Request Checked Items
University of Texas at Austin

Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach

An Inventory of Their Papers at the Harry Ransom Center

Creator: Jackson, Anne, 1925-2016 and Wallach, Eli, 1915-2014
Title: Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach Papers
Dates: 1928-2016
Extent: 85 document boxes, 8 oversize boxes (osb) (39 linear feet), 8 oversize folders (osf), 2 galley files (gf)
Abstract: The Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach Papers document the lives and careers of the prominent American acting couple from their early stage and television appearances in the 1940s through their final performances on film in the 2000s and include scripts, photographs, posters, theater programs, clippings, correspondence, and scrapbooks, as well as manuscripts and other material relating to their memoirs and other writings, all dating from 1928 to 2016.
Call Number: Film Collection FI-05251
Language: English, Hebrew, Italian, and Spanish
Access: Open for research. Researchers must create an online Research Account and agree to the Materials Use Policy before using archival materials. To request access to electronic files, please email Reference.
Use Policies: Ransom Center collections may contain material with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in the collections without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the Ransom Center and The University of Texas at Austin assume no responsibility.
Restrictions on Use: Certain restrictions apply to the use of electronic files. Researchers must agree to the Materials Use Policy for Electronic Files before accessing them. Original computer disks and forensic disk images are restricted. Copying electronic files, including screenshots and printouts, is not permitted. Authorization for publication is given on behalf of the University of Texas as the owner of the collection and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder which must be obtained by the researcher. For more information please see the Ransom Centers' Open Access and Use Policies.


Administrative Information


Preferred Citation Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach Papers (Film Collection FI-05251). Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.
Acquisition: Purchase (16-12-011-P), 2016
Processed by: Katherine Mosley, 2018
Repository:

Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

Biographical Sketch


Actors and married couple Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach, noted for their extensive careers in theater, film, and television, studied at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre and were charter members of The Actors Studio in New York. They first performed together in an Equity Library Theater production of Tennessee Williams’ This Property Is Condemned in 1946 and went on to act, separately and together, in other plays by Williams as well as in works by Jean Anouilh, Alan Ayckbourn, Eugene Ionesco, H. S. Kraft, Arthur Miller, Clifford Odets, Murray Schisgal, George Bernard Shaw, and other playwrights. Jackson and Wallach were married on March 5, 1948, and they had three children, Peter, Roberta, and Katherine Wallach, and three grandsons, Jason, Tyler, and Sean Wallach.
Anne Jackson was born Anna Jane Jackson, the third daughter of Stella Germain Murray and John Jackson, on September 3, 1925, in Millvale, Pennsylvania. Her father, a barber, had emigrated from Croatia via Germany and London, changing his name from Jaksekovitch to Jackson. In 1933, Jackson’s family moved from rural Pennsylvania to Brooklyn, New York. Jackson enjoyed performing, partly to escape from the strife between her Irish Catholic mother and her Bolshevik father and later from her mother’s mental illness and hospitalization, and she won a local talent contest at age eleven. After graduating from high school in 1943, she enrolled in an evening drama class taught by Herbert Berghof at the New School of Social Research. Later that year, she earned a scholarship to study acting full-time at The Neighborhood Playhouse. After being a finalist in the John Golden talent auditions, she accepted a role in Margaret Webster and Eva Le Gallienne’s touring production of The Cherry Orchard (1944). Her first principal role on Broadway was in the play Signature (1945), which closed after two performances. She then performed in several plays as a member of the American Repertory Company (1946-1947) and in several other short-lived productions before being cast as Nellie Ewell in the original production of Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke (1948).
Other stage roles included Absent Friends (1977), Arms and the Man (1950), The Glass Menagerie (1959), Lost in Yonkers (1992), Love Letters (1991), Luv (1964), The Madwoman of Chaillot (1985, 2001), Major Barbara (1956), Mr. Peters’ Connections (1998), Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1953), Promenade, All! (1972), Rhinoceros (1961), and Twice Around the Park (1982), among others. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in Middle of the Night (1956), and she won an Obie Award in 1963 for The Typists and The Tiger.
Jackson made her film debut in 1950 in So Young, So Bad, and she went on to appear in The Bell Jar (1979), Dirty Dingus Magee (1970), Folks! (1992), How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life (1968), The Journey (1959), Lovers and Other Strangers (1970), Nasty Habits (1976), The Secret Life of an American Wife (1968), The Shining (1980), Tall Story (1960), The Tiger Makes Out (1967), Zig Zag (1970), and other films.
Her numerous television appearances included many live dramas during the early days of television, as well as later television movies, such as Blinded by the Light (1980), The Family Man (1979), Leave ’em Laughing (1981), A Private Battle (1980), Sam’s Son (1984), Sticks and Bones (1973), and A Woman Called Golda (1982). Jackson also appeared on episodes of such series programs as Gunsmoke (1972), Law & Order (1997), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1972), and Rhoda (1977), among others. Anne Jackson died April 12, 2016, in New York City.
Eli Harold Wallach was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 7, 1915, the son of Polish immigrants Bertha Schorr and Abraham Wallach. Although they were Jewish, Wallach and his three siblings grew up in Red Hook, an Italian-American neighborhood where their parents owned a candy store. Wallach earned a B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin in 1936 and a master’s degree in education from City College of New York in 1938 before attending The Neighborhood Playhouse from 1938 to 1940. Wallach was drafted into the army in February 1941; while serving in the medical administrative corps during World War II, he also participated in the production of theatrical revues for soldiers. Upon completion of his military service, Wallach returned to New York and began his acting career. He first appeared on Broadway in Skydrift (1945) and performed in Washington, D.C. in Horton Foote’s People in the Show (1946), in various productions as a member of the American Repertory Company (1946-1947), and in Katharine Cornell’s production of Antony and Cleopatra (1947) before being cast in the hit play Mister Roberts (1949). Wallach earned a Tony Award for his performance in Tennessee Williams’ The Rose Tattoo (1951) and created the role of Kilroy in Williams’ Camino Real (1953). He received an Obie Award for The Typists and The Tiger in 1963.
Wallach was also known for his stage roles in The Cold Wind and the Warm (1958), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1978), The Flowering Peach (1994), Luv (1964), Mademoiselle Colombe (1954), Major Barbara (1956), The Price (1992), Rhinoceros (1961), The Teahouse of the August Moon (1954), Visiting Mr. Green (1997), and many other plays.
Wallach won a BAFTA award for his film debut, Baby Doll (1956), which was written by Tennessee Williams and directed by Elia Kazan. Among Wallach’s best-known films are The Deep (1977), The Godfather: Part III (1991), The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly (1967), The Holiday (2006), How the West Was Won (1962), How to Steal a Million (1966), Lord Jim (1965), The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Misfits (1961), Seven Thieves (1960), The Tiger Makes Out (1967), The Two Jakes (1990), and The Victors (1963). In 2010, Wallach was awarded an Honorary Academy Award for his lifetime of screen achievements.
Wallach’s work in television began in 1949 on The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse and included television movies, such as The Executioner’s Song (1982), Sam’s Son (1984), Skokie (1981), and his Emmy-Award winning Poppies Are Also Flowers (1966), as well as series episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1988), Batman (1967), Highway to Heaven (1986, 1987), Law & Order (1992), and numerous other programs. His final television appearance was in 2009 on the series Nurse Jackie; he received his fifth Emmy nomination for that role. Eli Wallach died on June 24, 2014, in New York City.

Sources:


In addition to material found within the Jackson and Wallach Papers, the following sources were used:
"Anne Jackson." Film Reference, Advameg, Inc., 2018, www.filmreference.com/film/55/Anne-Jackson.html
"Eli Wallach." Film Reference, Advameg, Inc., 2018, http://www.filmreference.com/Actors-and-Actresses-Va-Wi/Wallach-Eli.html
IMDb, IMDb.com, Inc., 1990-2018, www. imdb.com
Internet Broadway Database, The Broadway League, 2001-2018, www.ibdb.com/
"Jackson, Anne." Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television, The Gale Group, Inc., 2004, www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/jackson-anne-1926
Lortel Archives Internet Off-Broadway Database, Lucille Lortel Foundation, 2018, http://www.lortel.org/Archives
"Wallach, Eli." Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television, The Gale Group, Inc., 2004, www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/film-and-television-biographies/eli-wallach

