Content area
Full Text
Abstract
Dorothy Rodgers, wife of the famous playwright/composer Richard Rodgers, was well-known as an inventor, designer, author, businesswoman, fund raiser, philanthropist and art collector. But not many people know that she was also a social and political activist in her own way, who wrote thousands of letters to influential people such as presidents, governors, congressmen, mayors, journalists, television hosts and company executives, fighting against anti-Semitism, demanding to correct all kinds of wrongs and stop wars, and making useful suggestions for improving life in America. Most of her letters were answered, and a considerable number of them led to some action by their recipients.
Most Americans, and many other Westerners, have heard of Rodgers and Hammerstein, the twentieth century's playwrights and composers. Dorothy Feiner Rodgers, Richard Rodgers' wife, is less known. Traditionally, she is portrayed as a rich socialite who basked in her husband's glory. While this account is accurate, it is limited. Dorothy Rodgers was also a very talented woman: an inventor, author, philanthropist, volunteer, designer, business entrepreneur, art collector, host - all of which have been mentioned in books about her husband, in interviews with her, and in newspaper articles about her during her lifetime. What is hardly ever mentioned is the fact that she was also a devout social/political activist in her own way, as will be shown below.
Very little research has been conducted on Dorothy Rodgers, perhaps because nobody has expected to find anything particularly interesting about her. Tobin Belzer's article, "A Jewish Identity at the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Class: Dorothy Feiner Rodgers,"4 is the sole scholarly piece dedicated to her. Her article presents Rodgers in a positive light, describing her talents, social activities and battle against anti-Semitism. Contrary to Belzer, Meryle Secrest's book Somewhere for Me: A Biography of Richard Rodgers,5 presents a rather negative portrait of her. Drawing on previously unstudied materials - Dorothy Rodgers's papers and letters in Schlesinger Library6 - I will attempt to give a fuller and more accurate account of this fascinating woman. Her correspondence with politicians, eminent personalities, and others, as well as documents such as newspaper clippings, depict Rodgers as a much more positive, complex, politically involved and caring person than is traditionally presented. These documents show her as...