TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview of the Collection

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents

Index Terms

Administrative Information

Detailed Description of the Collection

Correspondence

Photographs

John Rosenfield Collection

Biographical Note

Max John Rosenfield, Jr., was born in Dallas on April 5, 1900, the son of Max John Rosenfield, Sr., and Jenny Lind Kramer Rosenfield. He attended Dallas Public Schools and the University of Texas in Austin. His studies were interrupted by World War I; he finished his college education at Columbia University in New York City. He began work in New York for the Evening Mail as motion picture reviewer but was soon hired from the Mail by Paramount for their publicity department. In 1923 Rosenfield was transferred by Paramount to Dallas. When the company later asked Rosenfield to return to New York, he chose instead to remain in Dallas where he went to work for the Dallas Morning News. In 1925 he was asked by the publisher to develop an amusement department for the News. Rosenfield headed the department until 1957 when he gave up active administrative duties following a coronary. However, he continued to write his widely acclaimed column, "The Passing Show," and major reviews until his taking his full retirement in September 1966. Rosenfield died at his home in Dallas (Park Cities) on November 26, 1966.

While in New York Rosenfield met and married Claire Burger; they had a one son, Max John Rosenfield III.

As arts critic for the Dallas Morning News, John Rosenfield was the leading cultural voice in the Southwest for several decades. He was profiled twice in Newsweek, as well as the subject of articles, chapters and paragraphs in Look, Life, Harper's and other publications. As a nationally recognized critic, he was once asked for permission to use his name to lend authenticity to a movie scene. Rosenfield's knowledge of opera and music brought him almost annual invitations to appear on the Metropolitan Opera Quiz radio program in New York.

TheNew York Times in its obituary for Rosenfield said that "it can be argues that John Rosenfield did more for the arts in Dallas than any other person during a long reign as 'cultural pontiff of the Southwest'," echoing Time Magazine which once stated that the "fact is that culture in Dallas has blossomed like a rose on the dry plains of the Southwest, thanks largely to Rosenfield."

Rosenfield was always conscious of the need to develop the arts in Dallas itself. He was instrumental in the revival of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in the mid-1920s and in the selection of its conductors from Paul Van Katwijk (1925) thought Paul Kletzki (1958). He encouraged Margo Jones from the time she was a student at Texas Women's University; the establishment of the Margo Jones Theatre (one of the first important regional theatres in the United States) in 1945 was due, in large part, to Rosenfield's ability to influence financial backers. Rosenfield was also a leader in the movement which resulted in the building of the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Dallas Theater Center.

The following awards were given to John Rosenfield in recognition of his role in encouragement of the arts:

1955 and 1960 honor award of Southwest Theatre Conference

1956 Critics Award from Screen Directors Guild

1960 Service to Music in Dallas award from Sigma Alpha Iota

1965 honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Southwestern University, Georgetown.

1966 annual cultural service award of Big D Chapter of B'nai B'rith Women, which named Rosenfield as "Mr. Show Business"

As a memorial, in 1967 a John Rosenfield Scholarship in Playwriting was established at the Southern Methodist University School of the Arts.

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Scope and Contents

The John Rosenfield Collection, ca. 1910-1967, primarily concerns his years as Amusement Editor and critic for the Dallas Morning News. A concentration of material for 1957 and 1965 reflects periods of recuperation from illness when he did more work at home. The collection was presented to the Dallas Public Library by his widow, Mrs. Claire Rosenfield, in 1968.

The bulk of the collection (3 boxes) consists of correspondence (letters, cards, telegrams, postcards) from organizations, performers, or Dallas Morning News readers to John Rosenfield and carbon copies of his replies. This material is arranged alphabetically in folders according to name of the originating individual or organization; Rosenfield's responses are interfiled in these folders. Also among the papers are a folder containing articles and a lecture written by Rosenfield, a folder containing printed material about Rosenfield (xeroxed clippings, programs, magazine articles), and a folder containing miscellaneous personal correspondence (such as an exchange of letters with the Dallas Power and Light Company over an electric bill).

The collection also contains a box of photographs, approximately a third of which are publicity photographs of celebrities. A majority of the remainder are Dallas Morning News staff photos showing Rosenfield either alone or posing with celebrities. There are a few pictures of John Rosenfield as a child and a young man. The photo files re arranged alphabetically. One set of slides, a double set of prints, and their original negatives are of the Rosenfield home at 3536 University, University Park, taken in 1967 after Rosenfield's death.

The collection is by no means fully representative of John Rosenfield's life and work. However, a concentration of material dated 1957 reflects the broad range of duties, request, interest and activities of John Rosenfield in his role of critic for the Dallas Morning News. Most of the correspondence files contain a solitary letter and/or response, but certain correspondence are on-going (such as that with Antal Dorati, Mary Martin, the Yuhudi Menuhin family, and the Van Cliburn family). Rosenfield's long term and intimate involvement with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra is particularly apparent (for example, a sheaf of birthday telegrams sent to John Rosenfield by each individual member of the Symphony); yet there is little about the Margo Jones Theatre or the Dallas Theater Center.

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Index Terms

This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.

Persons:

Organizations:

Family Names:

Places:

Subjects:

Occupations:

Titles:

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

MA68-1 John Rosenfield Collection, Texas/Dallas History & Archives Division, Dallas Public Library

Processing Information

Processed by Katherine Faust

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Detailed Description of the Collection