Contains chiefly Personal Materials, Diaries, Correspondence,
Scrap-books, Plays, Novels, and Photographs relating to her career as an American
playwright, author, and journalist from the 1910s through the 1960s. Diaries include her
travels to Europe and Moscow in the 1930s, and daily activities for selected years
spanning 1942 to 1970. Noted correspondents include Louise and Walter Arensberg, Arthur
Craven, Maynard Dixon, Helena Modjeska, Robert A. Parker, family and friends,
colleagues, employers, and inter-view-ees, including Sarah Bernhardt and Francisco
Villa. Scrapbooks document her private life; college years at University of California,
1901-1906; early acting, writing, and employment in California, New York, Europe, and
Mexico, 1909-1932; and critical coverage of the productions of her dramatic works from
1918-1949.
Collection Number:
MS 318
Language:
Materials are in English
Repository:
University of Arizona Libraries, Special Collections
University of Arizona
PO Box 210055
Tucson, AZ 85721-0055
Phone: 520-621-6423
Fax: 520-621-9733
URL: http://speccoll.library.arizona.edu/
E-Mail: LBRY-askspcoll@email.arizona.edu
Biographical Note
On October 3, 1885, Sophie Anita Treadwell was born in Stockton, California, to Alfred
B. Treadwell and Nettie Fairchild. From 1902 to 1906, she attended the University of
California, Berkeley, where she participated in the theater arts. After graduation, she
sought work in California as an actress and performer, and assisted Helena Modjeska in
writing her Memoirs. Treadwell returned to San Francisco and began her newspaper career
for the Bulletin. She married another journalist, William O. McGeehan, in 1910. She
traveled to France as a war correspondent, and, by 1918, had moved to New York to work
for the Tribune and other periodicals. She went to Mexico in the 1920s to cover the last
days of Venustiano Carranza, and scooped other papers with her interview of Francisco
Villa in 1921. In the 1930s, Treadwell traveled extensively. She circled the world in a
steamer, and crossed the Atlantic several times to Europe while Machinal played in
London, Moscow, and other venues. Lone Valley and Plumes in the Dust reached the New
York stages. She published a novel, Lusita, and wrote another, Hope for a Harvest. In
the next two decades, Treadwell continued to produce and revise her materials for
publication, and for the emerging media of televi-sion. She retired to Tucson in 1965,
and brought her final version of Women with Lilies to the stage of The University of
Arizona. She died of a stroke on February 20, 1970. William O'Connell McGeehan was born
in San Francisco, California, to Hugh McGee-han and Theresa O'Connell in 1879. He
attended Stanford University, and served in the Philippines during the Spanish American
War. He worked as a journalist in San Francisco for the Evening Post, Examiner and
Bulletin. Around 1914, he moved to New York and became a noted sports reporter for the
New York Journal, the Herald Tribune and Herald. He traveled widely, hunted, wrote
novels and short stories, and commuted between residences in Connecticut and New York.
He died at Sea Island, Georgia, of a heart ailment on November 29, 1933.
Scope and Content Note
Contains chiefly Personal Materials, Diaries, Correspondence, Scrap-books, Plays,
Novels, and Photographs relating to her career as an American playwright, author, and
journalist from the 1910s through the 1960s. Diaries include her travels to Europe and
Moscow in the 1930s, and daily activities for selected years spanning 1942 to 1970.
Noted correspondents include Louise and Walter Arensberg, Arthur Craven, Maynard Dixon,
Helena Modjeska, Robert A. Parker, family and friends, colleagues, employers, and
inter-view-ees, including Sarah Bernhardt and Francisco Villa. Scrapbooks document her
private life; college years at University of California, 1901-1906; early acting,
writing, and employment in California, New York, Europe, and Mexico, 1909-1932; and
critical coverage of the productions of her dramatic works from 1918-1949. Works contain
mainly her plays for stage, but also include television versions; novel drafts for Hope
for a Harvest and The Story; and articles and features for newspapers and periodicals.
Photographic materials consist chiefly of formal portraits by studio photographers;
images of and by her while on trips or assignments in the United States, Europe and
Mexico, including a interview with Francisco Villa in Canutillo; and casual moments with
family members and friends. Also includes a small selection of Papers, 1909-1933, of
husband William O'Connell McGeehan, 1879-1933, journalist and author. Materials may be
found in the following languages: Spanish, French, German, and Russian. Two seven-inch
reels, silent, black and white, circa early 1930s. Selective synopsis. See also additional
McGeehan materials: Correspondence, Box 5; Scrapbook, Box 15; Photographs, Box 21.
