Oscars: Main reading room

With all my rummaging in the stacks, it looks like I left out a post on the spacious light-filled main reading room. With all the goods down below, up above and in archival fridges scattered around the site, I got a little swept away.

This more traditional public face of the library showcases handsome fixed wooden shelves. Devilish when trying to manage a shifting and ever-growing monograph collection, but oh-so-good looking.

It features beautiful vaulted ceilings and skylights in a room where tanks once lay in this ex-water treatment plant. Another great use of this once industrial space. An image of the room before the refit is on display in one of the nooks:

Oscars: Library Mavens, Library Doyens

This art library tourism gig has led to many amazing repositories around the world, full to the brim of extraordinary goodies and interesting methodology.

It has also highlighted the lives and work of some truly extraordinary people, the builders and keepers of these collections. So an ArtLibraryCrawl focus on/biographical spotlight of these folk seems in order.

Wowed by the Judith A Hoffberg Artist Book Collection at UCLA Arts Library (artlibrarycrawlposted here), I was equally impressed by the accomplishments of the late, great Ms Hoffberg, an extraordinary librarian, writer, curator, editor, publisher. Co-founder of Art Libraries Society of North America and champion of small press publication, xerox art, mail art and book art. Soak up her bio here and here.

Judith A. Hoffberg: artlibrarycrawl maven/doyen #1

Continuing this spotlight, a quick word on the Oscars library's namesake Margaret Herrick.

Margaret Herrick (then Gledhill, nee Buck) was the librarian wife of one of the earliest Executive Directors of the Academy.

She stepped in very early in the Academy's history to take on the fledgling library, performing her work in an unpaid capacity for a number of years. No need to insert feminist discourse/commentary here. She ran the library formally through the 30's and early 40's.

Margaret Herrick, image from oscars.org

In an excellent take on Rosie the Riveter, Ms Herrick was asked in 1943 to take over the running of the Academy when the US entered the war and her husband was called up for service. However, when the boys came home she stayed on in her role (Mr Gledhill didn't get his job back, or, in fact, his wife- Margaret remarried in 1946, taking the name Herrick). She remained the Executive Director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences into the 1970's.

Upon her retirement they named the Academy Library after her. Other dedications: she is widely credited with the sobriquet "Oscar" after she mentioned the statuette awards looked "just like my uncle Oscar".

Her legacy doesn't end there. Not only did Margaret guide the Academy through decades of film industry development and change, she was also the instrumental to the Academy's (and therefore the Library's) sound economic footing.

By driving the sale and negotiation of television rights to the annual Academy Awards she ensured the economic strength and longevity of her organisation and its extraordinary library.

Margaret Herrick: Librarian, Hollywood mover/shaker, artlibrarycrawl maven/doyen #2.

Current Library Director Dr Linda Mehr describes Margaret Herrick as a "strong woman".

I bet she's right. Linda is no lightweight herself. Lookout Linda Mehr, you are next in my celebration of impressive Librariana.

Oscars: Vital Stats

Institution : Margaret Herrick Library, Douglas Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Holdings: 10 million photographs; 32,000 monographs; 2400 journals; 250,000+ clippings files. Not to mention their posters, oral histories, musical notation and recordings, scrapbooks, personal manuscripts/private papers of industry professionals and other ephemera. Like Oscar statues. Some excellent indexes/databases/directories to Academy (and therefore industry wide) activities and their Awards event.

Staff: 70+

Critical Systems: Voyager (Ex Libris), Inmagic

There is a great summary of this Library here at LibGig, a information industry professional networking website.

Oscars: Adios

Wow.

Linda's generosity in guiding me through the several floors and acres of stacks is a credit to her both professionally and physically. I was wiped out- but she did it all in heels without batting an eye.

This collection was truly distinctive. Enviably funded with collection and preservation imperatives embraced by it's governing body and industry, it stands as an unchallenged leader in holdings of primary material on its specialisation.

The articles and artifacts of this collection highlight a common blur/intersection explored on the ArtLibraryCrawl. Text as object, object as text. Resources with real weight and cultural heft.

