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Thomas P. Cullinan papers

Special Collections and Archives

Thomas P. Cullinan papers

Special Collections and Archives

Thomas P. Cullinan papers

Thomas P. Cullinan papers

Finding Aid

Prepared by Brian Leszcz, August 1997; Edited April 2016; Last Updated: March 2020


Inclusive Dates: 1940-1994
Extent: 14.5 cubic feet (23 boxes,)
Physical Location: 11th floor


Biographical Note: Thomas Cullinan, born on November 4, 1919, was a Cleveland author and playwright. He graduated from Cathedral Latin High School in 1938 and attended Western Reserve University for three years. After leaving Western Reserve he worked as a roofing sale sman for several years. In 1945 he started working for the Cleveland Plain Dealer where he worked for the accounting department. In 1957 he left the Plain Dealer and began writing for television station KYW Channel 3's weekly television series titled Breakthrough, a program which examined the lives of famous scientists. He left Channel 3 and from 1959 to 1967 he wrote and produced the television show Perpsective for Western Reserve University.

Throughout his career he wrote various radio commercials, industrial films, documentaries, and television scripts. In the early part of his career he concentrated on play writing. His early plays include St. Columkille's Eve, which in 1948 was under option to be produced on Broadway, Native Shore, Maddigans Wedding, and First Warm Day of Spring. His greatest commercial successes were Mrs. Lincoln which was produced by the Cleveland Play House in 1968 and was held ov er for six months. His Black Horse Tavern was produced in 1976 and was Cleveland's Bicentennial play.

He was the winner of several awards including the Cleveland Arts Prize in 1971 and two Ford Foundation grants. The first, in 1964, allowed him to spend six months in Berlin as part of the Literarisches Colloquium. Also at this six person colloquium was British playwright Tom Stoppard who wrote the original one act version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, which was produced along with Cullinan's one act play The Sentinel.

The other Ford grant, awarded in 1966, sent him to the University of Utah for one year where he was playwright in residence. While there his play Madigans Wedding was produced.

Later in his career Cullinan's emphasis shifted to writing novels. His novel The Beguiled was published in 1966 and in 1970 was made into a movie starring Clint Eastwood. His other novels include The Besieged, The Eighth Sacrament, a nd the The Bedeviled.

Throughout his life he was keenly interested in helping those interested in the theater. He participated in Cuyahoga Community College's Writer's Conference in 1977 and 1978. From 1978 to 1995 he was a judge for the Marlilyn Bianchi Kids' Playwriting Festival. It was while attending the 1995 festival that he collapsed and died on June 11, 1995.

His last play The Rose of Tralee was a college graduation gift to his son. It was finished posthumously by his son and his wife and was produced by the Dobama Theatre in 1996.


Scope and Content: The collection contains business and personal correspondence, as well as an extensive amount of his writings, including drafts of his plays, novels, and short stories. It also contains reviews of his works, and materials about the theater.


Acquisition Information: Thomas Cullinan's papers were placed on deposit with Kent State's Department of Special Collections and Archives by his wife, Helen Borsick Cullinan, in November of 1996.


Series 1: Manuscripts

Box 1
Folder--Contents

1-80: Unpublished manuscript titled Vincent and Ellie, four copies
81: Incomplete elements of Vincent and Ellie, chapters 10-13
82-91: Incomplete copy of the manuscript Bedeviled
92-106: Copy of the manuscript The Besieged
107-108: Part of Eighth Sacrament
109: Chapters 1-7 and 9 of Eighth Sacrament

Box 2
Folder--Contents

1-54: Manuscript The Betrayed, 3 copies
55: Proposal for manuscript titled Bones, a sequel to Eighth Sacrament
56-62: Chapters 1-7 of Bones
63-131: Manuscript Bones, also titled Bones of Contention, three copies
132: One extra chapter 6 of Bones
133: Synopsis of Bones

Box 3
Folder--Contents

1-72: Two copies of The Beguiled (which was originally titled A Painted Devil)
73-82: Unpublished manuscript, Slaves
83-85: Slaves, pages 145-210
86-106: Unpublished manuscript, Murder at Manasas

Box 4
Folder--Contents

1-84: Murder at Manasas
85-86: Two folders of photocopies about the Lusitania
and the Uinited States entrance into the First World War
87-127: Unpublished manuscript, The Lusitania Letter
128: Annotated chapter of the Lusitania Letter

