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Table of contents What's This?
  • General
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Arrangement

  • Language of Material: English
    Contributing Institution: William H. Hannon Library, Archives & Special Collections, Manuscripts
    Title: Hal Pereira Film Sketches Collection
    creator: Hal Pereira
    Identifier/Call Number: MS.010
    Physical Description: 23 archival document boxes (9.6 linear feet)
    Date (inclusive): 1952-1968
    Abstract: The Hal Pereira Film Sketches Collection consists chiefly of the film sketches that art director and designer Hal Periera created for Hollywood films in the 1950s and 1960s.
    Language of Material: Languages represented in the collection: English

    General

    Processed by:
    Errol Stevens, Clay Stalls
    Encoded by:
    Clay Stalls

    Access

    Collection is open to research under the terms of use of the Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount University.

    Publication Rights

    Materials in the Department of Archives and Special Collections may be subject to copyright. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, Loyola Marymount University does not claim ownership of the copyright of any materials in its collections. The user or publisher must secure permission to publish from the copyright owner. Loyola Marymount University does not assume any responsibility for infringement of copyright or of publication rights held by the original author or artists or his/her heirs, assigns, or executors.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Series number, Box and Folder number, Hal Pereira Film Sketches Collection, 010, Department of Archives and Special Collections, William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University.

    Acquisition Information

    Gift of Mrs. Miriam Pereira, 1984. Accession number: 1995.15

    Biography

    Hal Pereira (1905-1983) was a notable art director for Hollywood films from the 1940s through the 1960s. Born in Chicago, Pereira started out in theater design in that same city before moving to Los Angeles and working for Paramount Studios as a unit art director. In 1944 he was art designer for the great film noir Double Indemnity. By 1950, he was supervising art director for the studio, working on such films as the classic Western Shane and The Greatest Show on Earth, which won the Oscar for Best Picture. In 1955 Pereira won the Oscar for best art direction for a black and white film for The Rose Tattoo. In addition, he was the art director on almost all of the important Alfred Hitchcock films of the 1950s.
    Pereira also worked in television, most notably for the one of the longest running shows in the history of that medium, the Western Bonanza.
    In 1968, Pereira left the entertaniment industry to join the architectural firm of his brother William Pereira as a consultant on design.
    On his death in 1968, Hal Pereira's obituary in Variety praised him as "one of the top designers," who influenced a move towards more detailed and expressive sets that helped establish a greater "realism" in American cinema of the post World War II era.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The collection consists of sketches for film and television sets, research files for sketches, and negatives of sets, all related to the work of Hal Pereira as an art director for Hollywood film and television. The sketches included in this collection contain some of the most important films that Pereira worked on, including, Shane, Vertigo, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Lacking, though, are other such films as Rear Window. The research files (Series 3) consist of photographs and descriptions of persons and topics that Pereira used to design his sets.

    Arrangement

    This collection is arranged into three series:
    1. Series 1: Movies
    2. Series 2: Television Programs
    3. Series 3: Research Files

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Artists' preparatory studies -- United States
    Motion pictures -- Art direction
    Motion picture art directors -- United States.
    Hal Pereira
    Pereira, Hal (1905-1983)