss discussing American tour; rehearsal; Sigurd Leeder’s plans; Ruth Draper; stockings and cosmetics; “Ballade for the first time”; critique of a performance of Green Table; comments on the underlying principles of Ballets Jooss (“I admire the Inhalt . . .”); programme; shopping for “training socks”; ration coupons on sale by street vendors (not as in England); exhibitions and theatre attendance; Jooss overheard planning a European tour after USA (not disbanding therefore?); mysteries within the Ballets Jooss; sold out (Amsterdam); memories of Wigman days; “Pandora, loathsome ballet”; “packed house” for Green Table (Paris); response to nude show; response to reviews; “very discontented reeling off the old stuff”; food and alcohol parcels to England; Jack joining Company for the USA (c.July 1946 – she says she won’t write to Jack for a long time perhaps because he would be with her; 8 Dec. 1946, intelligent comment on American view of their efforts:

Continuing this letter with comment on Antony Tudor Ballet and “Martha Graham’s stuff”, and reviews of Jooss individuals; purchase of luxury goods; art gallery in Washington (“America will soon have bought up all the world’s best”); home (Feb. 1847); programme of UK tour; European tour; invitation to dance in Oklahoma.
III. Journals and Diaries of JBC, written between 1934 and 1943.
– Autograph diary for early part of 1934 (first entry 31 December 1933), covering the period of JBC’s studies at the school in Dresden of the eminent choreographer and dance teacher Mary Wigman (1886-1973). In soft-covered notebook, with later note by JBC inside front cover: ‘Wigman Schule training’. Small 4to, approximately 90 pp. In English, with a few passages in German. This diary, together with the following five items, provides a valuable account of the everyday life of a serious, hardworking and conscientious Englishwoman in Weimar Germany, studying dance in the schools of two of the twentieth century’s leading teachers. She describes the details of her studies and training, her relations with her teachers and other students, and her response to Germany and its culture. The following entry (9 February) is representative: ‘In the afternoon V. behave like a perfect devil, he’s so terribly rough nowadays & twits me horribly sometimes. Mutti <Curtbier?> went down to Albert Theater & told him to follow in ¼ stunde, instead of hurrying up & doing as he was told he stays & annoys me & I wanted to change before going to school as I had a rehearsal that evening etc for the Albert Theater do. However he proceeded to lock me in the little room & of course I couldn’t do anything I never can; its difficult to know how to manage him However I managed to get out in the end but was nevertheless late for Ubungstunde, Gizele <?> came rushing in & said something annoying, rushed out of my clothes & managed to get in just in time <Mitrore & Sytore?> or whatever its called again, horribly difficult doing everything out of the rhythm of the Musick. [sic] [...]’

– Autograph diary for period beginning 4 June 1934, labelled ‘Joy Bolton-Carter | Tagebuch’, with ‘1934-5’ added later by JBC. In hardback notebook. Small 4to, approximately 130 pp. Some passages in English, but mostly in German. Manuscript note by ‘Mary’ filling last page, beginning: ‘Joy darling – What a life! Now listen carefully - do go to Frau Herbert & say that I left a note for you saying I was going to Berlin to see an American college friend [...]’. One page headed ‘Ich komme in die Gruppe! Great event in Joys life!!!!’ Several pencil sketches of bathers.

– Autograph diary, docketed by JBC ‘1934?’, labelled ‘Joy Bolton-Carter | Tagebuch’. In hardback notebook: 12mo, approximately 180 pp. In German and English. First page headed later by JBC ‘DRESDEN’. First entry begins ‘Sontag 23rd Dec | Got up quite late at least pottered about in a half-undressed condition getting things ready for journey. V. walked in without knocking he duly only wore a shirt’. One passage is annotated by JBC ‘Maybe hints of a life to come in search to bathe in warm appreciation’: ‘<Irn?> at both looked very nice. <Irn?> dance didnt go off very well, she wobbled and slipped. Gisela said that she hadn’t come forward at all. Her pantomime Mary said wasn’t more than improvisatory. Altogether not too good – poor child upset. My dances amazing – I never expected it, they went off much better than usual, I wasn’t at all nervous. And Mary said afterwards “Schon, eigentlich nichts zu sagen, (pause) gute richtige Arbeit, nicht? (pause) nicht! (pause) meine Komplimente’ I nearly went through the ceiling in amazement. Joy oh Joy – I mustn’t get a swell head. After all I’d done what I was good at doing & now I must try & do something Im not good at doing.’ One German page headed ‘Nazi philosophy from Huber’. Includes description of Prague and account of a visit to England, including a bereavement. Present are a couple of crude caricatures.

– Autograph diary for period from 23 September 1935 to 2 January 1936, in hardback notebook with note added inside front cover by JBC: ’19 years old & off to a tour of Germany with the Wigman Group Berlin’. Small 4to, approximately 140 pp. In German, with the occasional English phrase. Decorative label of the ‘Regina Palast Hotel Munchen’ on front board. (See JBC’s description of the Wigman Tour of Germany, 1935-6 in Over the Hill with a Magic Carpet, pp.12-14.)

– Autograph diary beginning 13 January 1936, with later title by JBC: ‘Early tour of Germany & Dresden 1936’ (also takes in a visit to Holland). Notebook in red card wraps: 4to, approximately 80 pp. In English, with some passages in German. Note at end by JBC, written nearly sixty years after the diary, sums up the nature of the diary accurately: ‘Well, on rereading this in 1995, extremely shocked at the monotonous programme of a day’s activities – train, hotel, town exploration training (always DREHEN it seemed) size of dressing room & Stage-performance & each meal tabulated with relish – mostly eggs, rote grutze, cake, choc coffee & ice!! Much dwelling on restaurants bier kellars, dance lokal – cinemas on free days. Must have been a big & pleasant experience to choose ones own food after meagre school fare or family fare for that matter & one must have always been hungry with the unwonted exercise!’ At the Marien Kirche in Hamm, ‘there was a crash & we saw what we thought was a board hurtling down outside the window – it was a sinister noise – the girl said – “And, I thought it was going to break our precious old windows” [...] we got outside & walked round that way just in time to see a white stretcher being put into an ambulance [...] a horrid patch of blood lay on the ground in the hollow’. At one point on the tour, in Bottrop (‘an awful hole – industry, 2 hotels’) the troupe dance ‘in some queer Saal very small but the Buhre wasn’t bad [...] After Mary’s last Gypsy Song Ilse[’s] curtain was let down on her head it had a heavy wooden board in the bottom of it & she fell down stunned immediately. The fool of a man left the curtain up & Gisela & Druscella & <?> came on to the Buhre & picked her up. She was alright luckily after a while & danced the rest of the programme successfully terribly hungry so in an hotel later Boiled & egg & cheese’. On 2 February 1936, in Bremen: ‘By this time everyone was in a terrible frame of mind & all hating one another. I, for one, so miserable – we all looked forward to the free days in Bremen but our hopes were soon shattered as we entered our hotel, a dreadful, gloomy, dirty station affair.’

– Autograph diary beginning ‘Scandinavia March 29th. 1936’ and with last entry on 1 August 1936. Notebook in black and yellow boards: 4to, approximately 100 pp. In English. Mostly in English, but with some passages in German. Later note by JBC on inside of front board: ‘Foreign tour with Wigman starting Sweden – Food much mentioned again – always sleeping feeding when not performing or seeing sights – skiing & the 1936 Berlin Olympiada’ and ‘Checked. Ends in Olympics & back to England on the Bremen (till Hitler’s defeat & ENSA back again another diary)’. Two pages in green ink in another hand (later note by JBC: ‘Who wrote this I wonder?), concerning Malmo, Sweden: ‘Very modern theatre-concert-house very good acoustic and semicircular shaped stage with polished boards which were super to dance on. Gisela gave a good training – sweaty hot. Audience not very large but appreciative. Walked home in serch [sic] of a Milch-Halle or restaurant but nothing doing, everything was closed. We bought sausages in pouring rain from a Bude on the harbour’. After a visit to ‘Greta Garbo’s Department Store’ in Sweden, there is a performance at the Stadthaus: ‘The theatre wasn’t terribly full although the Durchlaut & other members of legation were all assembled. We got a lot of applause however & were told that, for Stockholm, the theatre was exceptionally well filled. Mary was presented with 2 laurel wreaths one from Germany & the other from Sweden! They came with us afterwards to Dresden.’ From Desden they travel to Berlin, where JBC begins by working on a pantomime: ‘Irmgard was quite funny at times in her klavier spieler but rather exaggerated at other times. Fee a finished piece but not blind enough for her Blinde. Lotte as a hero was embarrassingly heroic as only Lotte can be. Ilse a monk not pantomimisch enough. My sleep walks I did well in Intensitat but I should have dressed up in a nightgown & done something to hair to get away from being Joy.’ On 30 May JBC announces that she has made up her mind ‘to stay for the Olympiada, spoke with mary she said certainly she’d be pleased if I stayed & I should be treated as the other group people & earn <more?> in the month’. Soon afterwards she describes Wigman’s rehearsal technique: ‘Mary gives us a class from 11-12 called the Heister Klasse we hahve done nothing but vibrate till now – from fundamentals upwards – very thorough. All sorts of vibration with solo improvistion. [...] Then yesterday she did a vibrato study in an hour in which we all are in separately – quite free in movement – all very light & playful – looked quite good – 2 hours Tanzspiel Probe afterwards.’ Report on 8 June: ‘We showed our dances one after the other [...] The fool of a <?> played the first one much too slowly so that I could hardly put any expression into the damned thing at all. I was furious The Phantom which I called “Etwas kam und ging” went quite well, I was quite cool & collected actually in Kopf having drank some champagne which Ilse had brought & drank coffee – got a lot of Intensitat into it’. She reports an Olympiade rehearsal on ‘a big football field with running tracks all round & the old swimming bath next door loaded with bathers who all stared over the railings at us. Women & men were holding <?> all round the field & dashing about but we were the <Hauptsache?> - Mary stands right up in the roof & talks through a Microphone & the gramophone record is broadcasted. Everything has a quite different effect to what we do in the golden Saal, all movement <?> is terribly limited & one can only take the simplest of forms. The formations Mary had pictured all <?< & we proceed out in 2 long lines, & part to form a large Oval & that’s about as far as we’ve got.’ Last 18 pp headed ‘BERLIN OLYMPIADE 1936’, describing several rehearsals. On 28 July she reports: ‘Next year Mary is having no group. The Ministerium will not allow her the money to support it. It has given for every possible other existing rubbish & has no more left for us & Mary & her group produce far & away the best work in Germany. [...] Mary is hut of course [...] She made us a very touching speech before the rehearsals. She has given us all <?> as a present to help out in August. I feel rather a pig taking it when Irmgard has so little [...]’ Although she finds the rehearsals ‘terribly long & tedious’, it seems ‘only a fortnight of it instead of a month by the time we were having Hauptproben & General-proben – the thing was that just as we had got to the end part of getting into the semicircular rows from the close cluster into the middle in order, it rained lots & the grass in the Stadium was utterly unfit to be tread on so we just couldn’t get the last full rehearsals in & on the whole we danced on the day not having properly worked out the whole thing, it went very well & everyone said how wonderful it was having us come after the endless Kinderspiele etc.’ They see ‘all sorts of teams practising in the evenings – Niggers playing football, rather queer, looked ferocious. [...] the Japs are all very brown & supple [...] The girls look just like the men, muscular beefy creatures, no Kimono ladies about them. [...] The Italian team came at the end & lay about on the grass taking photos of us as we rehearsed’. The streets of Berlin ‘are one long trail of flags, mostly Hakenkreuzes & the Olympic rings’. On the opening day, 1 August, Berlin is ‘in a state of ferment, people sitting on ladders & wood boxes since dawn waiting for I don’t quite know what’. JBC sees the runner with the Olympic torch, and also ‘Hitler driving by amid cheers & Heils!’ Along with ‘Fee’ JBC takes ‘ages getting in at night having not listened when told to go in through the back tunnel [...] We didn’t come on till 4th Bild [...] The whole thing is really very spectacular, especially the thousands of little children in all their different colours making rings & formations. The older Madchen all came in orange & cream & did their ball & club exercises. On the 3rd when we repeated it there were larger crowds I thought, they said they’d be able to fill the stadium for it another 3 times or so. [...]’. She leaves Berlin on 4 August, and prepares to travel back to England with Jean <Hailooze?> about whom there is a long later note by JBC at the end of the diary. Postcard with autograph draft of part of letter by JBC on reverse, beginning ‘We have only 8 days more before we go back to Dresden’.

