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| Container | Contents | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Series 1. Early History of Universal Pictures Corporation, 1906-1974 | |||||||||||||
| Universal Pictures business, legal, and financial papers | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 1/1 | Stockholder's meetings, 1906-1914 | ||||||||||||
| Notes and xeroxes, Laemmle Film Service and Universal Film Manufacturing Company. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 1/2 | Financial balance sheet, 1914 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 1/3 | Carl Laemmle's income tax return, 1914 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 1/4 | Sales figures for Universal brands, 1914-1915 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 1/5 | Studio history, 1915 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 1/6 | IRS report on Universal's 1917 return, prepared 1923 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 1/7 | Financial reports, 1916-1917, and 1918-1919 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 1/8 | Century Film Corporation (CPA report), 1914-1922 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 1/9 | MacDonald vs. Universal | ||||||||||||
| Material on suit between Mary MacLaren (MacDonald) and Universal. | |||||||||||||
| See also Oral history interview with Mary MacLaren | |||||||||||||
| Transcript of interview | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 1/10 | Miscellaneous notes and memorabilia, 1910s | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER OSE 1/1 | Miscellaneous notes and memorabilia, 1910s | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER OSD 1/1 | Universal Newsreel | ||||||||||||
| Broadside, vol. 4, no. 4, relating to Grace Humiston personal publicity suit | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 1/11 | Correspondence, Isidore Bernstein and Carle Laemmle, 1913-1914 | ||||||||||||
| Concerning corporate infighting and west coast activities. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 1/12 | H. O. Davis, 1917 | ||||||||||||
| Letter to Carl Laemmle from studio manager. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 1/13 | J. P. MacGowan, 1917 | ||||||||||||
| Letter from studio manager. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 1/14 | Pat Powers, 1912-1919 | ||||||||||||
| Collection of memos, notes and detective reports documenting Carl Laemmle's contest with Pat Powers over control of Universal. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 1/15-21 | Powers-Swanson-Laemmle suit | ||||||||||||
| Files of complaints, testimony, exhibits, etc., regarding legal battle over control of Universal voting stock. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/1-2 | Patents Company vs. Universal | ||||||||||||
| Archive of documents tracing this case from the Southern District of New York through the U.S. Circuit of Appeals to the Supreme Court of the United States. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/3 | Miscellaneous reports and memorabilia, 1920s | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/4 | Universal revenue, 1919-1926 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/5 | Sample production costs, 1922-1930 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/6 | Universal profit-loss chart, 1925-1935 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/7 | Universal German business, 1922-1936 | ||||||||||||
| Contracts, reports, financials. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/8 | Items of negative cost, 1933 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/9 | Reorganization of executive staff, 1935 | ||||||||||||
| Memo from Carl Laemmle, jr. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/10 | Theaters | ||||||||||||
| Notes on annual profit/loss; Carl Laemmle's contract. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/11 | Memos regarding merger | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/12 | Picture costs and grosses, 1931-1935 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/13 | Laemmle-Cochrane correspondence, Dec 1935-Jan 1936 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/14 | Miscellaneous memos of Carl Laemmle and R. H. Cochrane, 1930s | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/15 | Proposed 1935 purchase by Warner Bros. (legal file) | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/16 | Standard Capital correspondence regarding merger, Dec 1935 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/17 | Standard Capital correspondence regarding merger, Jan-June 1936 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 2/18 | Standard Capital correspondence regarding execution of merger, 1936 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 3/1 | Manuscript copy of "black notebooks" found in Universal's Hudson Street warehouse | ||||||||||||
| (52 manuscript pages) | |||||||||||||
| Said by staff to be contents of Carl Laemmle's personal safe (impossible to verify). Copied by Richard Koszarski in 19xx. Notebooks consisted of annualized costs, grosses and profit/loss of Universal features and program series released between 1921 and 1936. These figures differ from those in official reports prepared for public consumption. | |||||||||||||
| Carl Laemmle historical documents | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 3/4 | Carle Laemmle personal | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 3/5-7 | Carl Laemmle memoirs | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 3/8 | [Miscellaneous recent Carl Laemmle] | ||||||||||||
| Questionaire re: James Friedman documentary; brochure for 100 Years of Hollywood: The Laemmle Effect traveling exhibit (German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA). | |||||||||||||
| Universal Pictures historical documents | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 3/9 | Universal studio histories, 1947, 1953, 1959 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 3/10 | Universal studio histories, 1951, 1965, 1972 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 3/11 | Universal junk list, 1948 | ||||||||||||
| Correspondence regarding destruction of negatives. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 3/12 | Show-at-home movie library | ||||||||||||
| Notes, catalog, contracts. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 3/13 | Universal master feature list, 1914-1974 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 3/14 | Universal Studio Club News, 25th anniverary edition, 1952 | ||||||||||||
