Arnold Sundgaard papers

George Mason University Collections

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The Arnold Sundgaard papers includes materials created and collected by Arnold Sundgaard. Sundgaard worked for the Chicago Federal Theatre Project and is best known in this context as the writer of the Living Newspaper production Spirochete. He worked with the FTP from 1936 to 1938 as an author and play reader, after which he was let go since he was starting to make a living as a writer. The main theme of Spirochete is the history and spread of syphilis from the 15th century in Europe to the 1930s in America. The play was politically minded and current in relation to the Marriage Test Law of 1937. This Law would require a blood test for syphilis prior to marriage. The play opened in Chicago on April 29, 1938, and had showings in Seattle, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Portland, Oregon during February of 1939. Even though the play was met with protest in some areas due to its controversial subject matter, it was the second most performed Living Newspaper play after One-Third of a Nation