Preferred Citation
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Restrictions on Access
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Processing Information
Biography/History
Scope and Content
Title: Buzz Kulik papers
Collection number: 1867
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
35 linear ft.
(51 record cartons, 16 oversize boxes)
Date (bulk): Bulk, 1950-1992
Date (inclusive): 1942-1994
Physical Location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library Special
Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Language of Materials: Materials are primarily in English, with some materials in Italian, German, Spanish, French, Japanese and Farsi.
Abstract: Buzz Kulik was born Seymour Kulik in Kearny, NJ in 1922. He was an American film and television director. This collection
comprises a wide variety of documents and objects related to Buzz Kulik's prolific career. The majority of these items relate
to films, television shows, and miniseries directed or produced by Kulik between 1950 and 1992. Additionally, the collection
includes documents related to film or television projects conceived by or pitched to Kulik that never ultimately came to fruition.
Finally, the collection contains a variety of personal ephemera with no direct connection to specific projects.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Buzz Kulik Papers (Collection 1867). Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library,
UCLA.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Restrictions on Access
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library Special
Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Glen Kulik and Jennifer Kulik Perez, 2010.
Processing Information
Processed by Alessandra Amin in 2014 in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT) with assistance from Jasmine
Jones.
The processing of this collection was generously supported by
Arcadia.
Biography/History
Buzz Kulik was born Seymour Kulik in Kearny, NJ in 1922. He was an American film and television director. After serving in
the US Army during World War II, Kulik took a job in the mailroom of the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, where he saw
a call for directors in the burgeoning field of TV commercials. He applied and moved up in the company, where he directed
commercials for several years before moving on to direct cameras in Yankee Stadium in 1947. He then took his talent to larger
projects, directing numerous TV programs during what is termed "the Golden Age of television" (ranging approximately from
the late 1940s until the early 1960s).
Kulik directed episodes of such critically acclaimed series as Playhouse 90 (1956-60) and The Twilight Zone (1960-63) before
moving on to direct major motion pictures such as Riot (1969(. Kulik's most notable success came in the genre of made-for-TV
movies, which emerged in the late 1960s; Kulik's Brian's Song (1971) was one of the most popular telefilms ever made, and
was the first of its kind to be released on the big screen after premiering on television. Kulik also directed a number of
TV miniseries, including the very first of the genre, Vanished (1970), and the popular
George Washington (1984) which was nominated for 6 Emmy awards. Common themes in Kulik's work include American war stories (including
From Here to Eternity,
Campo 44,
Women of Valor,
Too Young the Hero), true crime (including
Kill Me If You Can,
The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case) and American sports heroes (including
Babe,
Brian's Song).
Kulik's corpus includes 74 directing and producing credits, and the prolific director continued to work on both TV and film
until his death of heart failure in 1999.
Scope and Content
This collection comprises a wide variety of documents and objects related to Buzz Kulik's prolific career. The majority of
these items relate to films, television shows, and miniseries directed or produced by Kulik between 1950 and 1992. Such items
include production reports, background research, casting scripts, musical scores, publicity materials, and photographs, including
several of notable actors Susan Sarandon, Sandra Bullock and Alan Alda. They also include oversize materials such as blueprints
and set plans, film clappers, bound musical scores, scrapbooks and awards. Additionally, the collection includes documents
related to film and television projects conceived by or pitched to Kulik that never ultimately came to fruition, including
scripts, correspondence, and proposed budgets. Finally, the collection contains a variety of personal ephemera with no direct
connection to specific projects, including correspondence with friends and family, personal photographs, and press clippings
about Kulik, as well as legal documents, contracts and resumes both sent and received by Kulik, documents related to seminars
and presentations given by Kulik, and documents related to the Screen Director's Guild and the Writer's Guild of America.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Kulik, Buzz--Archives.
Television producers and directors--California--Los Angeles--Archival resources.