The De Antonio collection is divided into 7 series: BIOGRAPHICAL, MOTION PICTURES, WRITINGS, MOTION PICTURES AND WRITINGS BY OTHER PEOPLE, FILM, ART, and POLITICS/SOCIAL MOVEMENTS.
The BIOGRAPHICAL series documents de Antonio's personal life, including his relationships with spouses Terry and Nancy de Antonio. This collection includes some historical works on his family, going back to Italy, as well as histories of Scranton. De Antonio kept extensive financial records because he was frequently audited; this series includes financial accounts particularly for the years 1970-1985. Of interest is the exhaustive FBI documentation of Emile de Antonio's activities, which he requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This series also includes any books de Antonio sent that have not been weeded but do not belong to specific projects. The bulk of this series is de Antonio's correspondence with friends and family and is the largest subseries in the entire collection. This correspondence is a combination of personal and professional content; de Antonio's friends and family were sometimes also his colleagues and business associates, and it is common for a letter to include personal content and specific instructions for the production or distribution of a film. Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent for more than 220 people or organizations. The remainder of the correspondence is arranged chronologically. Researchers should note that each of de Antonio's film projects also has a correspondence file, according to an existing arrangement of this material, and both should be consulted for a thorough examination of correspondence related to those films.
The MOTION PICTURES series documents the films de Antonio made or planned to make. Each film has its own subseries; additionally, a General Film Materials subseries includes publicity materials for de Antonio the filmmaker, retrospectives of his work, and business correspondence that applies to more than one film. This includes records of Turin Film Corporation, the production company de Antonio created for In the King of Prussia, but continued to use to market his films in the 1980s. The final subseries document uncompleted works. For each film, the subseries includes manuscript materials, film prints, and any photographs, posters, or other promotional materials. Some films also have pre-print elements or related works, which are listed in the container list for this collection. Each film also has a separate MARC catalog record for its prints and related visual materials. These records cross-reference the de Antonio collection record and finding aid. Some motion pictures are better documented than others; manuscript documentation is strongest for Millhouse: A White Comedy, Painters Painting, and In the King of Prussia, but weakest for That's Where the Action Is. Point of Order includes a complete run of the Army-McCarthy hearings on 16 mm kinescope prints. Painters Painting includes many reels of raw interview footage with painters on 16 mm film. Another subseries describes works de Antonio distributed but did not write or direct, including Pull My Daisy, The Transist-ites, Sunday, and the rerelease of The Blue Angel.
The WRITINGS series documents books and shorter materials de Antonio wrote. Each book has its own subseries, plus a subseries for articles, essays, and reviews, as well as a subseries for uncompleted works. De Antonio's journals are included in this series because de Antonio indicated in his correspondence with the WCFTR and in the journals that he imagined they would one day be published. Although journals are not necessarily created for publication—and could be considered biographical information—de Antonio seemed to intend to make his journals a creative, published work one day. Some book projects are better represented than others; manuscript material is strongest for The George Bush Dilemma, and weakest for the book versions of Point of Order, Underground, and an unpublished book on Leo Castelli.
The MOTION PICTURES AND WRITINGS BY OTHER PEOPLE series documents motion pictures or written works other people made, but for which they sought advice, collaboration, or other input for de Antonio. This collection includes many film treatments and draft scripts, some of which feature notation from de Antonio. Some of these projects were completed, but many more were not. Among the major figures de Antonio assisted are Ron Mann, Glenn Silber, Allan Siegel, and Lionel Rogosin. This series has two subseries: Film and Television Projects, and Other Works. The latter subseries includes materials such as poems, essays, journal articles, and some novel drafts. The Film and Television Projects subseries is the second-largest in the entire collection, behind the Correspondence.
The FILM series documents de Antonio's research into films, filmmakers, and filmmaking, excluding his own projects and works submitted to him by other people. It includes publications, flyers for screenings, clippings files about filmmakers, and materials about a project to create an American version of the Cinematheque Francais. Records are divided into three subseries: Publications/Exhibits, Organizations/Projects, and Research.
The ART series documents the New York art scene and de Antonio's involvement with it. This series includes gallery cards and flyers for art exhibits, files on de Antonio's role promoting various artists, and some works by artists such as Frank Stella, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Kazuko Oshima. This series overlaps with the DE ANTONIO MOTION PICTURE subseries for Painters Painting. The collection documents de Antonio's involvement with the art scene, but it does not provide much depth of information outside of de Antonio's role. The gallery cards and flyers do provide some breadth of information about the artists and works exhibited in New York galleries at the time, especially Leo Castelli's gallery. Records are divided into three subseries: Publications/Exhibits, Organizations/Projects, and Research. The Publications and Exhibits subseries, which include the art gallery cards arranged by gallery, is the strongest part of this series.
The POLITICS/SOCIAL MOVEMENTS series documents de Antonio's involvement with political and social organizations, as well as materials he collected on socialist and communist revolutions, anti-war groups, civil rights groups, and his own investigation by the FBI. In addition to correspondence and agendas, this series includes many posters for rallies and demonstrations, as well as in support of socialist or communist revolutions in Central America. This series overlaps with the DE ANTONIO MOTION PICTURE subseries for most of his films, especially In the Year of the Pig, Millhouse: A White Comedy, Underground, In the King of Prussia, and Mr. Hoover & I. Records are divided into three subseries: Publications/Exhibits, Organizations/Projects, and Research. The Organizations and Projects subseries, which includes records of many organizations to which de Antonio contributed, is the strongest part of this series.
