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Summary Information
Title: Perry Miller Adato Papers,
Inclusive Dates: 1940-1974
Creator: Adato, Perry Miller
Call No.: U.S. Mss 181AN; Tape 741A
Extent: 23.8 c.f. (2 archives boxes), 228 cans of film, and 3 tape recordings
Repository:
Abstract:
Papers of Perry Miller Adato, a female producer-director of television documentaries for NET and WNET. Included are outtakes, dailies, soundtracks, and shot lists from Dylan Thomas, the World I Breathe (1968), which won an Emmy Award; Eames at MoMA (1973), The 40's: The Great Radio Comedians (1972), and other titles by Adato or with which she was associated. For Radio Comedians there are progressive script drafts and transcripts of interviews with Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, George Burns, Bing Crosby, Jim Jordan, and Arch Oboler.
Biography/History
Perry Miller Adato, producer/director of documentary films, was born in Yonkers, New York. She began her career as a film consultant to the United Nations Department of Social Affairs. In 1954 she joined the staff of CBS where she worked as a film coordinator on such documentaries as Adventure, The Seven Lively Arts, and Odyssey. After ten years she left to join public television (NET). While there the subjects of her documentaries included Dylan Thomas, Gertrude Stein, Charles and Ray Eames, Mary Cassatt, and Georgia O'Keeffe. Her 1968 film on Thomas (Dylan Thomas: The World I Breathe), which was broadcast as part of the NET Festival series, received an Emmy. Her latest work on painter Georgia O'Keeffe, was the first in a PBS series on seven female artists made by Adato and by other filmmakers under her supervision. As part of this series, Adato is currently (1979) working on a documentary about abstract painter Helen Frankenthaler.
Collection Scope and Content Note
The collection provides fragmentary documentation of Adato's career as a filmmaker and consists of biographical information, production files, tape recordings, and films. Coverage is most extensive for The '40s: The Great Radio Comedians and includes transcripts, paste-ups (transcripts arranged in film sequence and annotated with production notes), logs, notes, correspondence, and a final script. Transcripts of interviews Adato conducted with Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, George Burns, Bing Crosby, Jim Jordan (Fibber McGee), and Arch Oboler (a radio writer) are included as are transcript excerpts from Allen's Alley, the Fred Allen radio program. The collection also contains a folder of shot lists for Eames at MoMA.
The TAPE RECORDINGS relate to Adato's film on Dylan Thomas. Included are an interview with British writer Pamela Hansford Johnson (Lady Snow) in which she recalls her friendship with Thomas and a tape containing excerpts of Thomas reading his own poetry.
FILMS include excerpts, outs, and miscellaneous footage from such productions as Women's Film Festival, Dylan Thomas: The World I Breathe, and The '40s: The Great Radio Comedians.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Acquisition Information:
Placed on deposit by Perry Miller Adato, New York, New York, 1974. Accession Number: MCHC74-25, MCHC74-119
Processing Information:
Processed by Christine Rongone, March 1979.
Contents List
| Container |
Title |
| U.S. Mss 181AN |
|
| Box 1 |
Folder 1a |
Series: Biographical Information
|
| |
Series: Production Files
|
| |
The '40s: The Great Radio Comedians (WNET, New York, May 1972 . Broadcast as part of the series Playhouse New York)
|
| Box 1 |
Folder 1b |
Correspondence, drafts, undated
|
| Box 1 |
Folder 2 |
Miscellany, undated
|
| Box 1 |
Folder 3 |
Notebooks of tiny trims, undated
|
| Box 1 |
Folder 4 |
Production Notes, undated
|
| Box 1 |
Folder 5 |
Stills Logs, undated
|
| |
Fred Allen
|
| Box 1 |
Folder 6-7 |
Allen's Alley, scripts, undated
|
| Box 1 |
Folder 8 |
Paste-ups, undated
|
| Box 1 |
Folder 9 |
Jack Benny transcript and paste-up, undated
|
| Box 2 |
Folder 1 |
Edgar Bergen, transcript and paste-up, undated
|
| Box 2 |
Folder 2 |
George Burns, transcript and paste-up, undated
|
| Box 2 |
Folder 3 |
