Inventory of the Ruth Pryor Memorabilia, 1923-1964 The Newberry Library Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections 60 West Walton Street Chicago, Illinois 60610-7324 USA Phone: 312-255-3506 Fax: 312-255-3646 E-Mail: specialcolls@newberry.org URL: http://www.newberry.org Machine-readable finding aid encoded by Polly Smith, 2009. ©2009.

Administrative Information

Cite As

Ruth Pryor Memorabilia, Midwest Manuscript Collection, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

Provenance

Gift, Ruth Pryor Swanson, 1989.

Processed by

Virginia Hay Smith, 2009.

Access

The Ruth Pryor Memorabilia are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room (Priority III).

Ownership and Literary Rights

The Ruth Pryor Memorabilia are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.

Biography of Ruth Pryor

Chicago ballet dancer.

Born in Chicago June 21, 1906, Ruth Pryor was the premier danseuse of the Chicago Civic Opera and an independent dance artist. Her dance career began at fourteen when she appeared in an act called “Blossoms” for the Midwest vaudeville circuit. At sixteen she joined partner Beatrice Gardel, in a vaudeville and touring act called “Dances of Here and There”. In 1928, she joined the Chicago Civic Opera Company, becoming a soloist. She was the leading dancer with with Edward Caton in a large-scale production of Aida in 1929, and in 1930 she was the first American ballerina as the Swan Queen in a special presentation of Swan Lake.

During the 1930s, Pryor freelanced, touring and performing in various venues, including picture palaces around the country. In 1940, she made a success in a big production of Carmen at Chicago’s Soldier Field. In 1950, she moved to Cleveland with her second husband, and established the Ballet Russe Academy with Laurent Novikoff.

She retired from the school in 1972 and moved west, settling in Albuquerque. She had one daughter, Janis Wildey. Pryor died May 31, 2001, just short of her 95th birthday.

Scope and Content of the Collection

Memorabilia consists of a scrapbook, apparently assembled by a friend, which is primarily of newspaper clippings relating to Pryor’s career in the 1920s and 1930s. There are a few programs, announcements and articles. Also, three loose items: two programs and a copy of The Dance magazine, February, 1930, which has a review of the Chicago Civic Opera’s production of Swan Lake.

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Newberry Library's public catalog. Researchers desiring additional materials on a particular topic should search the catalog using these headings.

Names

• Pryor, Ruth, 1906-2001

Subjects

• Ballet dancers -- United States
• Dancers -- Illinois -- Chicago
• Manuscripts, American -- Illinois -- Chicago
• Scrapbooks -- 1923-1964
• Vaudeville
• Women dancers – Illinois – Chicago