Ann Eve Moss, 1903-1988
Papers, ca. 1920-1990, Papers, ca. 1920-1990, Ms90-028
Ann Eve Moss
Biography
Ann Moss, nee Dressler, was born in New York City in 1903. She took singing and dancing lessons in high school and began performing on the professional stage by the time she graduated. She married Harry Moss, a theatrical agent, in 1922. She spent the years between 1922 and 1930 as a Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl in such productions as "The Three Musketeers," "Garrick Gaieties," and "Funny Face." Moss also modeled for New York Daily News advertisements. In 1927 she gave birth to her only daughter, Marilyn (later known as Alwyn). In 1928 she refused to audition in the nude for producer Earl Carroll's show "Fioretta," brought charges against Carroll before Actor's Equity, the theater union, and won the case in January 1929.
In the late 1930s Moss traveled to Europe, the beginning of a series of trips abroad throughout the remainder of her life. Upon her return to the U.S. she launched into her writing career, and completed the first draft of the novel Catha's Sister, based on her experiences on the stage. When her marriage ended in the early 1940s, she became a freelance secretary. Her employers included Erich Fromm, Rollo May, Countess Mona Bismarck (for whom she later worked full time as an administrative secretary on her estate in Capri, Italy), and Paul Pierre Matisse, son of the painter, for whom she worked in Nice, France. During this time she also worked on another novel (unpublished), titled A Widow's Odyssey. Shorter works she worked on at this time and later in life include children's books The Friends of Tinkle Rescue Club, and The Runaway Balloon (unpublished). In the mid-1960s she moved to Nice, and returned the United States in 1975. She settled in Greensboro, North Carolina. In 1981 she moved to Floyd, Virginia, to live with her daughter, and in 1984 moved to a retirement community in Blacksburg, Virginia. She died five days before her 85th birthday in March 1988.
Scope and Content
The bulk of the materials in the collection consist of photographs, news clippings, correspondence, literary manuscripts, and playbills collected or created by Moss from the 1920s to her death. Copies of her two novels, Catha's Sister and A Mystic Smile, are included here, as well as several of her other shorter writings. The news clippings in- clude editorials in the New York papers about Moss's lawsuit against Earl Carroll. The photographs include many of her as characters in the various plays in which she performed, and several portrait poses. Other materials include correspondence, news clippings, and programs from meetings of The Ziegfeld Club, an organization of former Ziegfeld Follies chorus girls. A draft of the introduction to Friends Of Tinkle Rescue Club, written by Alwyn Moss, is also included.
Provenance
The papers were donated in July 1990 by Alwyn Moss to the Special Collections Department of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Libraries. Processing of the papers was completed in November 1990 by L.H. Katz.
Container List
Box 1
- FOLDER 1 ca. 1900-40--Family photographs
- FOLDER 2 1920s--Clippings
- FOLDER 3 1920s--Playbills
- FOLDER 4 1920s--Photographs (stage, posed)
- FOLDER 5 1920s-30s--Correspondence
- FOLDER 6 ca. 1940s--"The Runaway Balloon"
- FOLDER 7 ca. 1940s--"Catha's Sister" (Copy 1)--Chapters 1-15
- FOLDER 8 ca. 1940s--"Catha's Sister" (Copy 1)--Chapters 16-35
- FOLDER 9 ca. 1940s--"Catha's Sister" (Copy 2)--Chapters 1-15
- FOLDER 10 ca. 1940s--"Catha's Sister" (Copy 2)--Chapters 16-35
- FOLDER 11 1954-59--Passports
- FOLDER 12 1957-86--Correspondence
Box 2
- FOLDER 1 ca. 1960s--"A Widow's Odyssey" (Chapters 1-7)
- FOLDER 2 ca. 1960s--"A Widow's Odyssey" (Chapters 8-17)
- FOLDER 3 ca. 1960s--"A Widow's Odyssey" (Chapters 18-27)
- FOLDER 4 ca. 1975-81--"The Ten Minute Elixir"
- FOLDER 5 1975-81--"Feasts Without Flesh"
- FOLDER 6 1975-85--Clippings
- FOLDER 7 1976-82--The Ziegfield Club`
- FOLDER 8 ca. 1983--"Friends of Tinkle Rescue Club"
- FOLDER 9 1984--"A Year in Paris"
- FOLDER 10 1984-86--Elderhostel certificates
- FOLDER 11 1985--Correspondence to and lists of literary agents and publishers
- FOLDER 12 1985-86--Info re "The Widow's Odyssey" and "Catha's Sister"
Box 3
- FOLDER 1 1986--"The Lamp on the Roof"
- FOLDER 2 1986--"Viewer of the Hour" Magazine contest
- FOLDER 3 1988--Information about Moss's death
- FOLDER 4 1988--ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD NEWS article about Moss, "The Shining Spirit of a Star," by Tracy Wimmer
- FOLDER 5 1990--Introduction to "Friends of Tinkle Rescue Club" by Alwyn Moss
- FOLDER 6 n.d.--Outline for an unnamed play
- FOLDER 7 n.d.--"A Trader's Paradise"
- FOLDER 8 n.d.--Miscellaneous notes and papers
Oversize: Photographs (1920s) and clippings (1928)
Return to:
Guide to the Manuscript Collections in the University Libraries
Manuscript sources for Women's History Research
Please refer to our page giving information on how to duplicate Special Collections Department materials.
Send questions and comments to:
specref@vt.edu