– Autograph diary beginning 1 October 1936, labelled ‘Joy Bolton-Carter | Germany 1936’. In hardback notebook: 12mo, approximately 180 pp. In German and English. First entry begins: ‘Monday Oct 1. | Gymnastic – now we work for ourselves for half an hour in the mornings then someone comes in 9.30 & gives exercises – Drusilla to-day did all top of body lying on floor – [...]’. A couple of references to Jooss’s eminent teacher Rudolf Laban (1879-1958): ‘4-5 5-6 Labane came to see the group & choose people to dance in the do in Berlin. Druscilla didn’t dance as American, Ursul did Schmerz, I loved it’. And again (‘Friday’): ‘Went down in afternoon to Tanz geschite to find that I’d missed seeing the dances being picked out for Berlin Laban was there apparently Kerbel danced beautifully & Margot Dud, neither were chosen though Hilda or someone was. Didn’t have and TA therefore but RS with Huber in gelben Saal, improvised tango again, rather difficult – a slow temperamental one – did the 3 parts separately – nobody did it extraordinarily well, he was quite amused with mine but said it was English charm & not Spanish! US with Elizabeth all in circle with different hand fastenings – sidesteps etc rather dull & exhausting for arms. After that ie 5.50 we watched the group work which Laban was also seeing – marvellous My breath just went [...]’. Representative entry (‘Donnerstag 4. Okt.’): ‘Great fun in Gymnastick, Friedrich in the foreground a few others took off the dances of the evening before, the <Herren?> Tanz & traver also a female who did a moon dance & did nothing but wave her arms about – it was very funny we made an awful noise then suddenly said “Huber’s coming” & everyone rushed back to the wall & started doing exercises. Erika came in later & gave us her usual knee bends & <?>’

– Autograph diary, detailing JBC’s time at Dartington Hall with Ballets Jooss between September 1936 and July 1938. In hardback notebook with later note by JBC inside front cover: ‘This diary is nearer to memory recovery than the Dresden days & German tours. Strange how much of the latter has completely left the brain memory and could have happed to someone else that I read about | Dartington characters – Devonshire moors – teachers & pupils of the Jooss school – becoming more of a technical dancer – creative choreography when in the studio group in 2nd year. Sept to Aug 1938 – Musical involvement. <?> life in artistic environment at Dartington Hall. Offered teaching job end of Summer 38 – either Monica or myself both wanted Ballet & finally Jooss took us – * follow an English Irish Scottish tour thence to USA & SA the army commandeered our dance school so we were lucky to continue with Jooss’. Small 4to, approximately 180 pp. In English. First entry reads: ‘September 22nd., 1936 | Ma and Joan drove with me down to the Jooss School at Dartington Hall.’ She gives her first impressions of her fellow-pupils: ‘There are 30 pupils altogether I think, & 3 classes, it is on the average a German speaking community as it is the language nearly everyone understands except the dark French girl with the moustache & the 5 English girls. There are enormous quantities of Dutch, many Swedes & Danes, several German, one Swiss & one Hungarian – who is a little black shrimp of a man with a fantastic technique. They are nearly all Ballet people with cheap ballet minds except Chanya my little Russian & Yoma a very sweet Swedish girl, rather tall & willowy’. Jooss is described as ‘a funny looking man with stubbly black hair growing out at both sides & fattish; his wife has sleek black hair in a tight knot behind & looks very artistic. Leeder is a typical German, cheery blue-eyed & fair.’ The arrangement of the school is described in detail, as are the classes and her developing relationships with fellow-pupils. Of the ‘Summer Term Darting 1937’ she writes ‘[...] Jooss gave lots of classes in the first fortnight Leeder still in America & Ulmann also arrived late. The 1st & 2nd top classes had technique together with Jooss several times |& we had Enkinetic every day together. They were very good classes. He took the different qualities only in the leap in quite simple steps – it was very hard nevertheless. We all had to make 3 editions of a Pas de Basque mixing the qualities in any way & rhythm we liked. [...] Jooss was very conscientious about every little detail & one learn something I feel.’ One passage annotated by JBC ‘Anaestic [sic] at Aberavon for tendon’ and another ‘1st impressions of gay men!! we had 2 in group’. Another passage annotated ‘That must have been end of first love affair without sex by separation of ways. Looking back I can’t think why attracted musically only it seems now’. Also contains some notes from classes, and a couple of examples of what appear to be original poetry.

JBC’s Pocket Diary, 1939 (Front “America”; names and addresses, brief mixture of personal and professional events and activities, some figures, week to view, as below)

JBC’s Pocket Diary, 1946 (Front “ENSA & Continent”; as above)

– Autograph diary from 18 July 1940 (Rio de Janeiro) to 25 January 1941 (Bogota). In a green 4to hardback notebook of approximately 190 pages. Covering the first part of the Ballets Jooss’s South American tour, taking in Brazil (Rio, San Paulo, Paqueta, Petropolis, Santos, Paranagua), Uruguay (Montevideo), Argentina (Rosario, Mendoza), Chile (Santiago, Valparaiso), Peru (Lima) and Colombia (Cali, Bogota). JBC describes places visited (with the responses of the local populace), her anguished feelings about JES’s other lover, one of Jooss’s dancers in England named Audrey (‘Why do I love him? I want to hate him I want him to go to her at once or stay with me’), her reaction to and speculation about news from England and of the war, the frustrations of the Ballets over Jooss’s plans, and other matters. The diary begins in the ‘Heat and sun’ of Rio de Janeiro, where JBC ‘sweats through performances’. She finds Rio ‘very like Paris with its greentreed streets & open cafés’, and ‘more alive somehow’ than Buenos Aires, and with ‘the people more attractive’. The aim of the troupe is to ‘get to beaches as much as possible being determined to get brown’. But soon (15 July 1940) the ‘most ridiculous thing’ happens: one of the dancers is ‘carted off by the police because his bathing pants were too short [...] A man got shocked by them & fetched a policeman who pointed at his rather brief beige pants & huge crowds gathered [...] we haven’t seen him since [...] Angelo has quickly learnt his part’. JBC and JES notice ‘how strange’ the inhabitants are: ‘showing the utmost interest even if they saw an article of clothing on the sand & when Jack dressed on a beach once a whole football game moved its pitch strangely enough & when I got dressed the boys started to build castles near by’. Rio instills in JBC a ‘spirit of liveliness’, but she finds Sao Paulo a ‘much more American, busy industrial new looking town’. All the while she wonders ‘what sort of an England’ she will return to: ‘Everyone will be so poor & miserable’. On 27 July 1940 she reports that one of the dancers has heard from his sister, who has ‘had to leave the Dartington cottage [...] all aliens had [...] to leave D. being so near the south coast. Jooss & Leeder had apparently the day before been interned’. In Sao Francisco (31 August 1940), while ‘going inland along the railway line’, JBC sees ‘a procession of children approaching carrying flowers; we noticed – as they got near that the first 2 were carrying a little miniature coffin in a white case’. From there they travel to Montevideo, where on 5 September 1940, JBC writes: ‘Have just returned from the theatre, it is after 12. We seemed to have a very enthusiastic house, it was said to be full of British naval officers off a transport ship with a cocktail party in between. The performance itself was intended for the red cross, but theatre being very neutral allowed no entire charity performance – 50% of the proceeds went instead to the British Embassy who would send it to England in aid of all foreign refugees. | It has been a very tiring day especially for Jack who has had to rehearse Prodigal Son & dance it tonight for the first time. I thought he did it very well – he has more tension than <Aert?> | Our new wardrobe mistress is having to be trained; Noelle, Elsa & Lola did all the unpacking & necessary wig clothe arrangements’. News of an air raid on the Elephant & Castle in London results in ‘a heated discussion with Jack about it all & peace – I quite agree with him but am so upset about it all that I refuse to put England in the wrong’. On 9 October 1940 she writes: ‘I’ve decided to live away from Jack & see if I can get over this – I at least won’t have him loving me and not loving really’. Describes over twelve pages ‘a tiring but amazing journey, [...] the greatest that I shall have ever made’, from Mendoza, Argentina, ‘through the heart of the Andes’ to Chile. In Bogota JBC writes (20 January 1941): ‘Dancing is strenuous work; one has to work hard, rather like battling against a very strong [current] & being rendered powerless – not the terrible deadening exhaustion felt in the hotter tropics but actually I suppose a more harmful one here although one has the will to continue or start off.’ On 21 January 1941: ‘Jooss has written to us [...] The Ballet is not too pleased with his intentions which are clearly not to come to us till June – everyone is disgusted as he was informed that he was needed & Leeder as dancers at this time. But he is enjoying himself giving a farewell course to students in Cambridge. He mentions that he will bring Yona, & David Walker if he can!! also a “little Bill” – Also if women were needed Audrey with a little more training might come. This will be a terrible situation for us but just what Jack & she had dreamt of earlier. [...] Bunty on reading the letter came & said “if i was Audrey I’d come like a shot & get my man back”. A page at the end of the diary, headed ‘LOW MORALE’, indicates the feeling of the troupe at the beginning of 1941. Contains three enclosures, including a letter to ‘Mr & Mrs Evans’, 29 July 1940, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, giving news and including five ‘snaps of some of the many places we’ve been to’.


– Part of an autograph journal for 1941, in loose uniform leaves (A5, 40 pp), describing time spent by JBC in Columbia and Venezuela with the Ballets Jooss. Entries dated between 30 January and 22 August 1941. Containing ballet company news, descriptions of performances and audience reaction, of her emotional state and places visited, reports of the political situation and the local response to events in Europe. The last ten pages comprise a calendars of letters sent and received in 1941, with useful synopses of each letter. A few pages carry transcripts of letters or carbon copies of parts of TLs by JBC. The first entry (30 January 1941), written while the Ballets Jooss is in Bogota, Columbia, begins: ‘Problem with Johnny’s technique. I endeavour to correct him & yet only confuse & depress him I feel by not being able to help him in the right direction.’ On 3 February she complains: ‘We have been here a month Jack says. It doesn’t seem like it – & still we carry on but somehow as though we’ve had some teeth out. The Ballet’s future is wavering – one feels it in little things such as Greanin’s attitude to free tickets. The mean old man refused to give us any & we had to fork out 3 Pesos for the Weasels, & then they went & sat in the gallery for it’. And on 31 January: ‘The theatre is never full & we perform just the same to small groups of people.’ The entry of 5 March hints at local antagonism: ‘Yesterday we arrived in Cucata – Jack got into his shorts on account of the great heat & we went out to look at the town. the town looked at us though & screeched & yelled besides – it was a horrible experience – from everywhere a boom of derisive laughter followed us. I got all trembling furious & laughed back at them going right up to them looking them in the eyes & then hard at their trousers but it didn’t make me feel any better. [...] What a country – why can’t they be as beautiful & natural as their woods & mountains instead of being little & petty, dark & deceitful, bound with conventions & flea ridden.’ On 22 March she writes that she has ‘danced the Young Girl for 3 nights – it came at last – Noelle had angina. [...] It was so nice dancing the girl I enjoyed it & didn’t feel I did it badly. Wasn’t very nervous funnily enough. I wonder if I shall do it again, I don’t expect so for one minute just as Eva never did the Princess in Spring Time again & Lydia is doing the Spy on Tuesday – Ulla did Big city today so there may be a faint hope for a change of cast. – How I hate these 2 show days.’ On 13 April JBC writes that ‘Cohen is planning to put us all into the States by Hook or by Crook if Barbadoes fails.’ This is followed by a list of ‘Suggestions for New Ballet’. The following day she writes that ‘Cohen said he had written to Elmhurst of our plight & had a very nice letter back saying he would help us in every way to get back to the States’. On 19 May she reports that the Ballets Jooss has been ‘almost a month in our communal Venezualian [sic] home & already look forward to getting to the States which is almost a certainty now. [...] Greanin expects us in June which was the month we had imagined ourselves arr: there when we had heard of the Joos sponser [sic] business. – Greanin says the contract is fairly fav: to us – we have no expenses except the travelling & get 60% of the profits’. The final entry (22 August 1941) is a long account (A5, 6 pp) of JBC’s thoughts and sensations during a botched operation (not an abortion): ‘[...] I think it must have been when I came round finally that I spoke & then what I knew I spoke was nothing to do with my destiny of eternity. I had been quite sure at one time, I suppose in a moment of semi consciousness that I was really going to die – I heard voices & I knew where I was & that the operation had gone wrong & they were [sic] had messed me up’.