Scope and Contents


The Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach Papers document the lives and careers of the prominent American acting couple from their early stage and television appearances in the 1940s through their final performances on film in the 2000s and include scripts, photographs, posters, theater programs, clippings, correspondence, and scrapbooks, as well as manuscripts and other material relating to their memoirs and other writings. The papers date from 1928 to 2016 (bulk 1945-2008) and are organized in eight series: I. Performances (1945-2011, 44.5 boxes); II. Awards and Honors (1975-2011, 2 boxes); III. Correspondence (1935-2016, 2 boxes); IV. Personal Material (1928-2016, 19.5 boxes); V. Photographs (1934-2001, undated, 2 boxes); VI. Press and Publicity (1947-2014, 1 box); VII. Writings by Jackson and Wallach (1962-2006, 11.5 boxes); and VIII. Works by Others (1956-2008, undated, 2.5 boxes). For each series and subseries--with the exception of the Correspondence series--material is arranged alphabetically first by that which relates to Jackson individually, followed by the material which relates only to Wallach, and then by the material which relates to the couple jointly.
Actors, writers, directors, and other individuals represented or frequently referenced in the papers include Jackie Cooper, Tammy Grimes, Julie Harris, Elia Kazan, E. G. Marshall, Anne Meara, Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe, Inge Morath, Robert Morley, Patricia Neal, Joseph Papp, Tony Randall, Murray Schisgal, Lois Sieff, Maureen Stapleton, David J. Stewart, Jerry Stiller, Betsy von Furstenberg, and Tennessee Williams.
The Wallach household wrote notes, messages, and other jottings on the versos of discarded script pages, and such script fragments are noted in the container list. Folder labels written by Jackson, Wallach, or their children are indicated by single quotation marks in the folder descriptions.
Series I. Performances is divided into four subseries: A. Film, 1950-2010; Subseries B. Television, 1957-2005; Subseries C. Theater and Other Live Appearances, 1945-2011, and Subseries D. Recordings and Audiobooks, 1962-1992. Of particular note in the papers are Wallach’s heavily annotated scripts of Arthur Miller’s film The Misfits (1961), Tennessee Williams’ film Baby Doll (1956), and Williams’ plays The Rose Tattoo (1951) and Camino Real (1953). Scripts of The Exercise (1967), Luv (1964), Mademoiselle Colombe (1954), Major Barbara (1956), Promenade, All! (1972), Rhinoceros (1961), and Twice Around the Park (1982) are also present. Notable production and publicity photographs include those from the films Baby Doll (1956), The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life (1968), The Journey (1959), The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Misfits (1961), So Young, So Bad (1950), and The Tiger Makes Out (1967); from stage productions of Camino Real (1953), Mademoiselle Colombe (1954), Magnolia Alley (1949), Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1953), Rhinoceros (1961), The Rose Tattoo (1951), The Scarecrow (1953), Summer and Smoke (1948), and Twice Around the Park (1982); and from television productions of Dear Friends (1967), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1959), The Lark (1957), Lullaby (1960), I, Don Quixote (1959), and Rocket to the Moon (1986).
Staged readings and other appearances by Jackson and Wallach at benefits, tributes, and other occasions are documented, as are their joint presentations of evenings of poetry, selected scenes, and anecdotal reminiscences.
Series II. Awards and Honors primarily includes invitations, programs, clippings, and photographs relating to award ceremonies and events honoring the actors. Among notable materials are those relating to Wallach’s Honorary Oscar, Wallach’s Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Texas, and the couple’s T. Schreiber ‘Life in the Theatre’ Achievement Awards. Jackson and Wallach were crowned King and Queen of Brooklyn at the Welcome Back to Brooklyn Homecoming Festival in June 1998, and a memory book of letters and photographs from colleagues and friends is present, along with clippings, a press kit, and other items associated with that event.
Letters addressed individually to either Wallach or Jackson, as well as letters addressed to the couple jointly, are interfiled and arranged chronologically in Series III. Correspondence. An Index of Correspondents at the end of this finding aid contains locations for all correspondence in the collection, with the exception of that in Wallach’s military papers.
Among personal materials in Series IV are Jackson’s engagement calendars (some with journal and other entries), notes on student scenes and other items relating to scene study classes she taught at Herbert Berghof Studio, Wallach’s military service papers, a limited number of prints and negatives from his photography hobby, and numerous theater programs from productions that they attended.
Joint and individual portraits and other photographs are present in Series V. Photographs. Actors, politicians, and family members who are in photographs are noted in the container list.
Series VI. Press and Publicity is comprised of interviews with and general articles about Jackson, Wallach, and their children. Clippings related to specific productions are filed with other materials from those productions in Series I. Performances.
Series VII. Writings by Jackson and Wallach consists primarily of materials relating to their memoirs, although articles, essays, eulogies, and other writings are also present. Materials from Jackson’s autobiography Early Stages (1979) include publishing correspondence, drafts, proofs, promotional material, and review clippings. In addition, Jackson’s notes and draft pages for a proposed sequel are present, as are her notebooks containing journal entries, doodles, recipes, quotes, dreams, notes about books, movies, and plays, and other jottings, which she used as an aid for writing it. Wallach’s memoir, The Good, the Bad, and Me: In My Anecdotage (2005), is represented by interview typescripts, draft pages, correspondence, and review clippings.
Series VIII. Works by Others include scripts of Edward Albee’s Counting the Ways, Harley Granville-Barker’s Deburau, George Tabori’s Mein Kampf and Weisman and Copperface: A Jewish Western, and various plays by Joe Pintauro and Murray Schisgal, as well as materials for two comic books starring Wallach by Don Bethman and a photocopy typescript synopsis for a sequel to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly by Luciano Vincenzoni.

