The Inquiring Mind; The David O. Selznick Archives

communication center the university of texas at austin this is the inquiring mind produced by public station k u t fm in association with a news and information service at ut austin these discussions examine the ideas and activities of members of a major university community to introduce this week's guest your producer cathy glover the day their cells make our cars contain more than fifty seven thousand pounds of paper office records memos manuscripts and correspondents who would preserve the history of the greatest motion picture producers among his accomplishments are gone with the wind and your son with ms mary jenkins of the ut new service and our guest is ed when neil research associate at the humanities research center at the university of texas when didier is required the archive and heron out i was all that transported or we started dealing with the cells and family around all six or seven months ago and now they invited us out to look at the cells and placed in hollywood which was stored at beacons warehouse and fearless get so desperate turner who's the director of the h r c e and couple

guys from radio television film department in some people from the staff of the hubble sells the arts library when out daily look at it we made a survey of what was there and determined that it was quite wonderful and so we finalize the rangers with the cells that family and not for half months later the archives begin to be transported by truck trucks are several actually there's a little bit of everything there's not a great deal from the r k o or the list a celtic period which roughly runs from nineteen fifteen to nineteen thirty five because daniels sells nick was not daniel jeffrey did not have access to some of the father's papers they will sell six collection prior to that period where we have roughly is materials which relate to the cells and releasing organization cells that international pictures a syrupy

after nineteen thirty five after he left are tale in gm for example king kong which is dr gil period very little their but for all of the cells into the national picture pictures doom the southern spellbound stars mourn the things that nature there's a dramatic amount of nature of their memos letters manuscripts and scripts and and financial documents color renderings costume designs tremendous amount of interconnected with each failed i mostly sings paper their documents are there is a loser is legal documents there's a lawyer's files there's a huge storyboard drawings for example are going to win we have almost all of the technical drawings that came straight from the shop that are used to produce all the props and the buildings if you could if you wanted to take the working drawings from this fall and

duplicate tara oral arguments about the red but perhaps it would be possible to do that because the noise we have raul scale working drawings can you tell us a little bit about david o says nick as society in with the wind but we'll certainly does that was certainly the high point of his career but you have to understand that that he comes from a background that louis de silva his father was literally one of the people who pioneered the film industry is jay cells that cranked out three five hundred films in the silent era in the late teens and early twenties and david also think was taken along to the offices when he was american boy by louis de sales lincoln was riding on the ground floor of the film industry by the time david so i started working actively in the film industry he had been a cutter or cutting films coming back together he watched hundreds of films being made he durbin on been in

contract negotiations with stars with producers or directors cameramen heat while he watched lighting people try to set up things he had a working background in almost every single facet of film production by the time he was in his mid twenties he had more practical experience in half the people in the beginning because you see at that time in the late teens and early twenties most of the film people the afghanistan couldn't have any experience in the villages if there hadn't been any very long so most of them are coming from the stage a background in newark city george tooker the great director came straight from the stage you have stage director and it was they were settling for example who got him started in the film and so did sales and that produces first lady he was pretty early uses early twenties because of what happened was some he dr gail people just put him in charge of some

private needed then and when on to another woman yet understand that it was very difficult to arrange things in those days nobody quite knew for sure what they were doing it was not cut and dried was the theater to see the theater have had had over a thousand years to work on it and though the film industry which i figure out what the what the world would do it their style changing everyday techniques were changing because new chemical processes were being literally invented by the film industry to accomplish what they want to accomplish or what they thought they want to cut so it sounds like there's not really a set a guideline to say this is what i'm a producer well now we'll see you start off as a producer he just out of all but what happened was he you could do literally i walk into the film industry in the late teens early twenties without any experience whatsoever he didn't even if he does get if you have no money or fridges knew somebody said hey i'd like to make these are motion pictures and as the world they

were here four over that and people get care and galt line of bushes and shoo shoo the western film you know i have the people or should feel as close as that ever been a cowboy was you know traveling through the train in wyoming you know looking out the window you don't have to get an idea of that window sills its personality from look at data collection absolutely his stamp is personal personally stand is infused in almost every single file out if you take a file out designer with the film as it is a matter of its doing the southerners spellbound rebecca gong the wind little or foreigner or a dinner at eight king kong it doesn't matter whatever is there somewhere there will be a memo stating his personal opinions would inject understand that this was a man that would sit down and write a thirty two page letter two of boston's go see the following day simply because he wanted his views known he wanted to think of a clearly any one of them presented in a meaningful married in this one step down over coffee in

and throw some ideas are using is much more serious than a great many people the film and jay z because at that time and has it was a very loose cannon atmosphere was just that there was so much happening at once there was so much money just pouring in and out of individual officers it might be a millionaire one day i'm broke the neck bruises a terrific exciting is charged atmosphere but you kept his head about him and the only thing that he ever want to do mine which produce good films i was his sole purpose in life they think he was so meticulous daily for business standpoint he was a meticulous person to begin with and he is meticulous this drove half the people of film history and saying there were hundreds of people who could not and would not work with him because he drove them to distraction it is that the stories are legend about how long difficult it was to work with not from a point of being egotistical but from a point of thoroughness like for example