– Autograph diary from 24 March 1943 to 23 December 1944. In a blue 4to hardback notebook, approximately 60 pp. With a few crude pencil sketches and the draft of a short poem entitled ‘Sad thoughts for a birthday’. A few enclosures including manuscript material. Covering her preparations and ‘tour of factories for CEMA’ [Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts], and also describing her marriage to JES and her reaction to the news of the war.The first section begins ‘English Tour. Liverpool, large & dirty after the beauty of Scottish towns, Leeds next week, then Manchester & Sheffiled still worse. Living conditions are not easy, spending too much on comfortable hotels or almost on horrid boarding houses where the food is so tedious.’ On 23 June 1943 she writes from the ‘Theatre Royal Bristol’: ‘am sitting under the infra red lamp trying to mend a torn muscle – it went on the last day of rehearsals in Cambridge after I had had a very enjoyable training class of jumping’. On 29 June, she writes of Bath: ‘The audiences here are very appreciative & laugh at everything, very much alive – It is a sweet little theatre painted green – I have been right upon the roof today’. On 14 September 1943: ‘I went home for the last week of the holidays & had a crazy time – perm. rows with mother or rather quiet torture on my part while she did her best to tell me how I’d ruined her life by being such a selfish selfwilled little toad. “The horror of it coming out in Leicester that Jack is a dancer”! How much money has he & what are his parents & what ideas for the future & all the rest of it.’ In Oxford on 31 January 1944: ‘First place of tour having got over a hectic week of Cambridge where Pandora was borne – mingled feelings about it which sum up to more negative criticisms – it is enjoyable to dance nevertheless except for the monster scene where one is encased in a mask. I think it is nothing for a non specialized audience’.– Part of memorandum, dated 8 March [1930s], on Hotel Danziger Hof letterhead. A5, 2 pp. Second page contains passage headed ‘Extract from my diary Koln’.

– Part of undated memorandum [1930s], on Hotel Kronprinz letterhead. A4, 2 pp.

– Passages from autograph diary for 1941 (last item), on a number of disparate sheets (A4, 15 pp; A5, 11 pp).


IV. Letters, copies and drafts written by Joy Bolton Carter, mainly in 1936, 1941 and 1942.
This material was separately catalogued but it should be considered part of I. Correspondence in the Joost era (above).

15 August [1935?]; on board the Hamburg. ALS to ‘Darling Mums’. A4, 4 pp. Docketed by JBC ‘JOAN with me to Hamburg | Hitler days’.

– 29 March [1936]. Copy of AL to unnamed recipient. A5, 2 pp. On letterhead of the Tralleborg-Sassnitz steamship (marked ‘On the ship’, bound for Sweden). ‘All the places I’ve underlined on the envelope we’ve danced – they are by no means all though – the other places aren’t marked. Queer it being my birthday to-day I don’t like being 20 very much’. Docketed by JCB ‘I am 20 today | 60 years ago’.
– Undated [July 1936]; Dresden. Original ALS (‘Joy’) to ‘Darling Mums’. A4, 8 pp. A long and informative letter beginning with a description of an ‘exam’, before outlining the part she is going to play in the Olympic ceremonies. The description begins: ‘You wanted to hear exactly about the Olympiada well Monday evening we had the first rehearsal, there are lots of people arrived to <compete?> & they are called the Ersatzchor which means helping chor & join themselves into mary’s standing group – we are with the middle upper class & these people about 400 & the other 40 are joining on in Berlin next month. we are taking part on the first night of the Olympic games & it is to be an enormous opening affair like a great Tattoo. Thousands of schoolchildren & girl guides & scouts are performing first with formations, country dances etc on which they have been working 2 years!!’ She is taking part in a ‘Demonstration in Berlin [...] with about 12 other people from the group & first class – a series of studies showing our system – [...]’. More news of her studies before ending ‘I shall never regret what I have learnt in these 3 years in every way, especially this year has meant a lot – I can’t think that you can regret it either darling – you talk about a group dancer as thuogh it was something below other things, we can’t really grade an art like this so. [...]’
– Undated [July 1936]; ‘Berlin. Charlottenburg, Reichs Str 104. Thursday’. ALS to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums’. In envelope with Nazi 1936 Berlin postmark. Docketed by JBC ‘1936 Olympics’. Small 4to, 10 pp. Long informative letter describing the opening ceremony of the Berlin Olympics, and her minor part in it. ‘One buys everything with Olympic rings on now, belts, handkerchiefs, blouses, pullovers, bags, badges, [...] We are having dreadful rainy weather & everyone is beginning to get rather anxious. The grass in the Stadium is all mushy after the rehearsals. There are 5 scenes & lots of music thousands of little children all dressed in white who run round the outskirts of the circle & then in the centre & little boys in red, blue, black green & yellow elf suits who make formations, all very well done rhythmically to music. They with their colours make the 5 Olympic rings which you have seen in the papers I expect. [...] Everything has its effect owing to the enormous masses of them on the field [...] The 4th scene is a flag Spiel (show) thousands & thousands of flags of every nation [...] After that the sword dance’. After describing this she draws a simple diagram of the positions of the dancers in the stadium. ‘When the 2 warriors are carried out we appear in 2 long colours in different shades of grey lead by Mary & build an oval.’ Here another diagram and a sketch and description of her costume, before continuing the description.
– Undated [1936]; Berlin. ALS to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums’. A4, 4 pp. ‘Life in Berlin is fun till now, [...] We shan’t have so much to do now the Demonstration is over [...] Every afternoon at 4 or 5 we have Olympia rehearsal 80 of us. they are held at the Stadium which is a marvellous erection’.
– Undated [1936]; Berlin. ALS to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums’. A4, 2 pp.
– Undated [1936]; Berlin. ALS to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums’. A4, 6 pp. ‘The performance went off very well, we had a lot of applause – they clapped as soon as the curtain went up & we were all in our positions for hobgesang – we had to hold it horribly long while Mary [Wigman] went forward & bowed. The witch dance was also OK – I was rather nervous about parts – it is so very fast. Afterwards Mary invited us all to a supper in a Ratskellar on Alexander Platz. We had a room for ourselves, the whole group, Mary’s mam, Huber, Hastings, Hörrisch, Schweigshammer & Niedegger (great dancing director bug.)’
– Undated [1936]; Berlin. ALS to ‘Darling Mums’. A4, 4 pp. ‘Mary [Wigman] is terribly sad because she cannot keep her group next year – she has pleaded with the Ministerium (finance office or whatever it is) & they cannot allow her any money to keep it as the expenses for the Olympic games have been too great. She is always supported very well by the government & the members of the group are many of them not in a position to do the work voluntarily. [...] May I go to Jooss in Autumn please. I don’t think it costs an awful lot. Everyone says it is the right thing for me with my mime’.
– Undated [1936]; Berlin. ALS to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums’. A4, 2 pp. Gives details of an ‘international dance contest’ the Wigman group will be competing in.
– Undated [1936?]. ALS to unnamed recipient (‘deary’). A4, 4 pp; A5, 1 p. First page of letter on back of Meiningen hotel bill; the last four pages headed ‘Train leaving Schweinfurt’.
– Undated [1936]; Dresden. ALS to ‘Darling Mums’. A4, 4 pp. Discussing joining the Wigman troupe: ‘In the group one learns a terrific lot & I should be able to do the dancing exam after it all. Not only do I learn from the dancing side but on the tournée Mary is going to make with the group I shall learn all Germany, Poland, England & other places she does next year – too marvelous & have to pay nothing!! [...] When I come back to England I can join with Leslie Borough’s – having been in Mary’s group it is a great advantage. [...]’
– Undated [1936]; Dresden. ALS to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums’. A4, 3 pp.
– Undated [1936]; Dresden. ALS to ‘Darling Mums’. A4, 2 pp. Docketed by JBC ‘Rehearsals for 1st tour’. ‘Mary [Wigman] was in a furious mood at the rehearsal last night & got worse & worse as the evening continued – she found something wrong with everyone – I think she was very done in’.
– Undated [1936]; Dresden. ALS to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums’. A5, 5 pp. Last page a draft of a letter in German to a German bank.
– Undated (‘Sunday’) [1936]. First leaf (A4, 2 pp) of AL to ‘Darling Mums’. Docketed by JBC ‘Know what fee I get for Wigman <?> Ma don’t send any more!’
– 3 March [1936?]; on letterhead of the Hotel Danziger Hof. ALS to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums’. A3, 2 pp. ‘Yeterday someone said that we were coming to England probably but not till May – I think it depends how Scandinavia goes, one day we hear yes & the next no. This is our last long tournee [...] Danzig is a free town since the war but absolutely German & is offended when not looked upon as German’.

– Undated [1939?] Glasgow. ALS to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums’. A5, 4 pp.
– Undated [1939?]; Newcastle on Tyne. ALS [‘Joycy’] to ‘Darling Mums’. A5. 4 pp.
– Undated [1939?]; Theatre Royal, Newcastle on Tyne. ALS to ‘Darling Daddy Mums’. A5, 4 pp. Docketed by JBC ‘Tour leading to war 1939 I suppose 38 or 9’.

– 9 July [1940]. ALS to unnamed recipients, beginning ‘We have been in Santos since 7 this morning.’
– 21 or 22 June 1940; on letterhead of the Gran Hotel Espana, Santa Fe. First page of AL to ‘Dear Daddy & Mums’. A5, 2 pp.
– 5 September 1940; on letterhead of the Hotel Cervantes, Montevideo. ALS to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums’. A5, 4 pp.

