Collection Title: Alney Allbritten Norell Papers
Series Number: MS71-04
Processed and Cataloged by: No information when originally processed but the collection was reprocessed prior to an exhibit in 2003.
Date Listed: April 20, 2010
Date Span: 1876-1994 (bulk 1925-1955)
Size of Collection: 9.0 linear feet.
Number of Boxes: 11 legal size document cases, 6 record center boxes and 2 oversized boxes.
Type of Material: Correspondence, manuscripts, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, photographs and ephemera.
Condition of Material: Fair to good depending upon age of material.
Arrangement: Organized into series by type of format. Chronological arrangement.
Biographical / Historical Information: Alney Allbritten Norell, stage name Alney Alba, was an American screen actress, radio personality and television performer. She was born in Calloway County, Kentucky on April 10, 1904. Not long after her birth, she and her widowed mother relocated to Denver, Colorado. She attended Denver public schools and St. Mary’s Academy. As a child she became involved in the theater and performed at Elitch Gardens in Denver. Her first big break was in the 1933 Broadway play “Pigeons & People” by George M. Cohan. She would later perform in over a dozen Broadway plays. From the 1940s to the 1960s, she made over 50 television appearances and hundreds of performances on nationally broadcasted radio programs. After thirty-six years in show business she retired and resided in Pasadena, California. In 1994, she moved to Clarksville, Tennessee and later returned to Calloway County just prior to her death on July 10, 2000. She was an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Scope and Content: Collection consists of correspondence, newspaper clippings, critic reviews, playbills and various ephemera related to the American actress Alney Allbritten Norell, stage name Alney Alba, and her husband, actor Henry Norell, from the 1920s to the 1960s. The collection contains scrapbooks, photographs, publicity shots and memorabilia of Broadway plays that Alba and Norell performed in during the 1930s and 1940s. Included in the collection are family letters (1876-1933), genealogies and biographical information on Alney and Henry Norell.
Subject Headings / Descriptors:
Norell, Alney Allbritten, 1904-2000
Norell, Henry
Allbritten family.
Norell family.
Actresses – United States.
Actors – United States.
Television actors and actresses – United States.
Radio personalities – United States.