Bing Crosby, transcript and paste-up, undated
|
| Box 2 |
Folder 4 |
Jim Jordan, transcript and paste-up, undated
|
| Box 2 |
Folder 5 |
Arch Oboler, transcript and paste-up, undated
|
| Box 2 |
Folder 6 |
Script, annotated, by Stu Hample, undated
|
| |
Eames at MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, 1973)
|
| |
|
| Box 2 |
Folder 7 |
Shot List, circa 1973-1974
|
| Tape 741A |
Series: Tape Recordings
|
| |
Pamela Hansford Johnson Interview, circa 1968
|
| No. 1 |
Time 0:01 |
The most productive period in Dylan Thomas' career
|
| No. 1 |
Time 3:20 |
Johnson's first meeting with Thomas
|
| No. 1 |
Time 6:35 |
Johnson's correspondence with Thomas and the topics they discussed
|
| No. 1 |
Time 8:20 |
Concerns and themes Thomas expressed in his poems
|
| No. 1 |
Time 8:80 |
Ethical attitude of Thomas
|
| No. 1 |
Time 9:75 |
Thomas: "instinctive man" vs "intellectual man"
|
| No. 1 |
Time 10:85 |
Johnson's dominant impression of Thomas
|
| No. 1 |
Time 11:75 |
Their exchange and criticism of each other's work
|
| No. 1 |
Time 12:50 |
Thomas' aim for obscurity in his poems
|
| No. 1 |
Time 13:30 |
Thomas' opinion and criticism of Johnson's literary work
|
| No. 1 |
Time 15:15 |
Thomas' changing moods and Johnson's attitude toward them (e.g., morbidity, depression)
|
| No. 1 |
Time 17:40 |
Johnson's first impression of Thomas at their first meeting
|
| No. 1 |
Time 18:70 |
Johnson's impression of Dylan Thomas, the person
|
| No. 1 |
Time 19:95 |
The publication and critical response to Thomas' first book, 18 Poems
|
| No. 1 |
Time 21:35 |
Johnson's opinion of Thomas' stature and ability as a poet
|
| No. 1 |
Time 22:64 |
Origin of 18 Poems
|
| No. 1 |
Time 23:10 |
Johnson's knowledge of Thomas' method of writing poetry
|
| No. 1 |
Time 24:90 |
Thomas' increasing difficulty in writing
|
| No. 1 |
Time 26:50 |
End of tape
|
| No. 2 |
Time 0:55 |
Beginning of tape
|
| No. 2 |
Time 1:30 |
Thomas' ideas about literary infertility
|
| No. 2 |
Time 3:45 |
Thomas' health
|
| No. 2 |
Time 5:40 |
Thomas' obsession with the idea of death
|
| No. 2 |
Time 6:70 |
Thomas' attitude toward Swansea (his childhood home), Wales, and London
|
| No. 2 |
Time 16:05 |
Johnson's impression of what caused Thomas' early death (discusses drunkenness and overwork)
|
| No. 2 |
Time 17:85 |
Comparison of Dylan Thomas the legend with Dylan Thomas the person
|
| No. 2 |
Time 20:15 |
Thomas' contribution to poetry
|
| No. 2 |
Time 21:80 |
The last time Johnson saw Thomas ( 1948 )
|
| No. 2 |
Time 22:85 |
How and why Johnson and Thomas drifted apart
|
| No. 2 |
Time 23:30 |
End of tape
|
| |
Dylan Thomas Readings, undated
|
| No. 3 |
Time 0:25 |
Thomas reading a poem ("Fern Hill" ?) which describes his childhood
|
| No. 3 |
Time 4:90 |
Thomas describing his early poetry before an audience
|
| No. 3 |
Time 8:78 |
Thomas reading a poem, unidentified
|
| No. 3 |
Time 13:45 |
End of tape
|
| |
Series: Film
|
| AB 773-774 |
Paris 1900 [Excerpts] 1946
Note:
Producer unknown. Director: Nicole Vedres.
|
| AB 775 |
Clay: Origin of the Species 1964
Note:
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University. Director: Eliot Noyes, Jr.
|
| AB 776 |
|
| AB 777 |
[ Norman Corwin Radio Drama [Excerpt]] 1972
Note:
WNET, New York. Director: Perry Miller Adato.
|
| AB 778 |
The Great Radio Comedians [Outs] 1972
Note:
WNET, New York. Director: Perry Miller Adato.
|
| CA 574-575 |
Paris La Belle 1959
Note:
Argos Films. Director: Pierre Prevert.
|
| DC 810-811 |
Man with a Movie Camera [Music track]
|
| GA 073 |
[ Warsaw Ghetto] [circa 1940]
|
| SCA 001-130 |
An Eames Celebration [Soundtracks] 1974
Note:
WNET, New York. Director: Perry Miller Adato.
|
| SCA 131-185 |
An Eames Celebration [Dailies] 1974
Note:
WNET, New York. Director: Perry Miller Adato.
|
| SCA 186-191 |
Women's Film Festival [Misc. footage] 1972/73
Note:
WNET, New York. Director: Perry Miller Adato.
|
| SCA 192-215 |
Dylan Thomas - The World I Breathe [Misc. footage] 1968
Note:
WNET, New York. Director: Perry Miller Adato.
|
| SCA 216-217 |
Eames at MoMA [Misc. footage] 1973
Note:
WNET, New York. Director: Perry Miller Adato.
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