– 2 January 1941; ‘On Board Santa Lucia’. TLS to ‘Darling Daddy’. A5, 4 pp. Written en route to Colombia.
– 26 January 1941; [Columbia?] Copy of AL to ‘Darling people’ [i.e. her family in England]. A4, 2 pp.
– 3 February 1941; Bogota, Columbia. Copy of AL to ‘Darling Papa’. A4, 2 pp.
– 26 February 1941; Teatro Municipal, Caracas, Venezuela. Copy of TL to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums’. A4, 2 pp. ‘All going well we shall start winter again in the states in autumn. On the other hand I have heard how Jooss started with his students in Cambridge on Jan: 14th, & you know how he adores Cambridge has a lot of good connections & friends & friends [sic] there I am a little scared that he will be loath to tear himself away from the school which is bound to enlarge & Ballet being so popular in England [...] He could easily form a small group of the students he has [...] He may want us to return & join him which I fear for the People who only have British Certificates instead of passports’.
– [26 February 1941]. Copy of two passages from TL, docketed by JBC ‘Letter Laurie’ (‘my pianist boyfriend’, according to JBC’s autobiography). A4, 1 p and A5, 1 p. Including a description of a bullfight, which she considers ‘the most depressing & hopeless aspect of human nature’. Autograph diary entries, 5 November to 2 January [years?], covering 1 p in A5.
– 3 March 1941; Malaga, Columbia. Copy of AL to ‘Dearest People’. A4, 1 p; A5, 2 pp. ‘Here is the beginning of the travel log – the first day of journeying is over [...]’.
– 3 March 1941; [Malaga]. Copy of TL to ‘my love’ [JES?]. A4, 6 pp. Begins ‘This is going to be my diary of our journey which I am starting at the end of the first day. We are in a little place called Malaga, 400 kms; from Bogota in Ibague where we stayed on the way to Bogota from Cali.’ Ends ‘We are to stay in Caracas a month at least [...]’.
– 17 March 1941; Caracas. Copy of AL to ‘Darling People’. A5, 2 pp. ‘I left this letter open because post doesn’t go till tomorrow & I’m glad I did because I can tell you something. Here it is. I am dancing the young girl in G. Table!! Isn’t it thrilling – Noelle has angina. I enjoyed doing it last night & didn’t feel a bit nervous maybe I shall tonight.’
– 24 March 1941; Caracas. Draft of AL to Mrs Bell. A5, 1 p. On reverse: Copy of TL to ‘Dearest Vivy’, 10 April 1941; Caracas. A4, 1 p.
– 29 March 1941; Caracas. Draft of TL to ‘Dearest People’. A4, 2 pp.
– 4 April 1941; Caracas. Draft of TL to ‘Mr Evans’. A4, 3 pp. ‘Jooss is supposed to be meeting us in N. York in June where he is to form a school to work on a new programme with us. But he cables that it is difficult to find a boat to get is family over on. [...] Greanin, our very wonderful manager [...] is informed by the Mexican authorities that he will not be allowed to enter without a contract from a Mexican manager [...]’.
– [23 April 1941]; [Caracas]. Copy of part of TL to unnamed recipient, docketed by JBC ‘first part of letter not typed’. A4, 1 p.
– 29 April [1941]; Caracas. Copy of TL to ‘Mrs Evans’. A4, 1 p. [next item on reverse]
– [2 May 1941; Caracas]. Copy of TL, docketed by JBC ‘Laurie May 2nd. answer to his’. A4, 1 p. [last item on reverse]
– 4 May 19412; Caracas. AL to ‘Darling Mama’. A5, 2 pp.
– 14 May 1941; Caracas. Draft of first part of a TL to ‘Mr Jooss’. A4, 1 p. ‘[...] It was sad that so many people left us: especially the loss of Monica & Hans & now the Uthoffs & Rudi who have just departed for Chile. These 3 did not forsake us though until we as a group had exhausted the S. American field of dance, so it is not due to lack of members that we must have this layoff now.’
– 23 May 1941; Caracas. Copy of AL to ‘Dearest People’. A5, 2 pp.
– 23 May 1941; Caracas. Copy of TL to ‘Darling Nana’. A4, 1 p.
– 28 May 1941; Caracas. Copy of TL docketed by JBC ‘Letter to home & Laurie’. A4, 1 p.
– 31 May 1941; Caracas. Copy of TL to Mrs Bell. A4, 1 p. Thanking her for the invitation to stay at the Bells’ house in New York that summer. ‘Greanin has made a contract with the Schubert Theatres for us for 12 weeks starting in Canada in September.’ Autograph memorandum on reverse (‘Jooss sent a cable asking for help to get a boat over to us – [...] I don’t think if matters should go on blackly in Eng: that it is a good place for him to stay’).
– 2 June 1941; ‘Caracas but almost the ship for N. America’. Copy of TL to ‘Darling People’. A4, 1 p. On reverse half a page of copy of undated TL to unknown recipient.
– 6, 7 and 8 June 1941; Santa Paula. Copy of TL, docketed by JBC ‘Laurie written on ship’. A5, 2 pp. Begins ‘I started this letter the last day in Caracas & now we are well away on the high seas having seen the last of S. America this morning.’ With autograph memoranda, A5, 1 p.
– 13 June 1941; NYC. Copy of TL to ‘Darling Jonos’ (i.e. her sister Joan). A5, 4 pp.
– 16 June 1941; c/o Greanin. Two copies of TL to ‘Darling Mama’. A4, 1 p. ‘We are living on credit which seems to have been fairly easily come by through the royalties of the pianists who composed our ballets and Rymsdykes and Greanin’s money. The next thing we have to know is by cable; - how soon and if & when Jooss is going to join us as we have an offer from a very celebrated coreographer; [sic] – Agnes de Milne, [sic, for ‘de Mille’] to compose a dutch ballet of sorts for us.’
– 21 June 1941; c/o Greanin, NYC. Copy of TL to ‘Dear Laurie’. A4, 2 pp.’We have managed to get loans from Greanin Rimsky and the royalties belonging to the composers so we have enough to keep us for the while. We only need to hear now definately [sic] whether and when Jooss can come. If he isn’t to come before Sept. we shall probably let someone called Agnes de Mille compose a dutch ballet for us.’
- 25 June 1941; NYC. ALS to ‘Dearest People’. A4, 2 pp.
– 28 June 1941; c/o Greanin, NYC. Copy of AL to ‘Dearest People’. A4, 1 p.
– 2 July 1941; c/o Mr Reemsdyke, NYC. Copy of TL to ‘Darling People’. A4, 2 pp. The previous night she saw ‘a dance class given specially by Martha Graham to her pupils as we asked if we might see one – (she is Americ[a’s] most popular dancer now and a pupil of Wigman origanally [sic] but now gone all American and all pseudo modern & uncomprehensible’.
– 12 July 1941; c/o Greanin, NYC. Two copies of TL to ‘Dearest Mama’. A4, 1 p. ‘Cohen is going frantic trying to get the home office here to fix the affidavit trouble Jooss is having.’ One copy with autograph diary entry on reverse (‘July 13th’).
– 15 July 1941; c/o Greanin, NYC. Copy of TL to ‘Miss Edghill’ [Ella Mary Edghill, headmistress of JBC’s school, St Felix]. A4, 1 p. (See introduction.) Beneath the letter is an autograph memorandum, dated 10 February [1942]: ‘We never do any of the things we are told we are going to do – we never went to Canada but danced only in New York & Philadelphia giving a few charity shows when we badly needed the charity ourselves.’
– 25 July 1941; c/o Greanin, NYC. ALS to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums. A4, 1 p. With copy.
– 30 July [1941]; ‘As from Louise Tiffany Taylor’, NYC. TLS to ‘Dearest people’. A4, 1 p. ‘We have got a very beautiful new girl called Margareta – dark and tall. A type we need [...] I remember her as being rather nice at Dartington. We still need a strong big man to replace Rudi and Ernst. The Death, Dictator and King type.’ With copy with autograph diary entry for 1 August [1941] on reverse.
– 1 August 1941; NYC. Draft of TL to Greanin. A4, 1 p. Explaining why she is ‘shirking’ from the task of asking John Christy Bell and his wife to ‘lend us money to help over this difficult time’. Autograph diary entry for 22 August [1941] on reverse, continuing the description of her botched operation (see Journal in Part A).
– 3 August [1941]; c/o Louise Tiffany Taylor Ltd, NYC. ALS to ‘Darling People’. A4, 2 pp.
– 12 August 1941; c/o Greanin or Louise Tiffany Taylor Ltd, NYC. Copy of TL to ‘Darling People’. A4, 1 p. Diary entries for 14-22 August in autograph on reverse. On 18 August: ‘They have started on the A. de Mille Ballet & there are very critical opinions already being broadcasted. [sic] She is only so far working with the boys of which she apparently needs dozens!!’
– 17 August [1941]; c/o Greanin. Copy of TL to ‘My dearest Mony’. A4, 2 pp. ‘[...] the travelling and entry business for Jooss and Leeder is hitched with the new American alien regulations [...] We finished Cossa’s Elektra Ballet which was duly disapproved of by everyone – [...] tomorrow we start on a new ballet to be composed by Agnes de Mille. It is to have a Dutch theme but I don’t know any more. No one likes the idea at all but realise that something like this must be done if Jooss is not here to compose for us.’
– 22 August 1941; NYC. ALS to ‘Darling people’. A4, 2 pp. Gives brief details of her indisposition. ‘Agnes de Mille has started on the new ballet & from rumours I hear none is enthusiastic – they say she is definately [sic] poor classical ballet & requires a little dance & then a little mime with lots of tables & chairs & props on the stage. They hate having to pull faces & not dance.’ Gives more details of the ballet.
– 23 August [1941]; [NYC]. Autograph draft (A4, 1 p) of ‘grateful patient’s letter’ (written after the operation described in JBC’s journal for 1941, in Part A), docketed ‘Letter to Dr Weichsel Aug. 23’. ‘[...] You didn’t tell me exactly what I was in for, & perhaps it was as well (although I may of course be one of those hypersensitive people. But I quite thought I was going to die!!! [...]’
– 25 August 1941; [c/o Mrs J. C. Bell, NYC]. Copy of TL to ‘Dear Laurie’. A4, 2 pp. Of de Mille: ‘Everyone objects very much to her methods [...] They either dance or mime but are never asked to combine the two. This is something that Jooss hates and particularly avoids.’ With half a page of autograph diary entry for 3 September 1941.
– 28 August 1941; c/o Mrs Bell. Copy of TL to ‘Dearest Mama’. A4, 1 p. A few pencil notes on reverse.
– 30 August [1941]. ALS to unnamed recipient. A4, 3 pp.
– 3 September 1941; NYC. Copy of AL to Mrs Bell. A5, 2 pp.
– 7 September 1941; c/o Mrs Bell. TLS to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums’ from ‘Your exiled Birdee’. A4, 1 p. With second copy carrying half a page of autograph diary entries on the reverse, headed ‘Sept 9th 1941 10.10 pm’. Also third copy.
– 15 September 1941; NYC. ALS to ‘Dearest People’. A5, 4 pp.
– 26 September [1941]; c/o Mrs Bell (‘Theatre during show’). ALS to ‘Darling People’. A4, 2 pp.
– 18 October 1941; ‘Theatre. Before show’. ALS to ‘Dearest Momma’. A4, 4 pp.
– 27 October 1941; on letterhead of the St James Hotel, Philadelphia. ALS to ‘Darling Mamma & Daddy’. A5, 4 pp.
– [4 November 1941]; c/o Mrs Bell. Copy of TL to ‘Dearest Johnny’. A4, 1 p. ‘[...] the Ballet is still alive, but I don’t know for how long as Jooss has chosen to hibernate in Cambridge with wife & child teaching children & amateurs instead of joining his famous dance group which incidentally is having big success over here at the moment. It is more or less the most popular ballet going and much preferred to the Russian ballet.’ Autograph diary entries from 20 October to 12 November [1941] on reverse.
– 6 November 1941; c/o Mrs Bell. ALS to ‘Darling People’. A5, 4 pp.
– 18 November 1941; on letterhead of 240 East 61st Street. ALS to ‘Darling People’. A5, 4 pp.
– 23 November 1941; on letterhead as last. First part (bifolium, A5, 4 pp) of TL to ‘Darling People’.
– 29 November 1941. Place not stated. Copy of TL to ‘Dear Laurie’. The Ballets Jooss’s sponsors have ‘declared themselves bankrupt, having doled out enough money and not seen any profit yet. They suddenly decided this in the middle of the week, not having paid us for the week & Greanin had to fork out the $12es.’
– Undated. Place not stated. Copy of part of TL, docketed ‘Letter to Mama after Jooss letter arrived’. A4, 1 p. Describing the group’s disappointment at Jooss’s letter of 10 August 1941 [see above]. Begins ‘well everyone was rather disappointed after reading the letter since we had looked forward to an earlier reunion & we were anticipating the loss of Maya, Angelo, Heinz & possibly the Uthoffs. Jooss knew about the first 3 & had enquired about them in the letter, he had suggested new people he might bring over. We had hoped Leeder & also he himself would be able to dance.’
– 13 December [1941?]; c/o Mrs Ball. ALS to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums. A4, 2 pp.
– Undated. Place not stated. Copy of TL to ‘Darling People’. A4, 2 pp. ‘Leeder is definately [sic] joining us some time soon & has offered himself by letter as trainer, dancer, coreographer. [sic] Personally I am not thrilled. I would rather have Jooss. Who knows, all this success of his ballets may bring the old bird. We shall in any case survive the year without him now’. With half a page of pencil memoranda, relating to ‘Rehearsals of Agnes Ballet’ (‘awful mess in parts’).
– Undated. Place not stated. Copy of TL, docketed by JBC ‘Letter to Teddy.’ A4, 1 p.
– Also 5 unsorted leaves (3 A4, 2 pp each; 2 A5, 1 p) carrying copies of parts of undated TLs to unnamed recipients.

