The collection focuses on Sanford's career as a writer primarily for television and motion pictures. The majority of the papers document the screenwriting process and can trace a story from the initial idea through final script. Included are stories, notes, outlines, treatments, scripts, and revisions, plus occasional related correspondence, contracts, clippings, and miscellany. The collection is organized in five series: Subject File, Television, Motion Pictures, Novels, and Radio.
The SUBJECT FILE contains correspondence, clippings, and agreements and details the business and financial aspects of the writing process. General Correspondence discusses establishing writing partnerships, registering properties, receiving screen credits, and obtaining monies due for reruns. The Guild Films, Inc. file documents the unsuccessful efforts of several writers, including Sanford, to obtain residuals for reruns of Hal Roach's Passport to Danger and Telephone Time. The file for Revue Productions details both contracts and disputes that Sanford had with that studio, while the Donald Kent Stanford files document the development and demise of their writing partnership. These latter files discuss the property, efforts to sell it to motion picture producers, and the financial terms of such an arrangement. Correspondence from producer Robert Fellows is also included.
TELEVISION is the largest series and includes files for Bonanza, Climax, Gunsmoke, The Loretta Young Show, The Outer Limits, Perry Mason, Telephone Time, Thriller, Twelve O'Clock High, and Wagon Train. The amount of documentation varies with each episode but can include synopses and scripts, many of which are annotated, plus occasional correspondence, clippings, and miscellany. Files for “The Good Samaritan” (Dr. Kildare) reveal the American Bar Association's objections to that episode's unsympathetic portrayal of a trial and lawyer and document the increasing furor when the ABA's objections resulted in the episode's cancellation from NBC's summer rerun schedule. Martin Kane, Private Eye includes a file from Kudner Agency, Inc., the advertising firm that directed and produced the program for their client, the U.S. Tobacco Company. The file contains suggestions and comments for specific script revisions, memoranda regarding ratings, and a set of guidelines for writers which detail the proper portrayal of pipe and cigarette smokers in the program.
MOTION PICTURES consists of files for films such as Casino Royale, Midway, Mosquito Squadron, and The Ravagers. The Casino Royale files include correspondence, which discusses various script revisions, and several scripts authored by Ben Hecht. Correspondence for The Ravagers details the business, legal, and financial efforts to obtain the rights to the literary property and the efforts to sell the story to a studio or producer. Included is extensive correspondence with Larry Sternig, a literary agent, in which he also discusses other properties and clients. Of special interest is his discussion of properties in which the Disney Studio was interested.
NOVELS consist of drafts and a final paperback version of Midway, which was based on the film of the same name. The novel, published in tandem with the film's release, reveals the increasing sophistication and diversification of studio marketing techniques used to promote films.
The RADIO series completes the collection and is composed of scripts for Martin Kane, Private Eye and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.
