The Paddy Chayefsky Papers, 1937-1972, provide excellent material for the study of most aspects of Chayefsky's diverse career as a writer. The bulk of the collection concerns his writings for four genre: theatre, radio, television, and motion pictures; and there is also a small amount of general correspondence, biographical material, and miscellaneous writings.
The Theatre material includes papers from six Chayefsky plays, 1954-1968. Chayefsky adapted his 1954 teleplay Middle of the Night for Broadway in 1956 and in 1959 adapted it for a film of the same title; scripts, clippings, and other material relating to these three productions are in boxes 10 and 11. For The Tenth Man there are several scripts in English, the script from a French-language production, clippings, and reviews. The extensive manner in which Chayefsky reworks his material is evident in the many script revisions of Gideon and in the research material, scripts, and other production material for The Passion of Josef D. Among the unproduced theatre papers are a script and lyrics for musical comedies written while Chayefsky was in the army, sketches for two plays, and scripts for two plays.
Of his writings for Radio, the collection only includes two 1952 scripts, one for Theatre Guild of the Air and another for Cavalcade of America.
The Television material, 1953-1959, provides an excellent record of Chayefsky's contribution to television's “Golden Age.” There are scripts and some clippings and correspondence from his major teleplays for Fred Coe's Philco-Goodyear Playhouse, including Holiday Song, Marty, The Bachelor Party, Printer's Measure, The Mother, and Middle of the Night. He later adapted three of these teleplays to film and theatre, and there is some material documenting these adaptations. Unproduced television papers include rejected story outlines, a pilot for a series, and material on a teleplay. A book published by Simon and Schuster in 1955 includes scripts and Chayefsky's commentary about six of his television plays; the collection includes a galley and some clippings concerning this book.
Documenting his career as a writer for Motion Pictures are scripts, clippings, and production material for eight films released from 1955 to 1972. Scripts for The Goddess, a film about a film star reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe, are supplemented by publicity material, a Legion of Decency rating, papers from the Brussels and Edinburgh Film Festivals, and reviews from around the world. In addition to the script of The Americanization of Emily written by the author of the book, there are numerous script revisions by Chayefsky and one folder of casting material. Although Chayefsky did not receive credit for The Cincinnati Kid, he prepared almost one cubic foot of scripts for that production. Unproduced material includes scripts and clippings of “The Great American Hoax,” a script, and an untitled story idea.
Miscellany includes one folder of unidentified set designs and one folder of unidentified story outlines, scripts, and script fragments. It is not clear for what genre these were intended.
