The Ernest Kinoy Papers are organized in three main parts, all overlapping in dates and each concerning his work in television, radio, motion pictures, and theater. Part 1 consists of the Original Collection comprising materials received in the Archives in 1969. This part is in Boxes 1-17 and dates 1948-1966. Part 2 is designated the 1979 Additions and consists of materials received in the Archives in that year. These materials date 1948-1979 and fill Boxes 18-57. Part 3, the 1991 Additions, includes materials received between 1980 and 1989. The materials in Part 3 date 1947-1987 and can be found in Boxes 58-81. Each part is described in more detail in the paragraphs that follow.
Part 1, Original Collection, 1948-1966
Part 1 of the Ernest Kinoy Papers includes manuscripts and related materials from Kinoy's career as a writer for both radio and television.
The first eight boxes hold those original and adapted scripts which Kinoy prepared for broadcast on radio. These include such series as The Big Story, Hollywood Love Story, The Marriage, My Secret Story, Woman in Love, NBC University Theater (a series famous for its educational framework), and that always-popular series, Superman. At the end of the radio portion of Part 1 is an accumulation of miscellaneous scripts (see Box 8).
Immediately following the miscellaneous radio scripts are the organized television writings. These are contained in Boxes 8 through 15. Included are scripts for such popular series as Dr. Kildare, The Defenders, and The Untouchables, and for such prestigious series as Playhouse 90, United States Steel Hour, and The Schlitz Playhouse of Stars. In Boxes 14 and 15 are several folders containing works by Kinoy listed under “treatments.” These are all the writings that were unproduced or which, for some other reason, did not warrant inclusion among the other series in the preceding seven boxes. The treatments are arranged alphabetically by title. Box 15 also contains those script fragments that remain unidentifiable.
The last two boxes of Part 1(Boxes 16 and 17) hold the general correspondence, sections of which are contracts, insurance, and the exchange of letters between Ernest Kinoy and Mark Harris, and Kinoy's stage plays, including his book for Golden Rainbow.
Part 2, 1979 Additions, 1947-1979
The majority of the 1979 Additions consist of script materials, such as proposals, outlines, synopses, treatments, and variant scripts. Correspondence, miscellany, and research materials including interview transcripts and clippings complete this part of the collection. The papers focus on Kinoy's writing career, primarily in television, although some of his early radio works and later motion picture and theater efforts are also included. In addition a small file documents Kinoy's involvement in the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Part 2 is organized in five subseries: a small General File with the remainder of the series representing the media for which Kinoy wrote -- Television, Motion Pictures, Radio, and Theater. Arrangement is alphabetical by program or production title. General production information is provided if known. Researchers are cautioned that complete production information was not always available and designations at times were made on the basis of incomplete information and may not be correct. Broadcast dates for individual episodes of a television or radio program are listed, if known, immediately after the title of that episode.
The General File includes correspondence, research material, an agreement and financial statement, and miscellany. Of interest in the general correspondence is a Kinoy critique of a play based on The Prisoner of Zenda.
The research material concerns Wounded Knee; however, no determination could be made as to what, if any, production it pertained. The Writers Guild file is fragmentary. It contains routine correspondence discussing topics such as wage increases, contract negotiations and agreements, and dues. Also included is a brief series of letters (1969) between Kinoy and members and representatives of the Writers Guild of Great Britain and the International Writers Guild. The letters focus on a resolution regarding the suppression of writers caused by the expulsion of Alexander Solzhenitsyn from his Soviet trade union, efforts to obtain support for this resolution, and the Writers Guild response to these efforts. The file also includes a 1963 annual report for the WGA pension trust fund.
Among the programs represented in the Television subseries are The Bill Cosby Show, The Bold Ones (The Senator), The Defenders, Dr. Kildare, Du Pont Show of the Week (“The Last Hangman”), Hallmark Hall of Fame (“The Rivalry”), Naked City, and Route 66. Specials or mini-series include “Collision Course” (ABC Theater), The Deadliest Season, The President's Plane Is Missing, Roots, Roots: The Next Generations, and Victory at Entebbe. Research materials for Bessie! Empress of the Blues!, which is based on the life of Bessie Smith, includes copies of several songs she wrote and transcripts of interviews that provide biographical background information. In addition to variant scripts, the Roots files contain general correspondence in which story ideas and character development were discussed, and correspondence and evidential materials for a lawsuit in which Alex Haley was charged with plagiarism. (The suit was dropped against ABC, and Haley later settled out of court.) Roots: The Next Generations includes transcripts of Alex Haley reminiscences and of meetings during which the story development was discussed.
The Motion Pictures subseries documents the films Brother John, Buck and the Preacher, and Leadbelly. The latter file includes legal and evidential documents used in a lawsuit in which Kinoy was a party.
Among the Radio programs represented are NBC University Theater, Woman in Love, and X Minus One!, while the Theater subseries includes Something about a Soldier.
Part 3, 1991 Additions, 1947-1987
The additions organized in 1991 chiefly document Kinoy's focus on television writing, especially his work in the mini-series genre, although materials for work in radio and theater are also included. While the majority of the addition focuses on his career during the late 1970s and 1980s, some scripts here date to his early work as a writer for radio. The materials consist largely of variant script drafts and treatments, and there is virtually no related correspondence.
Like the early segments of the collection, this addition is arranged by genre, with subseries for Television, Theater, and Radio. Within these categories, the scripts are arranged alphabetically by program title. Both produced and unproduced scripts have been combined, for there is frequently insufficient information either on the document or in external sources to determine the outcome. Among the most extensively documented titles are the television series The Big Story, The Firm, Goodyear/Philco TV Playhouse, and The Marriage; the mini-series Boston, Chaplin, Lincoln, Magnificat, Murrow, and Skokie; and the radio programs The Big Story, The Eternal Light, The Marriage, Nick Carter, and Radio City Playhouse.