The value in and challenges of the inherent physicality of this collection is true of many collections surrounding visual arts practice, and certainly make for interesting fodder on my mission of art library tourism.

I leave via the "Kirk Douglas Grand Stairway" supplied thoughtfully by Kirk and his lovely wife Anne, say farewell to Douglas Fairbanks, and am off, and away.

Oscars: Sheet music

When Linda describes the sheet music collection in tonnage, I think she may not be overstating the numbers.
The wide reaching collection includes music notation for every song that has won an Oscar plus every song that has been nominated. Shelved alphabetically, they make for pleasing displays both in and out of their handsome archive boxes.

Oscars: Colleen Moore Scrapbooks

Actress Colleen Moore dropped this collection off to Linda personally. Well into her seventies, she was still sporting the sharp cut she made classic.

I always referred to this hairstyle (which I have adopted a few times) as the Louise Brooks. Sorry Louise, it is now the Colleen Moore.

Oscars: Hayes / Breen Censorship files, continued

These files highlight the extraordinary reach of the code in the early days, and map social and cultural evolution as the restrictions lift later on the in the sixties.

The correspondence between censors and filmmakers was exhaustive.

Comprising mostly crinkly onionskin carbons, the documents are the copies maintained by the censors for their records. The studios would have received the original in this game of censorship vs entertainment/titillation/artistic freedom.

Scripts had to be signed off before production could begin.

The Office very specifically dissected the actions and implications of the characters.

My personal favorite is simple and to the point:

"…importantly there must be no leering on the part of Floyd or Lefty"

(what else did they think a pair named Floyd and Lefty were going to do?)

Later on, as restrictions relaxed, the process became simpler.

No longer was the censor involved at every level from conception, writing, through production and editing. Complete films could be presented and concepts judged in context.

Linda outlines swearing as a great barometer of the changing mores.

Initially out of the question, filmmakers were granted a token @#*!!.

Then 3, then 4. Arbitrary, but a historical and sociological reveal that makes these files very excellent.

In many ways the Code was an simply economic standard: the MPAA couldn't risk valuable film commodities being shunned by puritanical markets within the States, and propitious but possibly sensitive screens across Europe and the world.

Oscars: Hayes / Breen Censorship files

"Cabinet X"

These censorship files represent one of the Library's most heavily used collections.

Every film made between 1930 and 1968 need to go through the rigorous moral obstacle course that was required by the Motion Picture Production Code.

Enacted by the Hayes Office (after founder, censor and Prebestian elder William H Hayes), later known as the Breen Office (after first administrator Joseph Breen) the Code identified and enforced what was allowed upon the hallowed silver screen.

Oscars: Richard Barthelmess scrapbooks

Bathelmess, star of the silent screen and one of the founders of the Academy, is well represented by these fastidious scrapbooks, collated by his proud mama, which comprise of 50 volumes spanning over 11 linear feet of shelves.

They span his career 1920-1936.

His career lasted well beyond '36, but apparently Mother didn't.

She would be pleased to see them still in such fine condition, I'm sure.

Oscars: payrolls

This is a 1926 payroll from one of the major studios.

These columns show what icon Lon Cheney was earning, what John Gilbert and and co were earning.

One particular page perfectly illustrates the huge disparity between male and female earnings even at the uppermost resister of Hollywood at the time. For Flesh of the Devil, John Gilbert was taking $3000 per week, and his female co-star, Greta Garbo only $250. It was, however, the film that really launched her into superstardom, so I guess the pay checks were a bit healthier after that.

Linda likes to keep this book open on that page.

Oscars: Film Accounts

Invoices, receipt scrapbooks and payroll columns. All beautifully boxed.

Except this guy, who I find irresistible.

Beyond boxable, tiny pieces of him gently fall to the floor.

Oscars: Lux Radio Theatre

Keeping The C. Lion company on these shelves are the Lux Radio Theatre scripts.

These half hour radio programs were based on current feature films (and originally, Broadway shows) but had a significantly broader reach through this medium.

Bound into these covers are the original scripts used by the actors, editors and producers. Even the advertisers/ their proxies (who would have wielded real power on these productions) have made made notes in these margins.

Technical issues, overall recording quality, changes in dialogue are all scribbled here.