Box 5
Folder--Contents

1-41: The Lusitania Letter, 2 copies
42-140: The Lusitania Letter, incomplete elements

Box 6
Folder--Contents

1-90: The Man Who Became Santa Clause, unpublished manuscript, 6 copies

Box 7
Folder--Contents

Lilly Malone, unpublished manuscipt

1-6: Chapters 1-6
7: Summary of books 2-4
8-14: Chapters 1-7
15: Book 2, chapter 1
16-22: Book 1, chapters 1-7
23: Book 2, chapter 1
24: Synopsis
25-31: Chapters 1-6
32: Chapter 2 of book 2
33: Summary
34-37: Chapters 1-5
38-39: Chapter 1-2
40-45: Chapters 1-6
46: Synopsis
47: Endings
48-51: Notes
52: Criticism of the manuscript

Series 2: Plays

Box 8
Folder--Contents

1-10: O'Malley's Wake, 2 copies
12-18: O'Malley's Wake, acts 2 and 3 plus notes and revisions
19-23: Emperor of the World, five copies
24-38: A Game for Two Players, later titled The Attic
39: Part of The Attic
40: Reviews of The Attic
41-44: Lincoln and Herndon
45-54: The City is Burning, 3 copies (This is a play version of the Besieged.)
55: Parts of The City is Burning
56-67: The Last Three Days of the Empire, 4 copies
68-70: The Last Three Days of the Empire, incomplete
71-72: Mutiny on the Somers
73-79: Mutiny on the Somers, incomplete parts

Box 9
Folder--Contents

1: Playbill and tickets for First Warm Day in Spring
2: Synopsis for First Warm Day in Spring
3: Beginning of First Warm Day in Spring as a novel
4-18: Copies of First Warm Day in Spring, 5 copies
19-39: Notes/ drafts of First Warm Day in Spring
40-48: Night of the Tiger, 3 copies
49-51: Miss Hatch and the Poet
52: Domestic Issue, only act one of three acts
53-54: Billy Boy
55: Brownstone
56: Posthumus article about Rose of Tralee
57-59: Notes, playbills, reviews of Rose of Tralee
60-71: Rose of Tralee, 3 copies

Box 10
Folder--Contents

1-10: Proserpero and Friends , five copies
11-17: Parts of a play titled Native Shore
18-20: Untitled play about hostages on a bus
21: Criticism of play St. Columkille's Eve
22-27: St. Columkille's Eve
28-29: Untitled play about Cain and Abel, 2 copies
30: Black Horse Tavern notes
31: Black Horse Tavern synopsis
32-40: Black Horse Tavern, 3 copies
41: Domestic Issue, Act 1
42-45: Mrs Lincoln, scrapbook material, playbills, and notes
46-51: Mrs Lincoln, 2 copies
52-54: Mrs Lincoln, revised copy
55: Mrs Lincoln, notes
56-57: Outline of a play titled A Fourth of July in Toronto
58: Billy Boy

Series 3: Short Stories, Newspaper Articles, and Miscellaneous

Box 11
Folder--Contents


1-4: Untitled story about tourists in England
5-6: Untitled first two chapters "Tom Sawyer" story
7: Four short stories: Untitled; "The Wayfarers"; "The Fugitive"; "The Players"
8: Short story "Everybody's got a Christmas Tree"
9: Untitled short story about a married couple and a banshee
10-12: "Letter to the President," 3 copies
13-14: "Nicholas Tyndale," 2 copies
15-16: Poems
17: Reviews written by Thomas Cullinan for the Cleveland Plain Dealer
18-19: "Mister Hickey" short stories: "Introducing Mr. Hickey"; "Mr. Hickey and the New York Elections"; "Introducing Mr. Hickey"; "Mr. Hickey and the Peregrinating Canaries"; "Mr. Hickey and the Misunderstood Man"; "Mr. Hickey at Valley Forge"; "Mr. Hickey and the Scavengers"; "Mr. Hickey and the One Legged Pigeon"
20: Ireland stories written by Thomas Cullinan
for the Cleveland Plain Dealer
21: Informational movie about Bellefaire hospital, incomplete
22: Untitled essay on historical fiction

Series 4: Radio and Television Scripts

Box 12
Folder--Contents

1: Radio Script for the Ohio Bell Telephone Co., titled "The Ohio Story"

Breakthrough Television Scripts:

2: "George Washington Carver"
3: "The Measurement of Time"
4: "Albert Einstein"
5: "Communication though the Air"
6: "The St. Lawrence Seaway"

