The collection consists of sixteen of the thirty-four film chats compiled by Bob Chatterton. Most of the programs in the collection include one to five reels of 16mm film, together with brief program notes, outlines, publicity materials, and clippings. For some of the film chats, particularly those featuring silent film material, an audio tape of organ music is included. Also part of the collection is a small series of reference films and clips probably intended for use in a film chat.
The collection contains very little documentation of Chatterton's editorial process or his actual presentations. The chief exception to this is a recording of a talk about Laurel and Hardy and his own friendship with Stan Laurel. In addition, there is no personal material in the papers and no prints or other information about Chatterton's experimental films.
The collection is organized as film chats and reference films. Each of the categories is then arranged alphabetically by title. The container list for each film chat includes an inventory of the clips of which it is comprised. (Not all of the film clips are identified, but titles and dates are provided for the majority of the clips.) In some cases a film clip originally listed in the program outline was removed before the materials arrived in the Archives.