Copyright of the Treadwell works is assigned to the Diocese of Tucson. It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner of
the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her
transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The user agrees to indemnify and
hold harmless the Arizona Board of Regents for the University of Arizona, its officers,
employees, and agents from and against all claims made by any person asserting that he
or she is an owner of copyright.
Craven, Arthur, includes Maintenant, 1:1 and
2:2., 1917, 1912-1913
4
19
De Sola, Francisco and Lenore; D'Herbois, Eleanor; Dramatic Workshop
and Technical Institute; Duncan, Bessie; and Durant, Kenneth.,
4
20
Dixon, Maynard; includes poems, portrait and inscribed copy of Maynard
Dixon: Painter of the West., 1916-1920, 1945
4
21
Edwards, Dorothea.,
box
folder
5
1
Fairchild, Anna; Farragut School; and Frey, Eugen.,
5
2
Feibleman, Peter S., 1958-1959
5
3
Gries, Lola., 1931-1955
5
4
Gianolio, Piero; Gill, Becky and Helen Davis; Goeldner, Dolores; Gonet,
Marjorie; Gonzalez, Gilberto; amd Gruner, Anne.,
5
5
Gay, Gregory., 1952-1956
5
6
Gregory, Jack., 1905-1909
5
7
Gregory, Susan Myra, includes her poetry., 1906-1936
5
8
Handgrave, Lisa; Harris, Harwell Hamilton; Hayden, Terese; Hayes,
Marijane; High Class Amusement Enterprises (New York); Hill, Merle Miller
Sherwood; Hillman, Richard Paul; Holmes Line Company; Howard, Mildred; and
Hutton, Corrine.,
Salisbury, Mrs.; San Francisco. Board of Education; San Francisco
Bulletin; San Francisco Call; San Francisco Chronicle; Sanborn, Julia; Saus,
H.F.; Schoenberner, Franz; Schotorino, T (?); Sherner, Jennifer; Skinner,
Constance; Stanford, Alfred; and Steiner, Otto.,
6
9
Sutherland, Luther., 1915-1919, 1950
6
10
Theatre Guild, Inc. (New York), and Tucson Daily Citizen.,
6
11
Treadwell, Alfred B., 1884-1912
6
12
Treadwell, Nettie., 1905-1907
6
13
U-V; U.S.S.R. Society of Cultural Relations; Vogt (?), Ursula;
Vas-Waner, Maria; and Von Neumayer, Charles.,
6
14
Villa, Francisco., 1921
6
15
Wells, Evelyn; Westerwelt-Folina, Mary Beth; Wheeler, Howard;
Whittaker, J.H.E.; Wilder, Mrs.; Williams, Irene and Irma; Wilson, Leon; and
Zuber, Mrs. Carl H.,
Scrapbook 1 covers Treadwell's college years at University of
California at Berkeley. Memorabilia includes dance cards, invita-tions,
pro-grams, letters, photo-graphs, news clippings, grades, and songs, poems,
speeches and plays written by the author., 1901-1906
7
2
Scrapbook 2 is entitled "Vagabondage," and spans her adventures as a
teacher at Yankee Jim's, as a govern-ess in Modoc County, California, and also
her early days of theater and writing in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Includes photo-graphs, letters, theater playbills, play scripts, and newspaper
articles by Treadwell, including her first story published in the San
Fran-cisco Bulletin in 1908. One article covers her theater debut, under the
name of Willia Williams, at the Fischer Theater, San Francisco, in
1907., 1906-1909
box
folder
8
1
Scrapbook 3 includes, "Sophie Treadwell, Her Book," it contains
photographs, poems, letters, and news arti-cles. It includes her early years
with W.O. McGeehan, their wedding announcement in 1910, and typed and
handwritten poems apparently written by Treadwell and McGeehan. A play program
from The Toad, 1912, in which Treadwell performed in Carmel;
various newspaper articles that she wrote for the Bulletin in
1914, and two letters from Jack London and his wife are also
present., 1909-1914
8
2
Scrapbook 4 contains her first serial for the Bulletin,
"An Outcast at the Christian Door." It con-sists of seventeen installments; the
last one, the 18th, appears to be missing. There are also editorials and
responses in reaction to the publication of this serial., 1914
8
3
Scrapbook 8 has approximately twenty articles from the New York
American about the Mohr murder trial of 1916 that Treadwell covered
for the paper. Also contains three other unrelated articles she wrote for this
paper., 1916
box
9
Scrapbook 5 is entirely devoted to another serial, "How I got my
husband and how I lost him: the story of Jean Traig," published in the
Bulletin . It consists of fifty-two install-ments, original
photographs that were used in the articles, and press accounts of Jean Traig
starring in a play that Treadwell subsequently wrote., 1914-1915
box
10