– 1 January 1942; NYC. ALS to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums’. A5, 6 pp. Discusses JES and speculates on her future with him.
– 10 January [1942]; c/o Mrs Bell. Copy of TL to ‘Darling Moma’. A4, 1 p. ‘[...] if the ballet tinkers out I am coming back, and that should be determined as soon as the cable we expect from Jooss, arrives’. On reverse autograph diary entries for 10 and 11 January [1942]. ‘[...] I am quite sad & old now & must fight in a future to earn my living to keep myself & J must earn his to keep himself then one day we may be able to live together without a soul to worry us [...]’.
– 11 January 1942; on letterhead of Mrs L. T. Taylor, NYC. Copy of AL to ‘Dearest People’. A5, 4 pp.
– 9 February 1942; NYC. TLS to ‘Darling People’. A4, 2 pp. ‘The letter from Jooss has not arrived yet, so we have had no meeting on our future plans. We have to see what happens to all the ballets props; we may not be able to ship them back in these times, they take so much space.’
– 18 February 1942; NYC. ALS to ‘Darling Mums’. A4, 2 pp. Defending the life she has chosen to lead.
– 4 or 5 March [1942]; NYC. ALS to ‘Darling Mums’. A4, 4 pp.
– 19 March 1942; NYC. TLS to ‘Darling People. A4, 2 pp.
– 30 March 1942; NYC. Copy of TL to ‘Darling people’. A4, 2 pp.
– 11 April [1942]; on letterhead of Hotel Knickerbocker, NYC. ALS to ‘Darlings’.
– 18 April 1942; La Guardia Airport [NYC]. ALS to ‘Darling People’. A5, 4 pp.
– 20 April 1942; New York. ALS to unnamed recipient. A4, 2 pp. ‘Thursday our engagement was announced in the Tribune. The headline was; English couple engaged.’
– 1 May 1942; New York. ALS to ‘Darling People’. A4, 2 pp. Reproducing the texts of two ‘cables lately received from Jooss’, which she finds ‘hopeful’.
– 10 May 1942; Stramore, Brookville. ALS to ‘Darling Mums’. A5, 4 pp. ‘The ballet is in a fervour of excitement & <?> wildly – their papers are all in for visas – Rolf – Noelle – Hans Maya, Bunty, Jack, Ulla’.
– 20 May 1942; New York. First part (A4, 1 p) of copy of TL to ‘Dearest People’.
– 31 May 1942; Stramore, Long Island. ALS to ‘Darling Mama’. A5, 4 pp. ‘I’m sorry you were upset by the engagement announcement. [...] We are coming back to dance for CEMA which I expect you’ve heard about. Prof: [John Maynard] Keynes is the chairman of it & is at back of the scheme. Council for the encouragement of music & art & one better than ENSA. All being well we should start in Summer. I don’t know much about where we will rehearse but I expect Cambridge & hope that Jooss will arrange accomodation [sic] [...] England is going to be a very changed place since we left’.
– 26 October 1942; Cambridge. Copy of TL to ‘Dear People’. A4, 2 pp. ‘Jooss has been here the weekend working with us. The Spring Sonata is finished and is to be called “Company at the Manor”. We have audiences every Sunday afternoon from Adams Road and they seem to appreciate both that and Leeder’s Sailors’ Love which is progressing. I think it is going to be very amusing. I loathe his rehearsals though, he is nervous and confused in mind. Leaves a lot to your personal initiative, and then loses his temper if nothing arises. Jooss is a wonderful person to work with; always so quiet and certin about what he wants – is also more rhythmical.’
– Undated. Last part (A4, 1 p) of TLS to unnamed recipient. Full-page autograph postscript on reverse.
– Undated. ALS (or copy?) to ‘Mummy’. Anguished letter over her mother’s o with her connection with JES. ‘[...] that you must suffer so much now on acount of this stray sheep is terrible to me’.
– Telegram to her father, with 1942 postmark.

– 31 January 1946; Boston. ALS [to her mother?]. A4, 2 pp.
– 22 August 1946; Dublin. Copy of ALS to ‘Dear Mr Jooss’. A4, 2 pp. Discussing her salary and money owed.
– 17 December 1946; NYC. ALS to ‘Darling Ma & Pa’. A4, 2 pp.
– 22 December 1946; on letterhead of Jack Dempsey’s Great Northern Hotel. First part (A4, 2 pp) of AL to ‘Darling Vivy’.
– 29 December 1946; Bridgeport, Connecticut. ALS to ‘Darling People’. A4, 4 pp.

– 10 January 1947; Nashville. ALS to ‘Darling Ma & Pa’. A4, 4 pp.
– 11 January 1947; Louisville. ALS [to her parents?]. A4, 4 pp.
– 26 January [1947]; Ballets Joos c/o Chas. Wagner, NYC. ALS to ‘Darling Daddy & Mums’. A4, 8 pp.


V. Letters to Joy Bolton Carter (with three by Jooss to his troupe).

See also sections I. & IV.

ONE. Letters from her family:

– Mother (wife of F. Bolton Carter, d.1955, consultant surgeon at the Leicester Royal Infirmary): 18 ALSs (‘Mums’), none with year stated (two dated by JBC to 1936). One A4, 2 pp; the others all A5 and usally of 4 pp. Affectionate, giving family news and expressing concern over JBC’s situation. From one letter (‘Boxing Day’): ‘We do most decidedly think that you should come home now fly or ship – things will get worse & I feel this Ballet must fizzle out, & we cannot get money to you & we do feel that your health sounds somewhat doubtful & that we should be looking after you – You must come home [...]’. And from another: ‘You should remember how little we have had of you since you were left on Dresden Station all those years ago – There your statement of no longer being the Child who fitted so well into the scheme of things rather falls to pieces – it has always been your scheme of things & not ours hasnt it dear [...] You have never savoured an uncertain background or the miseries of insecure Life, or shall we say Daddy has always made things too easy for you’.

– ‘Joan’ (sister): ALS; 2 July 1941; A4, 4 pp.
– John Felix Bolton Carter (1920-1997, brother): ALS; 7 December 1941; A5, 4 pp. ‘Don’t kid yourself that you’re helping the war effort by dancing in a ballet which goes under the name of Jooss, which the government permitted to leave the country because it was made up almost entirely of foreigners. | Don’t think that is your duty to keep Art alive in a wild and uncivilized world. That’s the Job for the very old & the very young, not for strong young English women. If you are a real Artist then you must realise that for Art to live, the Germans have to be defeated [...] Are you helping [...] you can speak German like a native [...]’.
– ‘Marie’: ALS; 21 November 1941; A5, 2 pp.


TWO. Letters from others:

James Christy Bell, American diplomat.
– 27 August 1942; Legation of the United States of America, Lisbon, Portugal. TLS (‘Christy Bell’) to JBC. A4, 1 p. He regrets that he has been unable to obtain ‘news of Tol [...] from the International Red Cross in Geneva’. Discusses the ‘good reasons’ for her to marry JES, regardless of the objections of the ‘Elder generation’.

Louise Bell, wife of last.
– 6 July [1941?]; Brookville. ALS. A4, 4 pp. Docketed by JBC ‘Tolly’s end it seems shot down on first sortie’. (Also two ALSs from her to JBC’s mother, both undated.)

Nora Evans.
– 10 November [1942?]. ALS. A5, 2 pp.

Kurt Jooss (1901-1979), German choreographer.
– [January 1941] Place not stated. Copy of transcript of letter (typed by JBC) addressed ‘To everybody in the Ballets Jooss’ and ‘My dear Ladies & Boys’. A4, 1 p. Docketed on reverse by JBC, ‘Letter sent by Jooss in January 1941 to the group. I copied it & sent it home together with notes from his letter to Cohen which contained more important details of our future’.
– 30 March and 6 April 1941; 9 Adams Road, Cambridge. Copy of typed transcript of letter (or original, since it carries the ‘signature’: ‘Jooss’?) to ‘My dear Friends’ (i.e. ‘the group of the Ballets Jooss’). A4, 2 pp and a slip. In English. A long dispirited letter discussing the possibility of ‘closing down the Ballets Jooss for the time being’. ‘A series of deplorable happenings & circumstances again & again shattered my hopes & the ceaseless efforts of 12 months to rest you in good time & resume my place as your leader on our crusade for the Dance.’ A ‘distressing’ cable from the group has also left him with ‘the conviction that something like a catastrophe must have happened’. He hopes that ‘the picture looks blacker from over here than it really is. If however your work should at present have come to an end as a consequence of the disintegration of the group . . . . then I could not help telling you that every single individual aught [sic] to take his share of the blame on him for having agreed to a policy that so easily allowed for such disintegration.’ He thanks Reemsdyk, Cohen and others for their efforts. ‘It is quite impossible to me to summarise in a few words and express my gratitude to the Dartington Hall Trustees for their enthusiasm for our work and the generosity with which in all these years they have provided a home as well as material and moral support for our work . . . . . . in a last gesture of admirable magnanimity they have now transferred all their rights of property in our business to the Ballets as such.’
– 10 August 1941; Cambridge. Copy of transcript of letter (typed by JBC) to ‘Dear members of Ballets Jooss’. A4, 3 pp. ‘Your bold decision in Venezuela to stay together and continue as ballets Jooss brought you to New York and your spirit of not giving in has achieved it that you are again a full strength performing Co. I am far away and my judgement lives from nothing but letters or cables I get. [...] You had to call in Agnes de Mille, a choreographer of great name tho’ of course unfamiliar with our style and choreographic ideas. [...] To call more American choreographers in would be incompatible with the name & character of the Ballets Jooss. [...] I have never so far written to you about my own situation more elaborately & appear to have to do it now Sigaud, Aino & I have done what we could to start on an entirely new basishere at Cambridge. With some help from Dart: & the magnificent coop: of some Camb: friends & some endurance & hard work, we have as it seems achieved to build the fundamentals of a new & as I hope significant work here in Camb:’ Followed by copy of TL from JBC to unnamed recipient, dated 16 September [1941]. Begins: ‘This is a copy of Jooss’s letter to us. [...] It has made us all feel somewhat depressed but we have as yet had no final meeting on the matter. [...] I think the general feeling is that he is more interested in his own affairs than in a ballet that needs a lot of sweating for.’

– ‘Laurie’ (JBC’s ‘pianist boyfriend’): 3 ALSs to ‘Dear Joycy’; written in June, July and August 1941; all three A4, total of 8 pp.

‘Mary’
– Undated. ALS to JBC. A5, 6 pp. ‘Old Papa Jooss is still dithering I suppose [...] I am so terribly sorry about your mother. Everyone is cracking up nowadays it’s too dreadful. My Father has had to be sent to a mental home.’

From unknown writer:
– Undated and with place not stated. Copy of TL to JBC, beginning ‘Joyci Poyci, you are a nice girl, that you have written to me.’ A4, 2 pp. ‘I got some letters from the Kids [members of the Ballets Jooss?] but no one has written so much about the work as You did. [...] We three are wondering about the Ideal that A. de Mille is doing a balet for You. I don’t think Joos [sic] will like it, can not Zullig do something?’

– Also undated ALS (A5, 2 pp) to JES (‘Dear Jack’) from ‘Edith’, beginning ‘Wednesday Mr. Jooss paid me the greatest compliment I have ever had, and it came from you all. He said you all liked me.’

VI. Photographs by the Skinners and others, mainly taken while on the Ballets Jooss’s tour of America, and with some of the Wigman Schule.

[For initial note: Including more than a thousand photographs taken while touring North and South America with the Ballets Jooss. Most showing people and places visited, but many feature members of the troupe, mostly informal but some on stage or in rehearsal. All black and white and in good condition. Evocative. JES’s compositions better, and JBC’s more personal. Taken with the JBC’s diaries and letters constitutes perhaps the only record of the Ballets Jooss’s American tours.]