when they did they were going to win they wanted to shoot a certain scene now when leo a week on the dog which would be possibly write you know used to mr hugo shoot the scene when every year you find a dog with loss that's not enough for davis says he wrote about fifteen or twenty memos set up a staff of research people to go out talk all the people in the neighborhood talk to the agriculture is talk to the horticulturist talk to that the museum people talk to the media for people to find out all of the possible dates when the dogs would be building what areas they bloomed infer where they bloom the most whether any color differences is they sell it so that they have and this follows is in the collection a weird name even though interest but the point was on january the twenty fours if that was the date that he did always would start to blossom in a certain town he wanted his camera crew there and if they were going to bloom until may the first in a different time in a different place and they would be better off their been he

wanted lists in the film crew here and in they're in american heiress he did all the shots not just want to see a lot of producers would have to settle for one shot know paul davis says it would get a detained shots and different times different places then he would run the footage and then decide on the basis of what the screen showing back to him a lot of times he would decide what to put into the film felt like it would take years to get afghanistan they started working on gone with a win in nineteen thirty five when it didn't you didn't finish until nineteen thirty nine now that's not all shipping time in afghanistan to the shooting period for the film was a little over nine or ten months say does a long time for their time but they can lose three years was all a parishioner kenya's idea how his extensive records or at least he's going to be looking at and what a result well we will which already got people pouring in we've got literally just about every walk a life and you can imagine the research feel has already contacted us even now we

had one gentleman who is going to do a one man show a drama theater piece of davis else's life or having to dig up hundreds of them was for him how we're also dealing with people who are writing books on his top because so many scripts in all other yet understand it so youre doing research on hitchcock film you come in you once here has come across well you might go through like rebecca you might go through a hundred and fifty scripts all different that do with rebecca changes they made additions that they left out character notes visas type so if you're doing a book on his cup you have to use the data itself a collection of nowhere around what is the relation our time and that producer and director he's gotten older directors working on different payrolls are sometimes he would go through five or six director someone feel you have to understand that all those six people actually directing all the women and only one has cream colored yet understand it that victor fleming directed approximately forty percent of gold that we know more than what was a distinction i mean at least on our roles to find that wayne

was a producer day one as a director is you know what is a really wanted to define that role because every producer taxed differently in hollywood a lot of people are content just to write a check they write the studio a check and mean mother on malibu swimming when you hear about a new movie it's the producers' names associated with it is it balances his name because he brought he brought the fdic the film into being in other words without somebody to write that five and a half million dollar check you know warner brothers presents satan produced by so and so but a lot of times the producers are simply money man and then the other and the extremes david ourselves that who looks down this road of every single facet of the film and i mean from from the time it leaves the decision to make the film to he would even personally personally go into the individual theaters where it was being shown checking the sound levels checking them the candle power of the of the bulb in the project are literally to make

sure that the film was being shown at its optimum level he checked the film prices he checked that how many times a day the individual hitters were showing the film and he would come home and write memos at it everyone gone the way i'm supposed to be anonymous trouble with directors surely miss an accommodation to start a new song walk off airwaves clark gable or talent to alienate a community do you will anyone to be replaced except people like clark gable and unknown stars of such magnitude that the film has no chance of success without them you see gable it took them about two a half years to get gable into the fella going so to date and then send both to convince him to do it and to convince engine to let them do it because see in gm had part they will tide of the contract yes drenched in most of the money that number when made did not go to

davis us a new indian gym because they probably sign the most lucrative contract been in film history in other words that extorting just so much percentage from from the us sells like international pictures but so that really had to sign a contract because the public demanded record label played a role there was never any doubt they tried that war ravaged tried to get flanagan and now though there were a number of people see bette davis was buss was supposed to play the role her other things about that like you've got the way in that would surprise people to rio tremendous amount for example we've already come across some some very rare and wonderful manuscripts from f scott fitzgerald which have surfaced and a heretofore people thought that you would just brought in to run a little scene but we've found up to six or seven hundred pages mentioned carol for f scott fitzgerald and it's very interesting to see because davis says it was playing on a funny little game he was forming these scenes out

from going to win to have for the writers in hollywood and would talk in ben hecht f scott fitzgerald oliver carriages are all kinds of people script doctors the rails and then he would said his office at night reading all of the different versions and choosing one line from this one one line from that when putting his group again so people say well you know a city howard wrote a screenplay sydney howard in anymore write the screenplay to go when i did have all the current situation we're raising chronologically in and it's kind of interesting because we raise all the difference cultural and chronologically at by the time they were written and i think this is the first time in the history of the film that they've ever been arranged that way because we found them all in different boxes of boxes of different secretaries sr producer in all these kind of files were melted together and we extracted a little inscription brilliant pianist it's quite fun to see how they will feel offended inquiring mind our guest as and when the open