Scrapbook 6 covers the year 1915 when Treadwell was sent to France in
April as a war correspondent for the Bulletin, and also for
Harper's Weekly. The items include passports, French
documents, letters of introduction, postcards, maps, letters, souvenirs and
photographs. There are carbon copies of the six articles she sent to the
Bulletin in letter format, and a letter from her critical
editor unhappy with her writing so far. There is a telegram from Sarah
Bernhardt and a typed interview with her, entitled "Madame Walks
Again"., 1915
box
11
Scrapbook 7 documents when Treadwell went to Mexico as a correspondent
from the New York Tribune in 1920 to cover the murder of the
Mexican president, Don Venustiano Carranza. There are letters, newspaper
articles (some in Spanish) and photographs including some of Francisco "Pancho"
Villa. Includes her exclusive interview with Villa at his ranch, Canutillo, in
Durango, Mexico. In 1924, Treadwell wrote a nine-part series on Mexico titled
"The Mirage of Mexico" for the Tribune, and this series is
included here. Articles concerning her novel about Mexico,
Lusita, published in 1931, are also here., 1920-1932
box
12
Scrapbook 9 encompasses her stage productions, including announcements,
programs and reviews from a variety of eastern newspapers for
Claws (1918, which she acted in), Gringo
(1922, her first Broadway production that she wrote), Lonely Lee
(1923, with Helen Hayes), O Nightingale (1925), Ladies
Leave (1929), The Island (1929), Better to
Marry, Bound and Wild Honey (all in 1927), Lone Valley
(1932), and Plumes in the Dust (1936). Also present are
clippings from 1924 when Treadwell sued John Barrymore over a play about Edgar
Allen Poe that she believed was based on a version that she had written and
given to Barrymore a few years earlier., 1918-1936
box
13
Scrapbook 10 concerns the production of Machinal, based
on the Ruth Snyder and Judd Grey murder case in 1928. It was staged by Arthur
Hopkins with settings by Robert Edmund Jones, and began at the Plymouth theater
starring Zita Johann, and an unknown actor named Clark Gable. There are reviews
of it in London in 1931 under the title The Life Machine. It was
also produced as Mrs. Jones in Moscow in 1934, and there are
Russian news clippings., 1928-1934
box
14
Scrapbook 11 consists of articles and reviews about her Broadway
production of Hope for a Harvest. The play was staged at a
number of Eastern cities and the reviews are from a variety of
newspapers., 1941
box
15
Scrapbook 12 contains clippings and photographs of William O. McGeehan.
There are approximately twenty editorials from his tenure with the
Evening Post in San Francis-co in 1910. As sports editor at
the New York Herald Tribune in 1924, some of his "Down the Line"
columns are present. McGeehan also covered the Scopes trial in Dayton,
Tennessee, for the Tribune in 1927, and there are a few of these
articles. From 1930-1933 he wrote columns of his travels throughout Africa and
Europe, and of his attendance at the 1932 Olympic Games at Lake Placid, New
York. McGeehan died in 1933 in Georgia, and there are articles and tributes to
him from newspapers in America and England. About one-quarter of this scrapbook
consists of photographs of McGeehan and friends during World War I in uniform,
and while hunting, fishing, and camping. Some images include the boxer Gene
Tunney., 1910-1949
Two seven-inch reels, silent, black and white, circa early 1930s. Selective
synopsis.
box
folder
24
1
Street scenes and traveling footage of car going down highway in New
York City and Washington D.C.; different journeys by car, one through oil
country in South-west?; ends with snow skiers going up and down
slopes.,
24
1A
Street scenes and traveling footage of car going down highway in New
York City and Washington D.C.; different journeys by car, one through oil
country in South-west?; ends with snow skiers going up and down slopes, DVD
Access Copy.,
24
2
Sophie Treadwell walking by; poolside with Treadwell in chair;
William McGeehan with car; touring by car in Germany, youth group walks by
with flag, country villages, ferry boat arrival, scenes on board, docking;
Treadwell with dogs.,
24
2B
Sophie Treadwell walking by; poolside with Treadwell in chair;
William McGeehan with car; touring by car in Germany, youth group walks by
with flag, country villages, ferry boat arrival, scenes on board, docking;
Treadwell with dogs, DVD Access Copy.,