Modern Manuscripts & Archives at the Newberry

Scrapbook of Ballet dancer Ruth Pryor, born in Chicago in 1906, who began her career in vaudeville as half of the team of "Gardel and Pryor." By 1929 she had become the premier danseuse of the Chicago Civic Opera, and appeared as the first American ballerina to be the Swan Queen in a special production of Swan Lake. The scrapbook includes many newspaper clippings, and a few articles and programs.

Photographs, programs, clippings and other material documenting the dance career of Betty Felsen (1905-2000), Felsen danced in the corps de ballet of the Pavley-Oukrainsky Ballet in Chicago starting at age 15; after ballet she had a vaudeville career with dancing partner Jack Broderick. Subsequently, Felsen started dance schools in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Cleveland, Ohio.