– Album (19 x 29 cm) of JBC, with later note by her, ‘Youth Family St Felix Trip Switzerland with Mama Blakeney House School Plays | Dresden before we bombed. Wigman Schule’: The last 13 leaves contain 68 photographs (mostly 5.5 x 7.5 cm) and 10 postcards, beginning with some taken on JBC’s trip to Germany, and including shots of the Wigman Schule and its members, seven of them in a sequence showing JBC dancing with other girls.

– Album (19 x 28 cm) of photographs by JBC: 178 photographs on 24 leaves. With later headings by JBC: ‘Dresden’, ‘Wigman Tour’, ‘On boat to Sweden’, ‘Wigman Group on Tour’. The majority of the photographs are show members of the group in rehearsal, or caught informally in different locations. Also includes a number of scenic shots.

– Two uniform albums (both 13.5 x 19 cm, one with damaged covers) of photographs by JBC. The first: 107 photographs on 23 leaves.Ranging in size from 11 x 7 cm to 5.5 cm square. Most captioned. The first three nine photographs relate to the Ballets Jooss’s tour of Britain and Ireland, with the first four captioned ‘Stratford on Avon Memorial Theatre Tour 1939 Floods’. The following pictures are taken in Manhattan, the Rockies, Great Salt Lake, Niagara, Chicago, Madison, Ogden, Baltimore, Havana, Florida, Jacksonville, Nevada, Sacramento. Several feature members of the troupe (for example three shots taken ‘On the ship to Cuba’, and two of an ‘enforced stay in the desert Westlake Wales, Florida’). The second: 183 photographs on 40 leaves. Ranging in size from 11.5 x 17 cm to 1.5 cm square. Most captioned. Taken in places including San Francisco, Santa Monica, Montreal, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Las Vacas, Jurajuba, Sao Paolo, Paqueta, Petropolis, Therezopolis, Aconcagua, Las Vacas, Uspallata, Valparaiso, Vina del Mar, Santiago. The album includes more than thirty photographs of Ballets Jooss on stage, including a series captioned ‘Prodigal Son’. Also many informal shots of members of the troupe and aspects of their journey (for example, the ‘car to take Ballet to next town’), as well as of JES’s makeup box and travelling kitchen.

– Two uniform albums (both 12.5 x 20.5 cm, 12 leaves) of photographs by JBC, titled by her ‘S. American Tour of Ballets Jooss. Book I [Book II]’. The first: 45 photographs taken in places including Santos, Rio, Copacabana, Sao Paolo, Santa Barbara, Gavea, Paqueta, Corcovado. Includes views in Rio ‘Outside Theatre’ and ‘Outside Theatre from my dressing room’, and pictures of troupe members and ‘on Ipanema Beach’, in Gavea, and elsewhere. The second: 68 photographs taken in places including Paqueta, Petropolis, Sao Francisco, Paranagua, Rio. A couple of photographs of the ‘Ballet on the Dirty Dook’ boat and four portraits of troupe members.

– Album (15 x 11 cm) of photographs by JBC, in same series as previous two, titled ‘Book III | Tour of Ballets Jooss in S. America’. 201 photographs on 53 leaves. Almost all 5.5 cm square. First photograph captioned ‘Santiago, Oct & November 1940’. Other places include Valparaiso, Lima, Antofagasta, San Mateo, Pachacamac, Bogota, Caracas. Captions include ‘Our theatre baggage in suspension’, ‘Our Christmas, 1940’ and ‘Our bandit driver’.

– Album (21.5 x 17 cm) of photographs by JBC, titled by her ‘Photos. Ballets Jooss South America’: 103 photographs on 18 leaves. First page headed ‘Dec. 1940’ and last dated 1942. Includes photographs of the troupe in the ‘Peruvian Alps Pachacamac Xmas 1940’, and of their ‘Departure from Peru for Colombia on Grace Line’ on 1 January 1941. Later photographs in New York, including the ‘House where part of Ballet Jooss lived on Long Island’. Also contains twenty loose photographs clearly taken at different periods, including eight in an envelope with later note by JBC: ‘MM studios checked’.

– Album (13 x 8.5 cm) of photographs by JBC, with later note by her describing it as containing ‘Last of S America to New York | Stay with Bells on Long Island’: 71 photographs, ranging in size from 8.5 x 6 cm to 5 cm square. First photograph captioned ‘Caracas. Venezuela. April 1941’.

– Album (23 x 30 cm) of photographs by JBC: 45 photographs on 14 leaves. Ranging in size from 17 x 16 cm to 9 cm square. Places include Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Copacobana, Puerto Cabello, Paqueta, Santos. All landscapes.

– Album (17.5 x 11 cm) of photographs by JBC: 84 photographs on 25 leaves. Early photographs of JBC’s time staying with the Bells in New York (one captioned ‘Visiting the Statue of Liberty the week before we left end of May 1942’), and the later ones taken on her return to England, including several taken at her sister Joan’s wedding. Final sections covering the Ballet Jooss’s ‘English tour 1943-44’ and ‘Summer 1946 Ireland’, including several of members of the troupe.

– Three albums of photographs by JES. Inside the cover of each album is pasted JES’s calling card (‘Jack Skinner | Ballets Jooss’), with the note ‘South America. Book 1 [Book 2] [Book 3]’. The first (8 x 13.5 cm): 144 photographs on 135 leaves (the first 87 leaves loose), each leaf numbered captioned by JES and numbered from A2 to A87 and from B3 to B50. Ranging in size from 11 x 7 cm to 4 cm square, but most being 4 x 6 cm. Starting with North America and Cuba (Columbia, Atlanta, Richmond, Greenville, Havana, Jacksonville, Madison, Chicago, Ogden, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Montreal) before travelling to South America (Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Santos, Rio, Copacabana, Paqueta, Jurajuba). Two photographs (B26) taken in Argentina, captioned ‘Cause’ ‘And Effect’ show the Ballets Jooss in front of their portable advertising hoardings on the steps of a theatre. Also informal images of members on shipboard. Three photographs (B46 and B47) show the Ballets Jooss’s advertising outside an illuminated theatre in Rio. The second (13.5 x 21 cm): 108 numbered photographs on 30 leaves. Ranging in size from 11.5 x 17.5 cm to 5 x 8 cm. Places featured include Independencia, Petropolis, Therezopolis, Paqueta, Buenos Aires, Mendoza, the Andes, Santiago, Santa Barbara, Valparaiso, Antofagasta (including two photographs of stevedores), Lima. One photograph is captioned on the reverse by JBC: ‘Just before departure on the verandah of our Caracas house | To the left are the 3 Venezuelan servants, me, Elsa & Lux our Argentinian wardrobe mistress & cousin of Cohen’. The third (13.5 x 21 cm): 82 numbered photographs on 43 leaves. Ranging in size from 10 x 7 cm to 5 cm square. Places represented include Lima, Guayaquil, Colombia, Cali, Bogota (including two interior shots of the Teatro Colon), Montserrat, San Cristobal, Salto, Malaga, Caracas, Cucuta, Caracas.

– Two uniform albums (both 27.5 x 20.5 cm) of photographs by JES, with later note by JBC, ‘Jooss American Tours’. The first: 110 photographs on 10 leaves. Apparently smaller reproductions of compositions of which JES was particularly proud. Taken in North and South America, and including a few of members of the troupe on stage and in rehearsal. Includes three that were reproduced in JBC’s memoir. Also another leaf loosely inserted, with a further five photographs captioned by JBC in a late hand, ‘Off to USA again Dorothy Elmshurst Kurt Jooss Farewell on Station’, ‘Boyd Orr & Nigel Burke’ and ‘Dartington Hall’. The second: 32 photographs on 10 leaves. Ranging in size from 15 x 10 cm to 9.5 x 8 cm. Apparently larger reproductions of compositions of which JES was particularly proud, with captions such as ‘Footsteps near Ogden’, ‘Dublin Dustbin’ and ‘Unemployed’.

– Album (16 x 10.5 cm) of photographs by JES: 104 photographs on 48 leaves (23 leaves loose). Each leaf an envelope, and many containing negatives and other photographs. The loose leaves contain pictures taken in New York between June and December 1941. These includes a series of portraits of ‘Miss Joyce Margaret Bolton Carter, about the time of her engagement’. The photographs on the bound leaves are taken in Ireland, Wales, Halifax (Nova Scotia) and Quebec, and numbered B1 to B4 and A1 to A49. These include fourteen photographs of members of the Ballets Jooss on board the SS Scythia, en route to North America.

– Album (16 x 10.5 cm) of photographs by JES: 16 photographs on 8 leaves. Each leaf an envelope, with some containing negatives. Later note by JBC: ‘America Ballets Jooss 1946-7’. One photograph shows the troupe on the tour bus, and five of ‘Jooss & his Company’.

– Group of 41 photographs (each 5.5 x 8 cm) by JES on uniform envelopes (each 12 x 9.5 cm), with later note by JBC: ‘B Jooss Holland etc 1945-6’.

– A collection of approximately 200 unsorted loose photographs of various sizes, including around 70 of JES from childhood to the 1940s, many showing him in performance. Also a further 60 of JBC and others, including several showing dancers (one said by JBC to be ‘Jooss Students Dartington Hall’) and others taken in South America (‘Worker going home [...] Theresopolis’ and ‘Indians selling in market Lima’), and including a contact sheet of 48 portraits of JBC. Also 70 showing outdoor scenes, including many taken on the Ballets Jooss American tour.

– Also album (18 x 12.5 cm) of JBC’s early family photographs, with later note by her ‘Beginnings Leicester & Blakeney’.

– Also album (16.5 x 24 cm) of JBC’s photographs (from the late 1940s?), with later note by her: ‘Mostly Cargreen & Cottage’.

– Also in excess of two hundred publicity shots (all but four in black and white) and other promotional material relating to JES and JBC’s ‘Emerson & Jayne’ variety act, ranging in size from 25 x 19 cm to 9 x 11 cm. All but four in black and white, and including several duplicates.

– Also a packet of later photographs, press cuttings, negatives and other material.

VII. Miscellaneous.

– JBC’s certificates for 1935 (‘Prüfung für den gymnastischen Lehrberuf’ and ‘Lehrbefähigung für Deutsche Gymnastik’) and 1936 (‘Prüfung als Bühnentänzerin’) from the Wigman Schule in Dresden, both signed by Wigman herself, together with Hans Huber and Wigman’s ‘percussion composer’ Hanns Hasting.

– Also some family correspondence, a couple of newspaper cuttings relating to the Ballets Jooss, a telegram informing JBC of her sister’s wedding, a ticket (‘REAPARICION | Ballets Jooss | DANCE-THEATRE DE DARTINGTON-HALL-INGLATERRA’).



