The Walter Mirisch Papers are organized in three series: Motion Picture Shooting Scripts and Production Files, 1958-1969 (produced by the Mirisch Corporation); Motion Picture Shooting Scripts and Production Files, 1946-1957 (produced independently by Walter Mirisch); and Television Scripts and Production Files, 1960-1967.
The collection is primarily scripts but also includes posters, pressbooks, soundtrack recordings, films, photographs, set and costume designs, shooting schedules, and other administrative records.
Among the Mirisch Corporation productions (all released by United Artists) are The Apartment (1960), The Children's Hour (1962), The Great Escape (1963), Hawaii (1966), The Horse Soldiers (1959), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Irma La Douce (1963), The Magnificent Seven (1960), One, Two, Three (1961), The Pink Panther (1964), The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (1966), Some Like It Hot (1959), Toys in the Attic (1963), Two for the See-saw (1962), and West Side Story (1961). Records of television work include shooting scripts, films, and budgets for Hey, Landlord (NBC), Peter Loves Mary (NBC), Rat Patrol (ABC), and Wichita Town (NBC).
Oversize material includes costume designs for Hawaii by Dorothy Jeakins, set drawings for Fitzwilly and Hawaii by Leon Harris, set drawings for The Thomas Crown Affair by Nikita Knatz, and set drawings for Two for the See-saw by Boris Leven.
The wording in the contents list uses these terms:
- Production stills: miscellaneous photo stills from a production
- Story-in-pictures: production stills accompanied by and illustrating a written plot summary
- Extra key set: a complete set of production stills
- Institutional advertisement: an 11×14-inch sheet with a portrait of the film's star and release information
- Publicity kit: all kinds of promotional materials, from news fillers to bumper stickers
- Preview questionnaires: 5×7-inch cards completed by a pre-release audience to determine reactions to a film
