John Lark Taylor Papers

 Collection
Identifier: MSS.0434

  • Staff Only

Scope and Content Note

The John Lark Taylor Papers contain correspondence, plays and original music by Taylor, photographs, promptbooks, playbills, radio scripts, and other stage and radio memorabilia spanning 1879 to 1944. The collection includes an autobiography by Taylor and an account of his season playing in Hamlet with John Barrymore.

Dates

  • 1879 - 1944

Biography

John Lark Taylor was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1881. He attended Tarbox School and Fall Business College in Nashville before turning his attention to the stage.

As a teen, he played piano to accompany silent films in Nashville's first movie house. His first professional job was a $5/week vaudeville stint in St. Louis when he was 17 years old. The following year, he moved to New York and joined the Augustin Daly Stock Company. His first Broadway play was the Daly production of Taming of the Shrew with Tyrone Power, Sr. After Daly died in 1899, Taylor played with other stock companies in California and Nashville before returning to New York.

By 1906, Lark Taylor had joined the Sothern-Marlowe Company, and he played in theater productions for the company for the next 10 years. In 1922-1923, he played a part in the Arthur Hopkins' production of Hamlet with John Barrymore.

In 1924, Taylor sold his New York residence and moved back to Nashville with his mother. He started a Little Theater and began performing plays in a movie house near the Belcourt Theatre in Hillsboro Village. In 1933 he began doing radio programs for WSM, announcing broadcasts and performing in radio dramas. He continued his radio career until his retirement in 1942.

John Lark Taylor died on March 27, 1946 after a long illness.

Extent

5.04 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The John Lark Taylor Papers contain correspondence, plays and original music by Taylor, photographs, promptbooks, playbills, radio scripts, and other stage and radio memorabilia spanning 1879 to 1944.

Physical Location

Offsite Storage, Special Collections & Archives

Immediate Source of Acquisition

John Lark Taylor bequeathed his collection of personal papers jointly to Peabody College and Vanderbilt University in 1946.

Processing Information

All correspondence is arranged alphabetically. The figure in parentheses immediately following each name denotes the total number of letters from that person in the collection; the dates are for the time of the letters. The full name of the writer of the letter is given whenever possible.

Title
Finding Aid for the John Lark Taylor Papers
Status
Completed
Date
2010
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Vanderbilt University Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Jean and Alexander Heard Library
419 21st Avenue South
Nashville TN 37203 United States


 

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