Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Fairbanks (Harold) papers and photographs
Coll2016-009  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Overview
 
Table of contents What's This?
Description
Correspondence, photographs, manuscripts, clippings, diaries, audiocassettes, and other material documenting the life, family, and professional career of Harold Fairbanks (1935-2014), a Los Angeles-based journalist and film critic who wrote for the Advocate, Update, Entertainment West, and Newswest.
Background
Harold Fairbanks was born George McKay Spence in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1935. He attended the State University of Iowa (approx. 1954-1958) where he was involved in film programming on campus. He moved to Los Angeles in 1959 where he began a career in film, working as a projectionist, film programmer for schools, booker in a film exchange, film editor, technician, and publicist. In addition, he helped produce two low-budget features. He assumed the name Harold Fairbanks for his career in journalism. He worked as a movie reviewer for the Advocate, where he often reviewed gay erotic films; and then became the Entertainment Editor for Newswest (1975-1977). In the 1980s, Fairbanks began writing obituaries while a staff writer for Update, bringing a more journalistic approach by interviewing friends and survivors rather than relying on biological family who would often exclude details of homosexuality and AIDS from the obituary ("AIDS Obituaries: The Newspaper Quilt [draft]," by Karen Ocamb, LA Times Sunday Magazine). Fairbanks died in 2014.
Extent
15.8 Linear Feet 17 boxes.
Restrictions
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the ONE Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Availability
The collection is open to researchers. There are no access restrictions.