Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

Established 1960
Purpose Archive for performing arts research
Headquarters 816 State Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Coordinates 43°04′31″N 89°24′00″W / 43.0752°N 89.4°W / 43.0752; -89.4
Website http://wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu

The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) is a major archive of motion picture, television, radio, and theater research materials. Located in the headquarters building of the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, the WCFTR holds over three hundred collections from motion picture, television, and theater writers, producers, actors, designers, directors, and production companies. These collections include business records, personal papers, scripts, photographs, promotional graphics, and some twenty thousand films and videotapes of motion picture and television productions.

The WCFTR is regularly visited by researchers from around the world.[1]

History

In 1955 the Wisconsin Historical Society established the Mass Communications History Center to document the importance of journalism, broadcasting, advertising, and public relations in the United States.[2] Recognizing that initiative's value, the University of Wisconsin's Speech and Theater Department formed the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research in 1960. Today the WCFTR is part of the university's Communication Arts Department and is operated in partnership with the Wisconsin Historical Society.[3]

Film

Dalton Trumbo, (at left in light-colored suit, bow tie, and glasses) with other members of the Hollywood Ten protesting their impending imprisonment, October 1947.

The film collection contains a variety of American and international cinema with rich holdings of Hollywood films from the 1930s to the 1960s, independent films from the 1960s to the 1980s, post-World War II Soviet films from the 1950s to the 1970s, and Taiwanese films from the late 1970s to the 1990s. Highlights of the film collection include

Complementing the films are paper records usually organized by the donor's name. Prominent examples include these collections:[5][6]

Six sketches in pencil, ink, and watercolor with two fabric samples for a skirt, blouse, and apron designed by Edith Head for Audrey Hepburn in the film "Sabrina" (1954). WCFTR Edith Head Papers.

Television

Boston Blackie (played by Kent Taylor), Mary Wesley (Lois Collier), and Inspector Faraday (Frank Orth), the cast of Boston Blackie, pose with Whitey the Dog in a 1951 promotional photograph for Ziv Television Programs. WCFTR Television Title Collection

The largest of the WCFTR television collections consists of 3500 shows produced by Ziv Television Programs, the most successful producer of action/adventure programming filmed for first run syndication from 1948-1962. The Ziv library includes viewing copies and printing elements for every episode of Boston Blackie, I Led Three Lives, Highway Patrol, Sea Hunt, Bat Masterson, and thirty-two other series. Scripts, production, and promotional materials for these and additional Ziv series can also be examined at the WCFTR.

Television pioneers whose careers are documented at the WCFTR include David Susskind, Fred Coe, Reginald Rose, Alvin Boretz, Paddy Chayefsky, and Loring Mandel, among others.[7] More recent collections include the Papazian-Hirsch Entertainment and Steven Starr collections. Highlights include

Theater

Color lithograph poster for the 1912 musical comedy farce "Don't Lie to Your Wife." WCFTR Poster Collection

Collections have been established by actors such as Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Melvyn Douglas, Kitty Carlisle, Hal Holbrook and playwrights including S. N. Behrman, Moss Hart, Langston Hughes, George S. Kaufman, Walter Kerr, Jean Kerr, Howard Lindsay, Joseph Stein, Russel Crouse, N. Richard Nash, Paul Osborn, and Dale Wasserman.

Collections of composers and lyricists include those of Marc Blitzstein, Sheldon Harnick, and Stephen Sondheim. The WCFTR also houses collections from the costume, set, and lighting designers Dorothy Jeakins, Gilbert Vaughn Hemsley, Jr., and Jean Rosenthal.

The Center also holds the papers of the Playwrights' Company, a production company founded by Maxwell Anderson, Sidney Howard, Elmer Rice, Robert Sherwood, and S. N. Behrman. The behind-the-scene realities of Broadway theater of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s are documented in collections of producers and directors such as Kermit Bloomgarden, Hillard Elkins, Herman Levin, David Merrick, and Dwight Deere Wiman.[8]

Radio

Although the WCFTR is not primarily an archive of radio, many of its collections were donated by writers, producers, and actors—such as Nat Hiken, Rod Serling, Alvin Boretz, Irna Phillips, and William Spier—who were active in radio production in addition to their involvement with television, motion pictures, or the theater. As a result, the WCFTR holds collections touching on radio production in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. The collections contain some sound recordings, but paper records predominate, including hundreds of scripts for radio productions. Here is a sample of radio programs for which there are scripts in the collections: The Adventures of Sam Spade, The Adventures of Superman, The Aldrich Family, America in the Air, Best Plays, The Beulah Show, The Big Story, Big Town, Cavalcade of America, The Chesterfield Supper Club, The Clock, Dimension X, Dr. Sixgun, Escape, Ford Theatre, The Fred Allen Show, The Grouch Club, Haven of Hope, Hollywood Love Story, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, Kay Thompson and Company, Magazine Theater, The Marriage, Modern Tales of Hoffman, My Secret Story, NBC Theatre, NBC University Theatre, Nick Carter—Master Detective, Philip Morris Playhouse, Prudential Family Hour of Stars, Rooftops of New York, The Shadow, Star Spangled Theatre, Suspense, The Theatre Guild on the Air, United Nations Radio, Up for Parole, Woman in Love, and X Minus One, among many others.[9]

Photographs and promotional materials

Scene still from a Mack Sennett Comedy, probably "Those Athletic Girls" of 1918. Louise Fazenda does a Russian dance and left of her is Phyllis Haver holding a curling iron. WCFTR Film Title Collection.

The WCFTR has millions of still photographs, photographic negatives, posters, pressbooks, playbills, clippings, and scrapbooks, organized into four major groups to provide pictorial documentation of the production, distribution, and exhibition of motion pictures, television broadcasts, and theatrical plays.[10][11]

A selection of photographs of Broadway and silent film productions and actors, mostly from the 1890s to 1922 can be viewed online at the Wisconsin Historical Images section of the Wisconsin Historical Society website.[12] Color lithographed posters for touring theatrical productions from the 1870s to the 1910s, such as the poster for "Don't Lie to Your Wife" shown above, are also available there.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ About Us page at the WCFTR website.
  2. ↑ Mass Communications History Collections at the Wisconsin Historical Society website.
  3. ↑ About Us:History page at the WCFTR website.
  4. ↑ Collections:Film page at the WCFTR website.
  5. ↑ http://srnconference2013.commarts.wisc.edu/research-opportunities/ Screenwriting Research Network International Conference 2013: Research
  6. ↑ http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/ Details of donors' collections derived from Archives Computer Catalog searches (ArCat).
  7. ↑ Collections:Radio and Television page at the WCFTR website.
  8. ↑ Collections:Theater page at the WCFTR website.
  9. ↑ http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/ Details of collections with radio content derived from Archives Computer Catalog searches (ArCat).
  10. ↑ Collections: Photos and Promotional Materials page. at the WCFTR website.
  11. ↑ Elvehjem Museum of Art and Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. 1987. Hollywood glamour, 1924-1956. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin System, xii.
  12. ↑ Advanced search for WCFTR and SILENT FILM, WCFTR and BROADWAY, or WCFTR and ACTRESS at http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/advancedSearch.asp
  13. ↑ Advanced search for WCFTR POSTERS at http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/advancedSearch.asp
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