et humanities research center speaking on the day that i've felt like our god mr gordon and that's what's going to happen with those incredible an immaterial are you seem surely going through can watch all this there are no homes is it is it is also working on a collection and we're attempting to put it into a manuscript boxes that are catalogued by the film in other words when you come in and ask for going to win all the mature will be one place if someone were to community would be more likely that they're going to want to look at particular things for a given phone or let's say i'm singing if someone was interested in looking at one aspect of production across several films you had to go through each one of the sure but the deranged gollum by the elements so that you can say i'm a policy all the financial distribution papers ear attune celtic felt would be in trouble pullman all

you just go to say the the selection code would be twenty six he just pulled the twenty six boxes from tin films nbc is an advocate of course then also which we have dreams of computerizing a great deal of this so that because it's when you do that when you're looking at two to three million pieces of paper that the only way to effectively catalog of this by computer anything else is selling just getting into the computers have like a really pretty mind boggling what they're doing is they're one for the question which you think is particularly important variables strong point on film well if we had nothing else other than the gauntlet when material i would be just as excited about the collection as i am about all of the other stuff but if that's all it were there because this is a film which show as few others have done his sister the test of time is going to continue to do so it's a timeless film

it's a film there's so many facets of the film that can be years still standing and still found out things about for example the very few people know how very earnestly and dedicated that for all they will says it worked with the all black organizations to make sure that they understood that he was attempting to make a film which upheld their dignity as well as anything else he i was in constant contact without all the black organizations who were very frightened because if you read the novel the novel does not show them quite as you know in the end several instances but he picked a good promotion terrific amanda payne stewart is you know like they would leave scenes out or change them to affect good images with research trip tremendous positive approach to the black person in iowa why isn't am laughter so much is that going back to his job as a new sunni business very important yet finished in that few other people in the

history of hollywood kept as many files or is completed far as dave associated with this was just another facet of the organization which he'd set up the film producing organization you know what it was and it kept me with ideas for his own personal record we find no after no more after memo do not throw the sort say this he made it it should be designed it is daddy i understand that he used a trick from a terrific amount of this material over normal and for example the terror and the burning of atlanta ga going on do you know what the fire consist so when you see the burning of atlanta we know it was in the usual care and rushing through the streets that fire in the background is all the sets from king kong that's the set but he was expedient to the point of you know though sets were going to be used again because by this point in time is it like six or seven years after they were built their word little decrepit at that time and what better use for them then what better

tribute for them to be immortalized if not yet to understand this man had such an amputee know and he would have told people publicly that well was just to save money but i think there's evidence in the files to indicate that his romanticism when a little deeper than that is a long planned and neither burke on their cells they i'm sure that when we go further organized there will be several books because to my mind there's not a book that exists on the market right now that is complete enough to give even you know oh more than reasonable idea what was going on in the man's career and in his work because no one has examined them with materials thorough enough to just has an inaccessible and four and tears and rebuilders book a memo today it sells is about the only book that's really and all it did was copying those out of the year how to file these were selected that's because he had to go to the salesman

warehouses one in the sense that well it's it's somewhat reform of project convinced him the sons of interview protective of what might or might not be written and rightfully so hello it's gonna be using well it's a it's going to be available because you were to take this public is the division you know it can be used by anyone and even quoted as saying something to the effect that anyone that wants to really comprehensive study of iron this are at this time is going and authentic and i think so i think so because when you're talking about the quality of the films and the time especially as mgm years and certainly that doomed sarandon all of those hitchcock films rebecca i just don't think you could write an essay or a book or dissertation or thesis about the importance of hollywood in the thirties or forties without using cells a collection i don't see how would be possible

assistant into the ahmanson theatre arts library we generally you mentioned betty esser explainer will call hummus so odd i'm i'd like to think is very happy in heaven right now because mr hubbard cell was a dallas resident who founded the interstate motion picture change that well he actually started building houses in houston and dallas to growing body of the southwest in munich in the early part of since nineteen seventy one and in one motion pictures came in the change on the vaudeville houses over motion picture and he built world large chains that the nation has ever seen over two hundred house is a one point in texas and surrounding areas and it must be just a thrill there's any way would let him know that finally here in the hobbled so collection which consists not only of motion picture but while west circus dance magic wand to burlesque does what it says are resorts all the theater

once we have every theatrical arts of politics or reason what happens is that this is our biggest and most important collection to come to the public so the theater arts lovers since its inception in the mid fifties our guest has been and when neil research associate the humanities research center at the university of texas speaking on the day they'll sell my car craps and catchy clever ford inquiring mind have you been listening to the inquiring mind a series of programs about the members of a major university community your ideas and opinions expressed in this programme do not necessarily reflect the views of the university of texas inquiring mind is produced by public station kqed fm in association with the news and information service and distributed by communication center all at the university of texas at austin this is the long regular

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