| Individual Motion Pictures | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 4/1-13 | Paul J. Rainey's African Hunt, 1912 | ||||||||||||
| Stills, frame enlargements, photographic copies of title cards. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 4/14 | Where Are My Children?, 1916 | ||||||||||||
| Continuity and subtitles (Lois Weber); pressboook and herald. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER OSD 1/2 | Where Are My Children? | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 4/15 | Is Any Girl Safe? (Anti-Vice M.P. Company), 1916 | ||||||||||||
| Continuity and subtitles (Jacques Jaccard). | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 4/16 | Hell Morgan's Girl, 1916 | ||||||||||||
| Legal file regarding censorship of the film (NY Supreme Court) including testimony and argument, with continuity and subtitles (written by Ida May Park). | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 4/17 | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1916 | ||||||||||||
| Multiple pages of notes transcribed by RK from legal documents and memos related to lawsuit in which Williamson Bros. sued Universal for payment regarding the special effects for this film. Includes abstract of Bahamas production diary. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 4/18 | The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, 1917 | ||||||||||||
| Continuity and subtitles of film in its original version (as Is a Woman a Person, by Lois Weber), with hand corrections regarding censorship. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 4/19 | A Kentucky Cinderella, 1917 | ||||||||||||
| Film report from studio manager H. O. Davis (xerox, 5pp.). | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 4/20 | Universal-Smithsonian African expedition film, 1919 | ||||||||||||
| 22 photographs documenting Belgian Congo train wreck which killed Universal director William Stowell and Dr. William Armstrong, the Smithsonian's business manager for the expedition. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 4/21-24 | King of Jazz, 1930 | ||||||||||||
| Employment contracts of Paul Whiteman and John Murray Anderson; music cue sheets for 1930 version; xerox copy of 1933 continuity; xerox copies of telegrams regarding production. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 4/25 | Air Mail, 1932 | ||||||||||||
| By John Ford. Publicity file including national clippings, pressbook, and promotional releases. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER OSD 1/3-4 | Air Mail | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 4/26 | Diamond Jim, 1935 | ||||||||||||
| Screenplay by Preston Sturges; producer James Grainger's copy, with blue pages. | |||||||||||||
| Series 2. Financials gathered in connection with 1935-1936 corporate sale. | |||||||||||||
| These are graphs, charts, tables, reports and memos, most of which were apparently gathered and/or created by J. Cheever Cowdin of Standard Capital Corp. They present a detailed picture of Universal's operating structure and financial history. Each exhibit contains multiple pages. | |||||||||||||
| Mimeographed documents | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER OS1/1 | Coast contracts, 1935 | ||||||||||||
| Exhibits 1-2. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER OS1/2 | Feature financing schedule, 1934-1935 | ||||||||||||
| Exhibits 3-5. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER OS1/3 | Schedule of depreciation, overhead, payroll | ||||||||||||
| Exhibits 6-11. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER OS1/4 | Schedule of average negative cost, 1924-1934 | ||||||||||||
| Exhibits 13-14. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER OS1/5 | Universal Pictures payroll and operating expenses, 1932-1934 | ||||||||||||
| Exhibits 16-20. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER OS1/6 | Universal Pictures and subsidiary companies, profit and loss, thru 1935 | ||||||||||||
| Exhibits A-P (subset of above series?). | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 3/2 | Report of findings, 1935 | ||||||||||||
| Executive summary of above materials. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 3/3 | Confidential memo, 1935 | ||||||||||||
| J. Cheever Cowdin's ideas on how Standard Capital should proceed. | |||||||||||||
| Veloxed documents | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER OS1/7 | Universal features, profit and loss, 1926-1936 | ||||||||||||
| Spread sheets with detailed costs, grosses and profits for all features (23 pp.). | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER OS1/8-13 | Fold-out hand colored graphs | ||||||||||||
| These oversized pages (67 sheets) chart all aspects of Universal's income and operating expenses during the 1920s and 1930s, and cover inventories, salaries, foreign business, studio operations, theater and exchange income, etc. Some begin as early as 1921 and most end in the mid-1930s, but others extend through 1940. | |||||||||||||
| Series 3. Corporate publications, 1914-1917, 1920, 1925-1927, 1929-1965 | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 5/1 | Universal Film Manufacturing Company, semi-annual report, November 15, 1916 | ||||||||||||
| Extremely detailed report listing all assets and liabilities, with production cost of all negatives both released and unreleased (approximately 200 pages). | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 5/2 | Bluebird Photoplays, Inc. balance sheet, January 21, 1917 | ||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 5/3 | Bluebird Photoplays, Inc. semi-annual report, July 22, 1917 | ||||||||||||
| These two reports document all aspects of Bluebird's financial operations, including costs of films with grosses broken out by territory, as well as inventories, accounts receivable, etc. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 5/4-8 | Consolidated balance sheets/annual reports, Universal Pictures Company, Inc., 1925-1927, 1929-1931, 1933-1965 | ||||||||||||
| Plus additional mid-year report for 1934. Sometimes these are bare-bones CPA summaries, but certain periods, especially the 1940s, are elaborately illustrated with color stills and detailed charts and graphics. | |||||||||||||
| BOX-FOLDER 5/9 | Universal Pictures Company and MCA, Inc. agreement of purchase and sale, dated December 16, 1958 | ||||||||||||
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