Showing posts with label Special Collections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Special Collections. Show all posts
Art Center College of Design: Special Collections
We start off in the Rare Book Room: the special collections. The room is jam packed with goodies, and Betsy and ACCD archivist Bob Dirig have kindly prepared a couple for me to ogle at.
Resources in alternative textiles (like fur), miniatures, and other unusual formats live in this space.
The first we explore, white gloved, is a beautiful edition of Joseph Albers seminal text Interaction of Colour.
This valuable tome is a complicated set of objects made up of individually lithographed colour studies.
The plates sometimes interact with each other, and most require some careful adhering to instruction.
Betsy echoes the eternal lament of educators and librarians everywhere- many students are impatient and want/need/demand information and learning outcomes immediately- leaving more complex resources like this under-utilised. It is here, however for those with will to use it. Lucky them.
Also on show is a lovely Joseph Cornell kit including a shadow box.
Oscars: Sheet music
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.
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
I love these stacks.
Shucks Folks I'm Speechless
Oscars: John Huston collection
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
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: the Katharine Hepburn Reading Room
This is where you might view a special collection item, such as the personal papers of Katharine Hepburn (or Carey Grant, or David Niven, Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston. The list goes on, take your pick).
Also viewed here are original artworks, or rare photos.
This is a high security library room manned with cameras and keen-eyed staff. Patrons are allowed a maximum of 2 folders at a time, but usually sit with just the one.
Even the furniture is culturally significant. This was the dining table of Oscar winner Edith Head, built by her husband in the 1920's.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)