Perspective television scripts:

7: "The Measurement of Blood Pressure"
8: Title page missing, about big brothers
9: Title page missing, about Norman Cousins
10: Outline for the 1960-1961 Perspectivetelevsion season
11: "Undergraduate Research Participation," January 30, 1960
12: "Blood Research and Distribution - 1960," March 12, 1960
13: "Changing Libraries for a Changing World," April 2, 1960
14: "Mental Drugs," April 9, 1960
15: "Theatre-1960," April 23, 1960
16: "Aging in America" October 9, 1960
17: "Interview with Max Lerner" October 30, 1960
18: "What is an Informed Electorate" November 6, 1960
19: "Information Searching" November 27, 1960
20: "Liberia" March 25, 1961
21: "Abbey Theatre," April 1, 1961
22: "Radiation Research-1961," April 22, 1961
23: "The Minority and the Community," October 7, 1961
24: "Crisis in the Congo," January 14, 1962
25: "Western Reserve University Trio," March 31, 1962
26: Televsion script titled "The Assassin"

Other television scripts:

27: Television script titled "The Fugitives"
28-29: Television script titled "The Prisoner," 2 copies
30: Television script titled "Wednesday's Child"
31-34 :Television script titled "The Wayward Angel," 4 copies
35: Part of a television script titled "The Cherry Pickers"
36: Script titled "Take the Stand John Brown"
37-40: Play/ Television script "The Constitution and Sam Sheppard"
41: Commercial for Duquesne Light
42: Part of a Commercial for Montgomery Ward
43: Television script "The Human Adventure: Einstein Theory" (Revised Repeat)

Series 5: Notes

Box 13
Folder--Contents


1-2: Notes for Billy Boy
3: Folder marked documentary materials
4: Notes
5: Short story notes
6: Notes from Black Horse Tavern
7: Notes for O'Malley's Wake
8-9: Miscellaneous
10: Notes frpm an envelope marked "end of summer"
11: Notes from a folder marker "Letter for the President"
12: Notes from a folder marked "Lusitania Letter"
13: Notes from a folder marked "City is Burning"
14: Notes from a folder marked "Mutiny"
15: Notes from a folder marked "McCarthy"

Box 14
Folder--Contents


1-58: Notes

Box 15
Folder--Contents

1-88: Notes

Series 6: Business Correspondence

Box 16
Folder--Contents

1-2: Undated business correspondence
3: Undated correspondence from the Lucy Kroll agency
4: 1945
5: 1946
6: 1948
7: 1949
8: 1950
9: 1951
10: 1952
11: 1953
12: 1954
13: 1955
14: 1956
15: 1957
16: 1958
17: 1959
18: 1960
19: 1961
20: 1962
21: 1963
22: 1964
23: 1965
24: 1966
25: 1966
26: 1967
27: 1968
28: 1968

Box 17
Folder--Contents

1: 1969, January-April
2: 1969, May-December
3: 1970, January-July
4: 1970, August-December
5: 1971
6: 1972
7: 1973
8: 1974
9: 1975
10: 1976
11: 1977
12: 1977
13: 1978
14: 1979
15: 1980
16: 1981
17: 1982
18: 1983
19: 1984
20: 1985
21: 1986
22: 1987
23: 1988
24: 1989
25: 1990
26: 1991
27: 1992
28: 1993
29: 1994

Series 7: Personal Correspondence

Box 18
Folder--Contents

1: Undated cards
2: Undated cards
3: Undated correspondence
4: Blank cards
5: 1940
6: 1943
7: 1944
8: 1945
9: 1948
10: 1949
11: 1950
12: 1951
13: 1952
14: 1953
15: 1954
16: 1955
17: 1956
18: 1957
19: 1959
20: 1960
21: 1961
22: 1962
23: 1963
24: 1964
25: 1965
26: 1966
27: 1967
28: 1968
29: 1969
30: 1970
31: 1971
32: 1972
33: 1973
34: 1974
35: 1975
36: 1976
37: 1977