Oscars: 3D objects

Chillaxing on the shelves with the Lux Radio Theatre scripts is The (honest to God, actual) Cowardly Lion.

I love these stacks.

Shucks folks, I'm speechless

Shucks Folks I'm Speechless

Oscars: John Huston collection

The Huston Papers were an early cataloguing project of Linda Mehr, before she took the reins as director here at the Margaret Herrick Library.

The library received the collection directly from Puerto Vallarta (Mexico) , where Mr Huston had lived for several years.

It became apparent that the region was not an ideally suited archival environment. Fumigation had been required, and Linda recalls extraordinary insectile activity- holes eaten through entire tomes- from front cover to back- and the pages hollowed out cleanly from the inside.

Everything is safe, sound and bug-free now.

Oscars: Special Collections stacks: On the wall

Photographs exhibited on this wall space must satisfy a strict criteria, and represent at least two collections held by the Oscars library. No one can sneak one up unless it alludes to two. Or more.

First one represents Carey Grant and Alfred Hitchcock's papers, the second John Huston and Katharine Hepburn's.

Also given face were the collections of George Stevens and John Sturges; George Cukor and Margaret Booth, Sam Peckinpah and Steve McQueen.

Oscars: Special Collections : Music and Recorded Sounds

Music, soundtracks, and oral histories are stored here.

A work station is fully loaded with equipment to copy and format shift : reel to reel, cassettes of various colours and kinds, digital discs large and small.

The on staff sound archivist is an expert and a composer who is nifty with a database.

He has been tasked with archiving older formats and digitising their content. They are not currently building a freestanding/digital/dedicated collection, the works are stored on discs that can be requested for listening and research.

It is a great looking workstation, built for the facility by Linda's husband. I approve.

Oscars: Special Collections

Special Collections includes everything but the photographs and the graphic arts, including sound and oral histories.

One floor of the special collection is only accessible by stairs (unless you'd like to squeeze yourself into a ominous dumbwaiter).

We wind our way up to the MGM script collection, a behemoth that was received as 1500 boxes of material.

I met the herculean staff member responsible for moulding this mountain- a diminutive champion of the archive who spent the years 1994-2002 sifting through the works, cataloguing, eliminating duplicates, formatting the items onto the shelves in the ordered universe they appear today.

 This ordered universe is housed in the topmost floor in the old water vaults.

This is a raw space. Linda reminds me that we are looking at floor to ceiling compactus in place in the top floor of a 1927 building- architecturally unheard of.

Turns out an old water treatment plant (and its accompanying storage units) make particularly excellent library conversions- a reinforced water vault is designed to hold weights far beyond anything they could pack onto shelves: even film stock.

Oscars: oversize stills in the file room

Oscars: Files, folders big and small

These files contain info on companies, cartoons, actors and actresses broken down/subdivided "by births, deaths, divorces and drugs".

Politics, countries, marketing, grosses, genres are all represented in the General files. This collection and its categories cover everything that doesn't fit into the files on films and people.

Film awards and festivals live here the general files also. Of course, documentation and press of the Academy's own event is comprehensively compiled.

Oscars: Clippings files

The whole 'Herrick team clip for these files. Tree-made magazines come in and the staff divvy up the titles and diligently pluck alluvial nuggets of industry gold from their pages.

Linda gets first dibs- and clips Vogue and Vanity fair.

Everyone is assigned their publications, from Variety to the NY times. There are about a dozen staff clipping these titles.

A lack of proper indexing on many of these publications make the Herrick clipping files uniquely valuable.

They probably have a file on any film you could imagine, boasting 300-plus 5-drawer cabinets.

These cabinets no longer contain the bulky photos and pressbooks that were once included.

I love how these files instilled the sense that the Margaret Herrick team are/have forever been diligently trawling the ocean of film news, gossip, and pre electronic non-indexed twitter. Scouring the pre-Twitter twitter to ensure their files were complete.

Snipped into folders are the birth pangs and growing pains of projects of commerce and passion.

What a fantastic, institutionalised legitimisation of gossip! Truth or un-, if it was reported, it belongs in these encyclopaedic files.