Hidden Histories: Discovering Los Angeles' LGBTQ+ Collections Main Menu Hidden Histories: Discovering Los Angeles' LGBTQ+ Collections Welcome to Hidden Histories! Discovering Los Angeles' LGBTQ+ Collections! What is Hidden Histories? A partnership between ONE Archives at USC and L.A. as Subject, Hidden Histories' goal is to create a centralized resource of LGBTQ+ archival material for researchers and community members. Participating Institutions L.A. as Subject member institutions from across Southern California have joined with ONE and LAAS to collaborate on this project. Topical Guide Collections from participating institutions organized based on the subject or topic of the materials.

Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Art & Sciences

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The Academy of Motion Picture Art & Science's Margaret Herrick Library is one of the world’s preeminent research facilities dedicated to preserving the artform and industry of motion pictures. Its holdings, amassed since 1928, include books, photographs, scripts, posters, production records, costume design drawings, and more.

LGBTQ+ topics and themes represented in the collections held by the Margaret Herrick Library include Arts, Gay men, LGBTQ+ discrimination, and Women.

Featured Collections

Araki (Gregg) papers, 1976-2019
This collection consists primarily of production material documenting Araki’s film and television career, with thorough production material and scripts for such films as The Doom Generation (1995), Mysterious Skin (2004), Nowhere (1997), Splendor (1999), and Totally F***ed Up (1993), as well as his television pilot This is How the World Ends (2000).
De Brier (Samson) collection, circa 1925-1988*
This collection contains programs, clippings, periodicals, fan magazines, sheet music, disc recordings, and photographs. There is a scrapbook with clippings, reviews, and correspondence on the career of costume designer Edward Brymer, and a hand-drawn card from Kenneth Anger. 
Childers (Michael) photographs, 1971-2014
This collection consists of correspondence and material for an unpublished book on George Cukor, and miscellaneous material.
Costume design drawing collection, 1924-2003*
This collection includes drawings for Blazing Saddles (1974), A Little Night Music (1977), and Quo Vadis (1951).
Dougherty (Marion) papers, 1953-1998*
This collection includes Dougherty's casting files for nine films, notably for three best picture Academy Award-winning films, Braveheart (1995), Midnight Cowboy (1969), and The Sting (1973). There are thousands of casting cards for actors and actresses, arranged by gender, and filed alphabetically by last name. The handwritten index cards, from 1961 through the 1990s, capture Dougherty's impressions and insights, most from in-person interviews. Clippings, day calendars, casting reference binders, and notes from the 1970s on films and plays are of interest. Also included are several drafts of her unpublished memoir, "My Casting Couch Was Too Short," as well as transcripts of the interviews that formed the basis of the book. The photographs include several hundred informal Polaroid portraits of actors and actresses, taken for reference purposes at auditions.
Encounter Cinema records, 1970-1985
This collection contains organization files, maintained by administrator Douglas Edwards, on independent and experimental films screened at the theater, including correspondence, programs, press releases, clippings and reviews, and grant applications. There is information on American independent filmmakers, including resumes, filmographies, film synopses and reviews, pictorial material, and photographs.
Fairfax (Marion) papers, 1890-1967
This collection contains scripts, correspondence, clippings, miscellaneous manuscript material, a few contracts, and a photograph album. There is some material regarding Fairfax's husband Tully Marshall.
Friedkin (William) papers, 1959-1997*
This collection contains production files, television files, stage files, story files, correspondence, subject files, legal papers, books, oversize material, scrapbooks, artifacts, set working drawings, production design drawings, location research, and photographs. The photograph series consists of prints and negatives of motion picture production photographs.
Harrington (Curtis) papers, 1875-2008*
This collection contains scripts, correspondence, clippings, reviews, and production material for Harrington’s experimental films from the 1940s through mid-1950s, work he did as Jerry Wald’s assistant from 1956 to 1963, and his own films from 1963 to 2002. There is correspondence related to his work in television, story files comprised of scripts, correspondence with experimental filmmakers, and drafts of an incomplete autobiography. 
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production & biography photographs, 1921-1973*
This collection consists of approximately one million photographic prints, scenes from 1,665 feature films, and 1,322 short films. Also included are off-camera photographs, portraits of players in character and costume for their roles, as well as general publicity shots. The biography files contain portrait, candid, and general publicity photographs not relating to productions for 2,328 individuals. 
Motion Picture Association of America Production Code Administration records, 1927-1967
The collection consists of material chronicling the activities of the Production Code Administration (PCA) in relation to more than 19,500 film properties submitted for approval. The files contain clippings, correspondence, analysis charts, synopses, credit sheets, theater and book reviews, and censor board reports.
Paramount Pictures photographs, 1914-1970*
In this collection, some 1,900 film titles are represented by approximately 200,000 photographic prints. They include scenes as well as publicity portraits and off-camera photographs showing various aspects of productions in progress. There are files on 168 individuals, primarily actors. Formats include 8x10 and 4x5 black-and-white photographic prints and negatives.
Phillips (Arianne) costume design drawings, 1994-2011*
This collection includes costume design drawings for such films as The Crow (1994), Tank Girl (1995), and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), among many others. There is also a small amount of production material.
Ridge (John David) papers, 1995-2003
This collection contains wardrobe material on films including Brokeback Mountain (2005), Kill Bill - Vol. 1 (2003), National Treasure (2004), Spider-Man (2002), and Spider-Man 2 (2004). For the latter title there is research material and cloth swatches for the "Spiderman" and "Green Goblin" character costumes.
Sennett (Mack) papers, 1912-1933*
This collection consists of production records, story material, biographical material, correspondence, in-house publications, publicity department records, account ledgers, balance sheets, audit reports, income tax returns, real estate contracts and leasing agreements, contracts (with talent and distribution companies), scrapbooks, and photographs.
Stromberg (Hunt) papers, 1900-1990
This collection includes clippings, correspondence, contracts, payroll records, and scrapbooks.
Telling Pictures records, 1972-2000*
This collection contains materials related to the production of two documentary films by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, The Celluloid Closet (1995) and Paragraph 175 (2000). The Celluloid Closet documents the history of queer images in Hollywood movies and features interviews with Tony Curtis, Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Hanks, Shirley MacLaine, Paul Rudnick, Susan Sarandon, Gore Vidal, and many others. Paragraph 175 tells the history of Nazi persecution of homosexuals.
Van Sant (Gus) papers, 1970-2012*
The Gus Van Sant papers encompass the earlier half of the director, writer, and producer’s career, spanning films such as My Own Private Idaho (1991) and Good Will Hunting (1997) as well as early personal projects, correspondences, and magazine clippings that showcase aesthetic and artistic inspirations from throughout his career. A highly personal collection, the Gus Van Sant papers span a wide range of not only Sant’s work but his life as well.

*online materials available

Contact the Margaret Herrick Library

For more information about the Margaret Herrick Library's LGTBQ+ collections and holdings, including citation and copyright information, please contact the reference team. 

✉ Email: ref@oscars.org
☎ Call: 310-247-3036 (ext. 2200)

The Margaret Herrick Library is an L.A. as Subject member. For more information about L.A. as Subject, visit their website here.

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  1. Participating Institutions Beth McDonald

This page has tags:

  1. Asian & AAPI LGBTQ+ people Beth McDonald
  2. Arts Beth McDonald
  3. Gender non-conforming people Beth McDonald
  4. Gay men Beth McDonald
  5. Lesbians Beth McDonald
  6. Drag Beth McDonald
  7. LGBTQ+ discrimination Beth McDonald
  8. HIV/AIDS Beth McDonald
  9. Women Ani Bennett-Fradkin

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