B. [MARGARET MORRIS AND TED SHAWN]

i. Margaret Morris and the Celtic Ballet of Scotland
55 Autograph Letters Signed and 5 Autograph Cards Signed ('Margaret', 'Meg' and 'M') to her ex-pupil and collaborator JES, almost exclusively relating to the Celtic Ballet of Scotland. Written between 1953 and 1961; mostly from Glasgow addresses, including many on letterheads of the Celtic Ballet College. With an inscribed photograph of Morris and her partner the artist John Duncan Fergusson. Also copies of six letters from JES to Morris, and of related correspondence to JES from Morris’s secretaries Robin Anderson (2) and Isabel Jeayes (3), as well as of letters to Morris from George Elrick (3), Leo Cherniavsky (2), Benjamin Carlin (1) and Stewart Cruikshank (1), the last item, with enclosure, relating to Morris’s attempt to found a ‘Scottish National Ballet’. Also manuscript accounts for the Celtic Ballet’s appearance in America in 1954. Also a few programmes, newsletters and other items of ephemera relating to Morris and the Celtic Ballet.
Morris’s correspondence, supported by those of Shawn and Whyte, reveals the central part played by JES in her activities over a period of almost a decade.
For Margaret Eleanor Morris (1891-1980), teacher of dance, and founder of the Margaret Morris Movement system of physical education and of the Celtic Ballet of Scotland, see her entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient JES (1915-1994) studied under Morris before leaving to join the troupe of the celebrated German choreographer Kurt Jooss (1901-1979). For details of his connection with Morris see his wife JBC’s memoir Over the Hill with a Magic Carpet (Fern House, 1999), which describes how in the early 1950s Morris ‘invited Jack to compose two ballets for her students’, and how later on JES ‘licked into shape’ Morris’s Celtic Ballet before its appearance at Ted Shawn’s Jacob’s Pillow dance festival in Massachusetts (a subject which features largely below). JBC also describes how she and her husband ‘both danced in the company performing our own duets and appearing in the ballets’. Before this, and around the time of the earliest letters in the correspondence, JES had been ‘having great difficulty working with a rather poor standard of trainees and was not very enthusiastic at Margaret’s suggestion that we should share a programme with them at the Arts Theatre’.
A total of 118 pp in 4to and 27 pp in 12mo. All items clear and complete, and the whole collection in good condition on aged paper, with minor wear to two items. An important correspondence, chatty and intimate, touching almost exclusively on Morris's work, bearing testimony to her single-minded devotion to her vocation and revealing JES's central position in relation to it as advisor and confidante during this period. Written in Morris's sprawling, ebullient hand.
The first letter (22 February 1953, 12mo, 8 pp) sets the tone. Morris begins by expressing the hope that JES 'might come & give us our push off!!', adding that 'You of all my ex-pupils (apart for [sic] Betty <Jane?>) stand out as the type of absolute loyalty & integrity - inspite [sic] of not seeing eye to eye in everything!' She offers him parts in 'two ballets': 'one is a new negro ballet (all blacks!) you could be the big chief – & do your own dances (or whole ballet if you liked! Might have you remembered some of my dances! [...]' She goes on to criticise another choreographer ('B-'): 'I feel a brute but I nearly wept at the last show! The bitter futility from the performance point of view. She is such a wonderful teacher, for all the <Foundation?>'. She asks JES to name his 'Sal' [i.e. salary] as she needs him 'so badly'. Several of the letters concern the possibility of JES’s involvement in Celtic Ballet’s appearance at the Jacob’s Pillow dance festival in America in 1954 (see the entry for Ted Shawn, above). A letter of 7 February 1954 indicates the importance to Morris of JESin this regard: 'I must write even before I get yours - you can't imagine what a blow it was when you calmly said if I did not go you wouldn't!!! - what a misunderstanding I felt just as if you had knocked me down!! - I certainly never meant to deceive you - I thought you knew that my terrific anxiety to have you go was because I felt I couldn't!! - quite seriously if you can't undertake it - I shall have to cry the whole thing off - it will be one of the worst things that has ever happened to me'. In the next item she sends 'the good news': 'I just have to go to U.S.A.!!! Ted Shawn insists!' And then on 4 February 1954 she describes a 'final offer for 3 week' from Shawn: '$7,000 - my banker tells me that is just about £2,500 - ! I think thats pretty good for an unknown ballet! Also we don't have to do whole programme he will have a "star" each week to <show?> has booked Ram Gopal for one week, may get Markova (!) also has Martha Graham's star pupil he says'. Latter in the year Morris's assistant writes regarding passports, and on 21 April 1954 Morris herself writes: 'Have had more Cir[culars] printed with your name added as director'. (She later apologises: 'I am terribly sorry about cir - alas now printed - I did not like it at all - I was going to put you as Director of Co. above everybody on programme! but didn't seem room on Cir -'. Letter of 12 October 1954 indicates tensions between JES's work with Morris and his fledgling career with his wife in the variety act ‘Emerson & Jane’: '[...] the only hope of perminance [sic] is to get enough recognition somewhere somehow to force the Arts Council to support us adequately - | In relation to that I feel this show is terribly important - that we make as good an effort as possible - we must invite Arts Council so I feel for your own sake (if you mean to do anything further with the C. B.) it is important you come up for it! it should not interfere with either panto or Xmas Cabaret [...]'. Letter of 11 April 1955 discusses changes in Glasgow and possible teaching work for JES, with crude floor plan and reference to '25 students with bursaries': 'I suggest £10 allowance for travelling & £10 per week - I know that is nothing as salaries go now - but by autumn we might be able to double it - you have always been so generous I should love to be able to be able [sic] to be generous for a change!' A letter written on tour in France begins 'I write you from Paradise!' This is accompanied by a photograph of Morris and Fergusson (both looking sprightly in implausibly- tight swimming costumes) inscribed ‘Love & good wishes to Joy & Jack from Meg & Fergus Aug. 1955 ‘In Paradise’!’ On 2 December 1958 Morris discusses the possibility of a ballet with JES and his wife: 'As usual most of my people are in panto - ! but we are holding the two best, on a £4 retainer - (already cost us nearly £100!) but I feel now things are really starting[.] the B.B.C. - is going to have a discussion - & I hope soon to have enough money to see my way to engaging dancers to rehearse for say mid March! would you & Joy be free then or end March?' On 12 June 1959: 'we have Ram Gopal here, at Kings Th., You will remember him at Jacob's pillow - well had long talk with him - & he says (!!!!?) he is still keen to share a show with us & he is convinced he can fix a European tour Australia Malaya - & a London Season!' The last letter in the correspondence, 14 February 1961, clearly written in response to a complaint from JES, begins 'O.K. - Keep away!! as you obviously feel convinced I cannot put up a decent show. - I feel it would depress me to have you! | I do appreciate your advice, & follow it as far as I possibly can!! but 6 weeks Equity Sal. rehearsals is out of the question - [...] If you were free to come, come to Carlisle & see us!!!! & give your further advice before Glasgow! it would be lovely - but can hardly expect you to keep it free. [...] Please Jack I do realize all you say is with the desire to help! so please go on saying it!' The last of the six copies of Typed Letters by JES (18 February [1961]) is a graceful reply to this: ‘[...] contrary to the impression I make, with all my rude remarks, I do hope you will have a big success and I do feel that you have a better chance now than ever before, which is why I am so keen that this time, you’ll not have to say after the first performance, “Well, it wasn’t bad, considering.” It must be so perfect that the most liverish critic will not be able to knife it!’ The copy of Stewart Cruikshank’s Typed Letter to Morris (8 April 1959) is accompanied by a copy of a typed document (foolscap, 2 pp, with covering page), dated ‘July 1959’ and headed ‘SCOTTISH NATIONAL BALLET | A folk ballet, traditional and modern. | Suggestions for two completely different programmes, lasting two and a half hours each with one interval, which can be performed with a Company of fifteen dancers | one or two guest stars | two solo pianists | one piper. | Twenty people to travel.’ Also copy of typed document (A4, 2 pp), probably by JES, titled ‘Odd jottings while our visit to 299 is still fresh in mind.’ Also four newsletters of the International Association of Margaret Morris Movement Ltd., 1960-1961, nine programmes, a magazine article and two copies of a mimeographed typed document (foolscap, 1 p) titled ‘Quotes from reviews on opening performance of the Celtic Ballet of Scotland | At Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, July 28th, 1954’, including several complimentary references to Emerson & Jane (according to one review ‘superb dancers, performing their gaucheries to perfection, a task harder than straight dancing’).
Also present are a “Proof Copy Uncorrected” of a leaflet giving information about and promoting the Scottish National Ballet ([1960]), a slip concerning the desath of Margaret Morris’s husband, J.D. Ferguson, in 1961, six 12mo pages of manuscript accounts by JES for the Celtic Ballet American tour of 1954, on leaves from a ringbound notebook. Includes expenses for dressmaker, wigs, seamstresses, ‘Reel for recorder’ and ‘Sherry Party’. Total receipts ‘from Pillow and tour’ were $8353, and total expenses $6748.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ii. James J. Whyte of New York, American theatrical agent
3 TLSs to JES (the first incomplete), with copies of 3 TLSs to Margaret Morris, and a copy of an undated letter from JES to Whyte. A total of 10 pp of A4. All dating from 1954.
In his letter JES jokingly refers to Whyte as ‘the Celtic Ballet’s Hon. Rep.’, and Whyte’s letters are long and detailed in their discussion of the possibility of taking the Celtic Ballet on a tour of the United States. Whyte is businesslike and efficient, and seems exasperated by Morris’s amateurish approach. In the first letter to JES (10 May 1954) he writes: ‘I am still trying to help but if I am to help, then our efforts must be co-ordinated. We should start with a policy, a budget, and a definite goal.’ Later in the year (29 September 1954) his enthusiasm has cooled: ‘Your description of me is lyrical and flattering but unreal and undeserved. You will have me lose faith in you. I am looking to you [to] calm the wild impulses of the Celts and here you are indulging in some yourself.’ In the same letter he gives as his ‘impression’ that ‘you and Mrs Skinner are really essential to the Celtic Ballet’. Regarding a contract that Morris has been negotiating he states: ‘I would never, even drunk, sign a contract like this.’ In his last letter, to Morris (5 October 1954), he writes ‘From Mr Landau I learned that the commission asked was, in the opinion of a Mr Wasserman, who manages Denham, utterly fantastic and unheard of.’ This letter indicates his assiduousness. It begins ‘To-day I have visited Miss Pimsleur [the concert manager Susan Pimsleur] and had another talk with Mr Landau.’ Later in the letter he gives details of what he considers ‘the most economical way’ for the Celtic Ballet to travel around America.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
iii. Ted Shawn (1891-1972), pioneer of American modern dance, founder of the Jacob’s Pillow dance festival in Massachusetts.
13 items: 9 TLSs to JES, 4 TLSs to JES and JS, and 1 ALS to JES (totalling 18 pp of A4 and 2 pp of A5). 11 signed ‘Shawn’ and two signed ‘Ted’. With a copy of a TL from Shawn to Margaret Morris (A4, 3 pp), and copies of 3 TLs from JES to Shawn (totalling 4 pp of A4).
Long and businesslike letters mainly concerning the Celtic Ballet’s appearance at Jacob’s Pillow, underlining JES’s central position in the project. The copy of the letter from Shawn to Margaret Morris (30 September 1953, ‘with homage and deep friendship and GREAT EXPECTATIONS!’) goes into detail regarding the undertaking, and in his first letter (3 May 1954) to JES Shawn gives an outline of his intentions: ‘My plan, as it stands now, is to have Celtic Ballet fill two thirds of the opening week’s program, and Emerson & Jayne to fill one third. [...] You apparently have seen the Martha Graham Co. in London, since you speak of having classes with Pearl Lang while at the Pillow (and that is, of course, your privilege) – the Graham stuff is the ultimate in what American critics think modern dance should be – I am a little afraid that Celtic Ballet will be considered naive and dated, if they attempt “abstract” and “modern” dance as such – so the Scotch folk basis is the unique and legitimate way of first presenting them.’ Letter of 26 June 1954 begins: ‘I realise that many questions asked in your letter of June 14th have not yet been answered. But I have been through a series of crises and strains. Markova cabled cancelling on account of illness, an[d] I spent 48 hours on long distance getting a replacement – Carmelita Maracci, whom we all here think sheer genius, unique and unclassifiable.’ And on 29 June 1954: ‘We go on having crises, so I know it’s going to be a normal summer! Last Friday a freak “Twister” – the kind of whirling wind which over water produces a water spout, hit our 18ft. water tower and 15,000 gal tank and completely destroyed it. The tidal wave of water hit one of the dormitory cabins, lifted it off its foundations and carried it down hill, also soaking all clothing and bedding of the six scholarship girls domiciled therein (they had just arrived the night before – and this was their baptism!).’ Letter of 4 July 1954 gives a breakdown of the $7,500 the Celtic Ballet are receiving. In a letter (28 August 1954) written after the Celtic Ballet’s appearance Shawn writes: ‘I get increasingly tired, and there have been the usual emergencies and crises, some of them now strike me as just funny and I get hysterical. [...] I am going to write, late September, a long letter to Margaret and send you a carbon copy. Bill Schneider is certainly livid about her!’ And in his last letter (3 March 1956) he writes of John Coast, ‘European representative of Columbia Artists Management’: ‘in a recent letter he said he was interested in Celtic Ballet, due to their terrific success at the Pillow! Well! I wrote him frankly, both the good and bad facts, and took the liberty of giving him your address, saying that unless you could be in full charge, and unless you were satisfied both with the personel and the repertory, he should not touch it.’ In a copy of a letter of 23 March 1956 JES discusses his meeting with Coast.


