Audrey Williams papers

Collection

Identifier: Dance-MS-WilliamsA

Staff Only

Scope and content of the collection

Scrapbooks, photographs, postcards, and some clippings and publicity material from dancer Audrey Williams. Photographs are generally of other entertainers, and often signed. There are a few photographs of family members, unidentified. The scrapbooks contain more photographs, newsclippings, and ephemera from Williams's stage performances and travels. These include hotel letterhead and napkins, promotional brochures and tent cards, reviews, postcards, cocktail napkins, and occasionally greeting cards and telegrams.

Dates

Creation: 1910s-1990s
Creation: Majority of material found within 1940-1949

Creator

Williams, Audrey, 1926-2019 (Person)

Language

Materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

The Audrey Williams papers are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).

Biography of Audrey Williams

Chicago theatrical and nightclub dancer.

Audrey Williams (later Audrey Williams Duda Snyder) was a Chicago area performer born in 1926. Her dance career seems to have begun in 1934 with Jo. Keith’s World Fair Revue. Additionally, Williams performed with the Emily G. Hoffman School of Dancing at Northcenter Theatre from 1936 to 1940. Beginning on September 6, 1946, Williams began performing with the Dorothy Hild Dancers at the Edgewater Beach Hotel, often accompanied by the George Olsen Orchestra. Her time at the Edgewater Beach Hotel seems to have concluded in 1949 coinciding with her marriage to Henry (Hank) Duda. Audrey and Hank Duda lived in Niles, Illinois, and had five children. Later Williams married Clarence Snyder and moved to Northbrook, and became stepmother to Snyder's three children.

Williams passed away at the age of 94 January 24, 2019.

Extent

3.1 Linear Feet (1 box and 2 oversize boxes)

Additional Description

Abstract

Scrapbooks, photographs, postcards, and some clippings and publicity material from dancer Audrey Williams, who joined the Dorothy Hild dancers and performed stage shows at Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel, as well as touring with the USO during World War II.