Records of United Artists Corporation and its subsidiaries Warner Bros. Pictures, Monogram Pictures, Ziv-TV, Eagle-Lion, Producers Releasing Corporation, and Wanger Productions as well as Vitaphone shorts. Contains corporate records, legal records, executive records, financial records, advertising files, sales records, and films.
Corporate records, which include correspondence, reports, financial and legal records, and advertising materials, relate almost entirely to the first ownership and more particularly to operations during the 1930s and 1940s. Although few documents directly relate to the original partners, the collection offers excellent files on the legal, financial, sales, and advertising aspects of distribution. There are production files and scripts for only a few UA releases and no UA films in the collection, as these records belonged to their producers. Films, scripts, and related papers are present, however, in the extensive purchased film library which comprises the remainder of the collection.
Legal records, 1919-1951, constitute both the largest and most important part of the collection for study of corporate policies, activities, and structure. These include extensive files maintained by O'Brien, Driscoll, and Raftery, the firm which represented UA during the entire tenure of the original ownership, and several internal files relating to ownership of films and allocation of payments. Included are correspondence, minutes, contracts, briefs, and other legal documents. While these records provide access to the full range of corporate activity, they are especially useful for stockholders suits, court cases concerning plagiarism and censorship, anti-trust actions, and contracts and negotiations with producers. Also present are papers about UA's legal relationship with other corporations, studios, and organizations such as the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America.
Names prominently noted in the files include Benedict Bogeaus, James Cagney, Walt Disney, Harry Goetz, Samuel Goldwyn, Howard Hughes, Buster Keaton, Alexander Korda, David Loew, J. Arthur Rank, Hal Roach, Edward Small, David O. Selznick, Hunt Stromberg, Gloria Swanson, Walter Wanger, Herbert Wilcox, and Darryl F. Zanuck. Further references to individuals as well as to corporations and film titles are indexed in the unpublished register. Available as one reel of microfilm are minutes of meetings of stockholders, the board of directors, and various executive committees; incorporation papers; and reports.
Executive records, 1921-1951, range from routine to policy-level matters. Included are papers generated in the offices of president A.H. Giannini, vice-presidents George L. Bagnall, Arthur W. Kelley, and Gradwell Sears; and treasurer William P. Philips. Unprocessed files relate to Harry Buckley, Edward C. Raftery, George J. Schaeffer, Loyd Wright, and several financial officers.
Financial records, 1919-1959, include foreign and domestic ledgers, journals, and other financial documents for the parent corporation and for major subsidiaries and related corporations such as Hal Roach Studios, Selznick International Pictures, and Samuel Goldwyn Inc.
Advertising files, 1933-1953, generated by several executives document the corporation's relations with publicists, advertising agencies, theater owners, and production executives. Information on individual promotion campaigns, budgets, advertising in newspapers and magazines and on radio, and personal appearances by and interviews of film stars is included. Many files contain examples of publicity materials and press releases. Of special note are the files on the “roadshow” promotion of Henry V (1946) and the involvement of Monroe E. Greenthal in the publicity and advertising division of the War Activities Committee of the Motion Picture Industry.
Sales records, 1929-1950, which document both foreign and domestic activities, are only partially processed. Processed domestic files detail UA's role as an intermediary between production companies and exhibitors and are particularly revealing with regard to the experiences of the small exhibitor at the onset of the sound era. The more extensive foreign files deal with sale of film distribution rights to foreign clients. This section is indexed by film title, individual and corporate name, and subject. Also included are two boxes of minutes, correspondence, and subject files on UA's participation in the Motion Picture Export Association, a group of American film distributors formed to handle the special problems encountered in occupied countries after World War II.
Subsidiary records include legal records of Eagle-Lion Classics Inc., and Producers Releasing Corporation; production files on Sundown (1941), the only production files in the collection; pre-production files on 14 films produced by Walter Wanger; and financial records of Walter Wanger Productions Inc., and United Artists Productions Inc., its successor.
Other records include intra-corporation circular letters, United Artists scripts, press books of UA releases (some available on microfilm), and photo stills of various releases. Also part of the collection is a large film library purchased from Monogram Pictures, Warner Bros., RKO, and Ziv Television Productions.
Warner Bros. material includes over 800 feature films (including 50 silent film), from 1918 to 1950, with the bulk from 1931 to 1947. The films are supplemented by scripts and drafts, dialogue continuities, negative stills, microfilmed press books, contracts, and copyright files.
The RKO library consists of 706 feature films produced and released mostly during the 1930s and 1940s.
The Monogram Pictures film library consists of feature films, sound track transcripts, negative stills, and microfilm copies of press books and other advertising material.
The United Artists series includes 30 scripts, approximately 90 dialogues, pressbooks for numerous titles, over 100 cubic feet of still negatives, and over 125 cubic feet of still photographs.
The Cartoons series contains 357 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies and Looney Tune cartoons, and 230 Popeye the Sailor cartoons. Also includes dialogues and still negatives of Warner Bros. and Popeye cartoons.
The Ziv Television film library includes 38 series produced by Frederick W. Ziv, a major packager of syndicated programs. Included are Bat Masterson (NBC), Boston Blackie (NBC), Favorite Story, Highway Patrol, I Led Three Lives, Lockup, Mr. District Attorney, Ripcord, Science Fiction Theatre (NBC), Sea Hunt, Tombstone Territory (ABC), West Point (ABC), Yesterday's Newsreel, and other titles. There are also drafts and shooting scripts and dialogues for most programs, some 40,000 positive and negative stills, and a few production files.
The Vitaphone series includes 1460 short subjects films, as well as more than 250 scripts for shorts, and around 600 dialogues for Vitaphone shorts.