Related Material


For additional materials related to Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach at the Harry Ransom Center, see holdings for Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., Joseph Abeles, Mel Gussow, Lillian Hellman, Al Hirschfeld, Coleman A. Jennings, Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Daniel Stern, Tom Stoppard, Tennessee Williams, and Audrey Wood.
Among other institutions with Jackson and Wallach materials are Bowling Green State University (Dick Perry Collection and Gish Film Theater Collection); Columbia University Libraries (Tennessee Williams Papers); Dartmouth Library (Budd Schulberg Papers); The Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University (Joseph Anthony, Richard Condon, Libby Holman, John Patrick, Suzanne Pleshette, and Sam Wanamaker collections); The Library of Congress; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; and The Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research (Actors Studio Collection of Recordings).

Separated Material


Commercial sound recordings, including audio books, and unpublished, non-commercial sound recordings are cataloged separately.
Non-commercial moving image compact discs and VHS video tapes are cataloged separately.
Eli Wallach’s BAFTA award, Emmy award statue, honorary Oscar award statue, and University of Texas Distinguished Alumnus award and medallion; Eli Wallach’s nameplate; and Anne Jackson’s notepad holder were transferred to the Ransom Center Personal Effects Collection and will be described in the Center’s Personal Effects and Objects database. To request access to Wallach’s award statues, please email the Center’s curator of Film at film@hrc.utexas.edu.
One disc containing nine JPEG files was transferred to the Center’s Electronic Records Collection. They are described in this finding aid and are available to patrons in the Center’s Reading and Viewing Room.

Index Terms


People

Grimes, Tammy
Harris, Julie, 1925-2013
Kazan, Elia
Miller, Arthur, 1915-2005
Monroe, Marilyn
Morley, Robert
Neal, Patricia, 1926-2010
Papp, Joseph
Randall, Tony
Schisgal, Murray, 1926-
Sieff, Lois
Stapleton, Maureen
Stewart, David J., 1915-1966
Von Furstenberg, Betsy, 1931-2015
Williams, Tennessee, 1911-1983

Organizations

Actors Studio (New York, N.Y.)
Guild Hall of East Hampton
Herbert Berghof Studio
Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre
New York Shakespeare Festival
Theater Guild. Theatre at Sea

Subjects

Actors--United States--20th century
Actors--United States--Portraits
American drama--20th century
Dramatists, American--20th century
Motion Picture producers and directors--United States
Motion Pictures, American
Theater--Great Britain--20th century
Theater--Production and direction
Theater--United States--20th century

Document Types

Address books
Appointment books
Clippings
Correspondence
Digital images
Diplomas
Film stills
Galley proofs
Interviews
Journals
Military records
Notebooks
Photographs
Playbills
Postcards
Posters
Scrapbooks
Screenplays
Scripts
Theater programs

Container List