UCLA Library Department of Special Collections
The Arts Library is the principal source for printed material in these areas and for collections in the areas of film, radio, television, and theater.
The Department of Special Collections has over 140 collections
in the entertainment arts, most described in Linda Harris Mehr's
Motion Pictures, Television, and Radio: A Union Catalogue of
Manuscript and Special Collections in the Western United States
(Boston: G. K. Hall, 1977). The department holds the
collections in the other arts and in architecture and landscape
architecture. They document developments in each field,
contributions made by southern Californians to those
developments, and the connection of the arts with the growth of
the region.
For the history of architecture in California, the drawings and photographs of works of S.Charles Lee document the creation
of the motion picture palace. The collections of architects
A.Quincy Jones, Richard Neutra, and Lloyd Wright contain
near-complete records of their works, from drawings to
correspondence and project files to provide records of their
innovations using new materials and the indoor-outdoor living
potential of southern California. The Max and Rita Lawrence papers
document architectural pottery and other items associated with
modern Los Angeles architecture. There are records of the
American Institute of Landscape Architects and papers of
landscape architects Ralph D. Cornell, Edward Huntsman-Trout, Florence Yoch, and Philip Chandler.
The department has almost half a million prints and many other
works of art, most having come as parts of collections. The
Gilbert A. Harrison Collection includes many images of
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, including a painting of
Toklas by Pavel Tchelitchew, of Stein by Francis Picabia, and unpublished sketches of Stein by Sir Francis Rose. In the
Japanese American Research Project records are paintings and
drawings by Estelle Ishigo, paintings by Hibi Matsusaburo, and watercolors by Kango Takamura, interpreting their internment
camp experiences. Art by writers includes works by AE (George
William Russell), William Blake, Aldous Huxley, D.H.
Lawrence, Wyndham Lewis, and Henry Miller. There are
records of the Rex Evans Gallery, which gave Don Bachardy his first Los Angeles show, and drawings by Bachardy of
Gerald Heard and Aldous Huxley.
The work of artists associated with book-making includes
drawings for yellowback covers, Vanity Fair caricatures, and
drawings by Palmer Cox, Walter Crane, Stephen Gooden,
Frans Masereel, and Rex Whistler.
There are records of the Southern California Folk Dance
Federation and the Arthur Todd Dance Collection. There are
papers of British dancer Maud Allan and American Ruth St.
Denis.
There are the papers of Rudi Gernreich, one of the twentieth century's greatest fashion and design innovators, who received numerous awards for his work done largely from Los Angeles.
Records for the study of the history of motion pictures and
television begin with the papers of Albert E. Smith (Vitagraph
Studios) and the George P. Johnson Negro Film Collection. The
department has scripts of Republic Pictures Corporation and
material pertaining to the 1948 Hollywood Studio Strike.
Individual careers in the entertainment arts were often wide-
ranging. John Houseman, for example, worked in theater,
motion pictures, and television as an actor, writer, producer, and
director. Ernie Kovacs produced, directed, and acted in material
written by himself.
There are papers of actors who worked in many mediums: Jack
Benny, Charles Boyer, Eddie Cantor, Rex Evans, Tony Curtis,
Charles Laughton, Jeanette MacDonald, Dick Powell, and Ed
Wynn. There are papers of writers (and often directors): Ken
Englund, Alan LeMay, Horace McCoy, Dudley Nichols, James
Poe, Rod Serling, Stirling Silliphant, Preston Sturges, and
Dalton Trumbo; and of directors and producers: Colin Higgins,
Stanley Kramer, Walter Mirisch, Paul Rotha, and King Vidor.
Papers for the study of motion picture production include those
of designers Hans Dreier and Anton Grot.
Papers of persons primarily from the theater include those of
British designer Edward Gordon Craig. There are records of the
Community Playhouse Association of Pasadena and the Federal
Theatre Project and papers of directors who taught at UCLA:
Edward R. Hearn and Kenneth Macgowan. The Department has the papers of several writers sho have researched and written biographies of figures in entertainment and the arts. These include papers of Anne Edwards and Donald Spoto.
Return to list of holdings by subject
Comments & suggestions to lnewsome@library.ucla.edu.
Last update: 8/4/98
© 1997 by the Regents of the University of California.
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