Box 19
Folder--Contents

1: 1978
2: 1979
3: 1980
4: 1981
5: 1982
6: 1982 stay at the Hannah House
7: 1983
8: 1984
9: 1985
10: 1986
11: 1987
12: 1988
13: 1989
14: 1990
15: 1991
16: 1992
17: 1993
18: Letters from Piers Paul Read
19: Letters from Pat Schearer, 1949
20: Letters from Pat Schearer, 1951
21: Letters from Pat Schearer, 1952
22: Letters from Pat Schearer, 1953
23: Letters from Pat Schearer, 1954
24: Letters from Pat Schearer, 1955
25: Letters from Pat Schearer, 1956
26: Letters from Pat Schearer, 1962
27: Undated letters from Pat Schearer
28: Undated letters from Elizabeth Brady
29: Letters from Elizabeth Brady, January-September 1959
30: Letters from Elizabeth Brady, October-December 1959
31: Letters from Elizabeth Brady, 1960
32: Letters from Elizabeth Brady, 1961

Series 7: Scrapbooks

Box 20: Scrapbook
Contents

1: Biographical clippings
2: Mrs Lincoln materials
3: Black Horse Tavern materials
4: Rose of Tralee materials
5-9: School materials
10: Sam Sheppard clippings
11: 1974 Daily Planner
12: 1976 Daily Planner
13: 1995 Daily Planner
14-18: Plays written by others
19-33: Play materials
34: Copy of President Wilson's speech asking for war on Germany
35: Civil War materials
36: Museum exhibit materials "The Celts in Central Europe"
37: Clippings about Tom Stoppard
38: 1977 and 1978 brochures for the Cuyahoga Community College's writers conference
39: Brochures from the Cleveland Arts Prize council, 1978, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1993
40: Compendium of the Cleveland Arts Prize recipients
41: Bulletin "Arts and Philanthropy" from the Ford Foundation
42: Prosspectus from Advanced Drama Research
43: Newsletter "Forest City Log" August 15, 1966
44: Material from the Literaische Coloquium
45-47: Church materials
48: Pamphlets from the Cleveland Orchestra
49: Map of Berlin
50: Ford Foundation Program for Playwrights August 23, 1961
51: Business cards library cards
52: Pamphlet titled "Der Spielplan" February 1962
53: Written tour of the Cleveland Plain Dealer
54: Newsletter from May Company

Box 21
Contents

Ireland Materials

1: Éire Nua: The Social and Economic Programme of Sinn Féin
2: Auction Book
3 :Belfast 1971 August 1971: A Case to be Answered
4: The Battle for Northern Ireland
5: Massacre at Derry
6: Northern Ireland: The Plain Truth
7: Map of Dublin
8: Law (?) and Orders: The Belfast 'Curfew' of 3-5 July, 1970
9: Burntollet
10: Newspaper The Advocate
11: Newsletter "The Irish Bulletin" July 1977 and December 1989-January 1990
12: Various newspaper clippings about Ireland

Reviews and clippings

13: Reviews for Bedeviled
14: Reviews for The Beguiled
15: Reviews for The Besieged
16: Reviews for The Eighth Sacrament
17: Clippings from The Attic
18: Clippings from Maddigans Wedding
19: Clippings from miscellaneous writings

Other scrapbook

21: Author's Guild Bulletin
22-29: Dramatist Guild Newsletter 1977; 1986-1993, and undated parts
30-32: Materials about literary agents
33: Newsletter "Disarmament News and Views"
34: Two pamphlets: "Middlebury College Bulletin" and "Formalism and Illusion in Shakespearean Drama"
35: Material about the authors guild

Series 8: Photographs

Box 22
Folder--Contents

1: Pictures from Agnes Brodie c. 1990 of Civil War battlefields
2: Pictures, not dated, of a television production
3: Black and White wedding pictures
4: Color wedding pictures
5: Pictures of Thomas Patrick Cullinan and others
6: Pictures of Thomas Patrick Cullinan's son at his high school graduation
7: Black and White pictures, not dated
8: Color pictures of Thomas Cullinan and his son c. 1987
9: Pictures in a St. Patrick's day card, c. 1953
10: Miscellaneous color Pictures
11: Black and white pictures of Thomas Cullinan
12: Miscellaneous black and white pictures

Series 9: Oversized Materials

Box 23
Folder--Contents

1: Newspaper clippings, including an article about Osawba Island
2: Scrapbook of drawings made by Thomas Cullinan as a child
3-4: Copies of "Cleveland College Life" (Newspaper of Western Reserve University)
5: "Manchester Guardian Weekly"
6: Ireland Clippings
7: Abraham Lincoln Materials
8: Map of Nova Scotia
9: Magazine "Harpers Weekly"
10: Magazines "Christian Union Herald" and "Leslie's Gettysburg Number
11: Theater poster for "The Most Happy Fella"