Scope and Content Note

The legal file of Eagle-Lion Classics contains several types of records:

1. Records of Eagle-Lion Films
2. Records of Pathé Industries, the Pathé Film Corporation and other subsidiaries of Pathé (mainly as information copies or as correspondence among Pathé subsidiary corporations)
3. Records of Producers Releasing Company Inc. (PRC), another Eagle-Lion subsidiary, acquired in 1946. (PRC maintained a similar legal file--see Series 2G.)
4. Records of Eagle-Lion Classics before acquisition by United Artists
5. Records of Eagle-Lion Classics after acquisition by United Artists
6. Records of United Artists (filed in the course of Eagle-Lion Classics' operation as a subsidiary corporation.)

The file contains any and all materials connected with a producer or motion picture which are of continuing legal consequence. While great differences exist among the various files, the four categories which appear most frequently are:

1. Notices of interest: materials relating to the ownership of a motion picture; contracts, agreements, mortgages, bills of sale, etc.
2. Distribution agreements: materials relating to the distribution of motion pictures.
3. Music cue sheets, etc: materials relating to the literary and musical rights for a motion picture.
4. Correspondence: general correspondence related to the particular film or corporation. Related correspondence is often included in folders for the first three categories.

More specifically, though not inclusively, items to be found in this file are:

1. Agreements with authors, writers, composers, musicians, studios, actors, producers, directors, banks, financiers, film processors, and other companies in the industry.
2. Abstracts of loan agreements and of production and distribution agreements. Producers contracts, chattel mortgages, pledges, assignments, bills of sale, assignments of rights, notices of irrevocable authority, etc.
3. Music cue sheets, literary certificates, copyright registration certificates, title information and clearances, contracts with authors and composers, seals of the Production Code Administration of the Motion Picture Association. Correspondence relating to these and other subjects.

The file centers around the 1948-1950 time period, but occasional files have entries from as early as 1946, and other files may follow the fortunes of a particular film to the late 1950s.