C. Archive of the dancer Joy Bolton Carter [Joy Skinner] (1916-2006), relating to her career post-Jooss, mainly involving her partnership with Jack Skinner as a specialist variety act, 1947-1999.

I. Correspondence Post-Jooss (1947 on):
a. Correspondence of JBC and JES, mainly the former to the latter, c.120 letters, most undated [c.1947-1953], various formats, most manuscript and substantial, using affectionate nicknames (eg. Dipper for Joy and Rabbit for Jack, and worse!), many locations, written in the period in which the Ballets Jooss “as it then was closed down” (Aug.1947), before they developed their specialist act together, when they were pursuing as best they could their individual careers in the UK. This involved long periods of separation during which they (particularly Joy) kept up a conversational correspondence (often a journal) which is revealing of both personal and professional lives. One prominent feature of their backdrop was the Musical, an initial resort of artistes from the shrinking ballet world.
Subjects include mundane matters such as finances, accommodation, clothing, food, etc. but also: people they know including former members of the Ballets Jooss (Ulla Soederbaum, Rolf Alexander, Noelle de Mosa, Sigurd Leeder, Jooss himself mentioned, Nigel Burke who appears a lot since their fortunes were joined for some time) and others (Hanya Holm, Jack Hylton, Agnes de Mille, Ann Hutchinson, Emile Littler, etc. etc); salary; contracts, auditions; rehearsals; training (eg with Goncharov); injury; the Labour Exchange; life on the edge (Nigel £5 away from penury); progress of productions (eg. Kiss Me Kate); Celtic Ballet; Allen Skinner, eminent pacifist and Jack’s father; problems with other dancers’ moves; news of colleagues; period when Joy had to try to negotiate her way back into a production having said a word out of turn; Swedish ballet; Glyndebourne (with Leeder); theatre and cinema-going; “dance composing”; opportunities in television; “cobbler machine” [Jack developed sideline in making handbags]; “The tappers that do ballet are all without exception terribly bad”; Rambert class (“humiliation after humiliation”); someone at Ballet Rambert had never heard of the Ballets Joost; touring; approach to Jack Hylton promoting a “duet”. The Musicals, London premieres, in the backdrop are: Oklahoma, Kiss Me Kate, Carissima!, Carousel and Paint Your Wagon.
b. C. 30 letters, mostly JES to JBC, but some vice versa (c.1945-6), JES is working at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, and JBC is touring Europe with the Ballets Joost/ENSA, with a batch of further letters from 1940-51 unsorted..
c. C.15 letters from JBC to JES (c.1950), subjects listed on envelope containing the letters include Margaret Morris, Annie Get Your Gun, auditions, classes, Carissima.
d. 1962. Gibraltar (France), 15 page letter, Joy to her mother.
e. 1962-68. Correspondence, c.140 items, including very large quantity of letters from Ervin Kindler, one of their Agents, (distinguished by not being on a Google page), of Centre d’Organisation pour le Developpement et l’Exploitation des Casinos . . .”, then “Directeur pour La France” for “L’Organe du Monde Artistique). With copy letters from JBC and JES (as Emerson and Jayne), and many letters from Joy to her mother describing experiences in European travel and theatres.
f. 1965. Hansa Theater, Hamburg, two 6 page letters, Joy to her mother.
g. 1966. Hansa Theater, Hamburg/ Herault, c.10 letters, Joy to her mother.
h. 1967. France (Europe), c.10 letters, Joy to her mother, inc. a typed letter from the Peacock Theatre, Helsinki, acknowledging their requirement of “a dark background”, and a typed schedule of the tour (Helsinki, Oslo, Paris, Lausanne) to give posting dates. They also went to Bern and Athens.
i. 1967. Finland (Europe), 4 letters, Joy to her mother.
j. 1970. Dublin, c.20 letters, JES to Allen Skinner, his father, with 4 from Joy to her mother.
k. 1970s. France/Europe, inc. performance on the Eiffel Tower, 4 letters or so, Jack (and Joy) to Allen Skinner.
l. Tehran. 1970s, undated 18 page letter or journal, Joy describing their experiences in Tehran, with 3 additional unnumbered pages.
m. Quantity of correspondence mainly between Emerson and Jayne and one of their more important agents, Carmen Bujot, 1970s and 1980s.
n. Massive collection of correspondence, 1959-1993, unsorted, mainly theatrical but some household and financial, including copy letters from JBC and JES and some printed ephemera.

II. DIARIES, 1928, 1950-1999.
a. JBC’s Pocket Diaries:

1928, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1955-7inc., 1959-64inc., 1972-4inc. All but 1928 (as schoolgirl) and 1974 (a full diary, more substantial than the pocket diaries, day/page, with long entries, with a lot of personal and professional activities described) lightly used, those in the early 5os headed by “Annie Get Your Gun” or “Paint Your Wagon” to indicate backcloth.

b. JES’sPocket Diaries:

1951, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957,1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966 (week to view pocket diaries lightly used.

c. JBC’s “Scribbling Diaries”, folio, three days to a page etc. (with a few of more modest size)

Usually detailed: Personal reflection, world events, reminiscences, planning, schedules, travel experiences, provincial and foreign engagements (specializing in “Aladdin”), schedule, personalities, health, investments, world events, professional and personal engagements (eg. Hairdresser’s appointment plays “Pantomime finishes”, reflection of aging and diminished activity, and changes in the world of variety and theatre), many with enclosures (eg. Handbills, correspondence (mainly theatrical, including Carmen Bujot, one of their agents), photographs (some of act esp. 1967), draft letters, etc.)

1965 (“Tizzy” caused by information that Princess Margaret and Tony were to attend a performance).
1966 (Enclosures include thanks for charitable donation, thanks you note from lady-in-waiting to Margaret, press reviews)
1967 (enclosures include French work permit, clippings re. Ballets Jooss, photographs of their act)
1972 (enclosures include accountant’s letter, draft performance schedule for the year, substantial photograph showing aspects of their act)
1973 (enclosures include detailed letters from Jack in Egypt to “Allen” [presumably J. Allen Skinner], long letter from Joy to her mother)
1975 (description of Christmas Party, letter dated 1974 (and later correspondence) from friend who defended a charge of homosexuality in 1967, Joy’s long draft letters from Israel, note re. death of “Karl”)
1976-1982 content as above.
1983 (enclosure a schedule for working in Hong Kong/Macau), material re. the Circus Ross Hanson, Hansa Theater)
1985-86 content as above.
An “Any Year” Diary (1980s), 8vo, crammed with correspondence and bits and pieces.
1990 (lot of correspondence, brief memoirs for a history of her school)
1993 (review of a Glasgow “Aladdin”: “The Magic Carpet speciality of Emerson and Jayne (JES and JBC), first devised in the fifties, is now one of those near-legends of variety that stay a favourite despite the passing years.”
1994 (Information about the sale of the Act on their retirement, material re. David Kerval, dancer with Ballet Jooss etc and the death of JES with biographical notes, the sale of the carpet)
1995 “Travel Diary” (inside cover obit for JES, material for closing down business, Joy reflecting on her widowhood, large quantity of correspondence
1998 (More biographical notes preparation for JBC’s book, Over the Hill with a Magic Carpet).
1999, final diary.


III. Miscellaneous:

a. A very large quantity of manuscript music for their oriental act heavily worked over often with capitalized instructions for the conductor/orchestra, titles including “Snakes & Carpet”, “Streamers”, “Fanfare”, “Umbrellas”, “Fans”with instrument parts, usually marked “Emerson and Jayne [Dance Impressionists]”. Probably prepared by JES, the perfectionist.
b. A clutch of watercolours by JES (some of views taken on tour).
c. Ann Hutchinson, dance notator, wife of Ivor guest, Newsletter, I Nov. 1977, 11 pages, folio, the “Friend” of “Dear Friend” crossed out and “Joy & Jack” added in her hand, part family but substantially about her and her husband’s involvement in the dance scene.
d. Folder containing diary entries and loose correspondence, 1984.
e. Large envelope marked “Writeups”.
f. Folder, poor condition, marked “All Copies”, containing copy letters, reviews, publicity material for Emerson & Jayne”.
g. Envelope containing mainly `letters from Joy to Grandmother and mother on tour Paris, Lausanne, Geneva, 1970.
h. Folder marked “Allen” [Skinner], JES’s father, containing household ephemera and documents, with material relating to Allen’s pacifism, and miscellaneous.
i. Material relating to Joy’s old school, St Felix.
j. Nine (printing) plates of their oriental act, various sizes, attractive effect.
k. File containing quantity of correspondence and diary-type writings by JBC, c.1989-1991.
l. Copies of advertising material (“Steamers”), 41 x 15cm, different colours: “Intrigueingly [sic] Different | Emerson & Jayne | Comedy – Mystery – Spectacle”. With sign, c.75 x 31cm: “Emerson & Jayne | Magic Carpets Incredible”.
m. St Felix School, JBC’s notebook, with enclosed pages of 1959 diary. With her bulging school commonplace book, including journal type entries (inc. theatrical).
n. Typescript material, a large quantity, disordered, mingled with letters etc, preparatory to her book, Over the Hill on a Magic Carpet.
o. Envelope containing British Music Hall Society printed material, letters from Roy Hudd, etc.
p. Folder containing printed material relating to Allen Skinner’s appearance before a Tribunal in 1916 (as Conscientious Objector).
q. Four bound volumes containing “literary” writings by JES (prob.)
r. Folder containing miscellaneous material (Marked “JBC: Miscellaneous” = samples):
i. Two handbills advertising the “inaugural” performance of the Scottish National Ballet (1960)
ii. Carbon copy of list of “Special Requirements” and “Stage Requirements” for “Emerson & Jayne and the Magic Carpet” featured billing, 10-12 minutes, full stage space, non-shiny drapes etc. With a two-page “Rider to Contract” with these and other details.
iii. Correspondence with Barney Colehan re. second appearance in doomed “Good Old Days”.
iv. German Doctor’s diagnosis of JBC’s “Osteochondrose der LWS, Osteoporose, Spondylose . . .” (1991)
v. Carbon copy of article about “The Oriental Fantasy of Emerson and Jayne”, 6pp., fol. A history of their lives and careers, including the origin of their oriental act (flying carpet and snake-charming).
vi. Typescript page with autobiographical piece by JBC for a Parish Magazine.
vii. Copy TLS from JES on behalf of Emerson & Jayne offering their “novelty ‘Oriental’ act” (1960).
viii. [Jooss Ballet] Clipping from the NY Sunday Tribune about Ballets Jooss (“Dance Allied to Drama” etc). Other review clippings on Jooss.
ix. Probationary Sole Agency Agreement with Will Collins (1956).
x. Early description of their pre-magic carpet Oriental Act, typescript, one page
xi. Correspondence and brochures re. Ultra Violet (for act).
xii. Magazine, “Motor Caravanner” (1971)
xiii. Material re. Italian engagement (1962)
xiv. Carbon copy of letter (1959) giving details of their Act (emphasizing the music used for various segments of the Act.
xv. Letter from the William Morris Agency about possibility of TV appearance in the USA (1954)
xvi. Commission Note for appearance at the Stork Club (1955)
xvii. Letter from impresario, Emile Littler, arguing that they should never perform their Novelty Act on TV where, with an audience of 12 million viewers, their act would cease to be Novelty.
xviii. NY Operator’s License (Motor Vehicle).
xix. JES, two page MS. discussion of performing in Tehran.
xx. Copy letter seeking UV “neutralizer”.
xxi. Carbon copy, CV of Jack Skinner, b.1915, to 1952, married JBC in 1943.
xxii. Contrat d’Engagement for Tel Aviv.
xxiii. Standard Contract for appearance in Glasgow in Sinbad the Sailor.


.

Item ID#: 12429

Print   Inquire