The WGF Library and Archive is open again after two long years! Now we are here to tell you about the unique treasures in our growing archive of writers’ collections that document the history and evolution of the craft and business of screenwriting. If you’ve never been to our library, check out our previous post for a quick orientation and come back here for a visit in the vault.
What IS an archive anyway?
Peek inside the Archive vault.
An archive as an institution refers to collections of anything that has long-term value, historical or otherwise. Maybe you wondered if you were allowed to go into your university’s special collections and archives—perhaps it seemed important but mysterious. Archives serve the same purpose as libraries: both collect, preserve, and make materials accessible for research. The main difference is the type of material and how they are organized. The materials in archival collections are unpublished, unique, and often irreplaceable, whereas libraries collect published books, periodicals, and other media that can be replaced. Libraries are browsable by subject but archives are not. Similarly, museums collect, study, and interpret mostly three-dimensional objects, while archives work primarily with paper, film, audio, and electronic records.
Archives and archivists make sure material is available for research for years to come. To accomplish this, items are stored away from the public in secure, climate-controlled conditions so they will last for a long time.
What is the WGF Archive?
Our Library and Archive contain unpublished, unique material that relates to film and TV writing and the Writers Guild of America. This means we have thousands and thousands of scripts and related archival material from films, TV and radio shows spanning the past 100 years. Currently, we have almost 200 archival manuscript collections acquired from writers or families of writers which have been donated over the past 20 years. And we acquire more each year. Many collections are from TV writers although most of the people represented wrote across media. Some collections can be as small as half a box or as large as 50 boxes.
Usually, collections are comprised of a writer’s entire body of work. There are multiple script drafts of that writer’s produced work as well as many unproduced projects, development material, memos and correspondence, and other ephemera related to the craft and business of writing. There can also be other creative output like plays, short stories, and music. The number of unproduced projects in each collection shows just how amazing it is when a script finally makes it to the screen!
What do you have?
In the gallery below, you will find a few examples of the one-of-a kind items we have in our collections.
Norman Liebmann, who co-created the TV series The Munsters, kept all material related to developing and shooting the pilot. There are a ton of outlines, notes, and correspondence where the team is figuring out who this fantastic family would be and their relationship to the real world.
We have a collection of outlines, notes and drafts of Beauty and the Beast donated by the writer Linda Woolverton, which offer great insight into the development of this active, strong female protagonist.
The Caroline Thompson Collection includes amazing notecards representing each beat of Edward Scissorhands, as well as multiple drafts of her produced and unproduced films.
One of our most used collections is from Mel Tolkin who was a writer during the 1950s Golden Age of TV. He was head writer on the acclaimed variety show Your Show of Shows starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. He worked steadily and in the 1970s, he was on All In the Family. As a part of two important writing staffs, his papers reflect in detail the talent and process behind two classic TV shows, in the form of writers’ room notes, letters, an unpublished memoir and so much more.
We also have a small number of records that relate to the history of the Writers Guild of America, which was founded as the Screen Writers Guild labor union in 1933. Records cover the 1930s to the 1990s and reveal stories that span all facets of entertainment history, such as labor organizing, diversity and inclusion efforts, examination of film authorship and auteur theory, the role of the showrunner, and the dark time of the Hollywood Blacklist of the 1950s, which affected screenwriters disproportionately. These records reflect the writer as they worked within the larger context of Hollywood systems and the shifting trends and priorities of society at large.
How is everything organized? How can I see what you have?
Most of our collections are organized by name of the person who created the collection—usually a writer but sometimes other industry people. We comb through and organize everything that comes in a donation, create inventories, and write narrative collection guides that summarize what’s in the collection. These guides are similar to a book’s catalog record. They include information about the writer or donor and give context to the collection so you know more about what’s inside (and what’s not). We also highlight what we think are the most important or unique or cool things we have found.
These guides can be found by browsing in our catalog and many are posted to a search portal called the Online Archive of California. OAC is searchable by keyword and provides free public access to descriptions of collections maintained by more than 300 contributing institutions throughout California, including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums.
Who uses the collections?
We get all sorts of visitors and email inquiries. Aspiring writers and members might look at material related to a particular writer or project that they find inspiring or instructive. Fans and journalists make connections and share their discoveries and insights with the world. Students, film and TV historians, and biographers might be conducting deep research on a specific person or project or genre, and they want to use as many primary sources as possible. For example, we often have scripts and pitches for old or obscure TV shows or pilots that weren’t picked up. These one-of-a-kind documents are valuable to historians when a filmed version is lost or unavailable.
Who can see the material?
Anyone with a specific need can make a request, regardless of WGA membership, status in the industry, or academic affiliation. If you have broad ideas or topics to discuss, please clarify and focus your research question to make it workable for us.
How do I make an appointment?
We require that you make an appointment in advance of your visit, particularly if you want to see something older or fragile or truly one of a kind. You can find more information in our other post and you can click here to schedule an appointment. Because of the unique nature of archives, access is mediated by staff out of necessity (not because we are stingy). The bulk of our collections are stored off-site and we need at least three days for orders to arrive. Each folder of paper we have is not itemized online (that would be impossible) so if you’re not sure whether we have the exact thing or draft you’re looking for, get in touch and we can find out. And let us know what you’re working on because we know about interconnections and cross-references that you might not otherwise discover.
Can I request a copy of something?
No. Everything must be consulted on-site. If you are seeking permission to use an image or extensive excerpt from our collections, get in touch.
Do you have that one unproduced script by that famous screenwriter?
The best way to know if we have something is to look it up in our catalog or look in our collection guides. Searching by title and/or writer is best. We do have some unproduced titles by famous screenwriters and these are in a spreadsheet in our catalog.
What resources do you have for people who can’t visit the Archive in person?
We are always happy to answer questions via email at library@wgfoundation.org. You can inquire about our collections and we can help with brief research. We also know plenty about screenwriting and WGA history so don’t hesitate to ask. We can also point you toward helpful online and IRL resources. As screenwriting subject experts, we know where to find scripts and are happy to recommend helpful books, other archival collections, or colleagues in the industry who can help in your research.
There are so many resources that relate to entertainment history. A few of our favorite online tools for historical research are the Media History Digital Library and ArchiveGrid.
When you contact the Library and Archive, we will do our best to help you find what you want (if it exists), even if we don’t have it but some other place does.