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Audio from the WCFTR Featured in TCM's Cleopatra Podcast
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Turner Classic Movies is back with a new season of its top-notch film history podcast The Plot Thickens, and we're proud to share that the WCFTR plays a small role! This season tells the story of one of Hollywood’s most expensive and tortured productions, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Cleopatra (1963). Hosted by the director's grand-nephew, TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, the series weaves together audio from a range of archival sources and new interviews (including one with friend of the WCFTR Matthew Bernstein). The archival audio features clips from recordings in producer Walter Wanger’s collection at the WCFTR. The first two episodes are available now, with new episodes released each Thursday. You can find the series wherever you get your podcasts, and TCM's website also includes links to listen to The Plot Thickens. And if the podcast sparks your interest in Cleopatra, the WCFTR holds extensive production files and other materials related to the film in the Wanger collection.
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Project Updates:
Processing the WCFTR's Terry Zwigoff Films
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Last year, filmmaker and UW-alum Terry Zwigoff donated his collection of papers and films to the WCFTR! With an eclectic career that spans documentary and fiction features, Zwigoff's acclaimed films include Crumb (1995), Ghost World (2001), and Bad Santa (2003). This summer we were fortunate to have Ricardo Rodríguez Ramírez working as a WCFTR intern to process the films in the Zwigoff collection. Ricardo is a past WCFTR employee who is now earning a masters degree in Film Preservation and Collection Management at Toronto Metropolitan University. Through his work at the WCFTR this summer, Ricardo processed more than 650 reels of film, mostly from Crumb, Louie Bluie (1985), and footage collected for a documentary about Hawaiian music. We're grateful to Ricardo for his dedication and enthusiasm this summer. Thanks to his work on the collection, the films will be available to researchers soon.
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Recently Digitized from Our Collections:
The Faye Emerson Show - "Foreign Correspondents"
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Nicknamed "the First Lady of Television," Faye Emerson was one of the first late-night television show hosts. The Faye Emerson Show debuted on CBS in 1949, and Emerson balanced lighthearted social topics with major political issues such as international relations and nuclear arms, all mixed with frequent promotion of the show's sponsor, Pepsi Cola. Celebrity guests like Tennessee Williams and Frank Lloyd Wright appeared on the show, as well as experts in fields such as atomic energy. The March 5, 1951 episode titled "Foreign Correspondents" showcases Emerson's engaging, thoughtful interview style, as she speaks with journalists from India, Yugoslavia, and England who are stationed in the United States. Emerson casually maintains conversations about the future of China, the differences in Communist governments, and the likelihood of war with the Soviet Union, all over refreshing glasses of Pepsi. The WCFTR has digitized all episodes of Emerson's series from kinescopes. We have made five episodes, including "Foreign Correspondents," available on our Saving and Sharing Early Television website, which provides exhibits about Emerson's career and the series World of Giants from our Ziv-TV collection.
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Collection Spotlight:
Alvin Boretz Papers
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Alvin Boretz was a writer of radio, television, film, and theater, known for his dedication to telling humane stories and his endless appetite for researching his projects. Many of his scripts focused on people with disabilities, an interest informed by his son's diagnosis with cerebral palsy. Boretz started writing for radio after serving in the Army Air Corps in World War II, and he worked on hit series like CBS's Big Town and the game show Quick as a Flash. Boretz later wrote for television shows like The Mod Squad and Treasury Men in Action (T-Men), and his film scripts include the 1978 MGM release Brass Target. Throughout his prolific career, Boretz wrote hundreds of scripts across different media and genres. The WCFTR's extensive Boretz collection contains scripts, correspondence, research, photographs, and much more. Check out Writer in Action, our Alvin Boretz website created by project assistant Sam Janes, to view sample materials from his papers and learn more about his fascinating life and career. We would like to thank Jennifer Kahnweiler and Bill Kahnweiler for their generous support of the WCFTR and the Writer in Action website.
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We depend on donations to keep up our operations, support digitization and access projects, and fund student research in the archives. If you care about keeping our media history heritage alive, your gift to support our collection, preservation, and access activities is a wonderful way to show it. Any size donation is appreciated.
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Questions or comments about the WCFTR Newsletter?
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