Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Cunningham, Janet
- Abstract:
- Janet Cunningham moved from New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA) to Los Angeles in 1978 with her son Beau to pursue a career as a Hollywood writer. In 1981 she opened the Contemporary Artists Space of Hollywood (C.A.S.H.) nightclub and gallery next door to the Zero Zero Club on Cahuenga Boulevard, where she hosted punk music shows, theater, and art exhibitions; screened films and videos; and served NOLA-inspired red beans and rice to artists and fans. Cunningham spent most of her career in Hollywood as a casting agent with her Creative Artists Service of Hollywood (C.A.S.H.) agency where she employed punks as paid extras in films, television shows, and music videos. The Janet Cunningham papers range in date from 1967-2018 and contain Cunningham's handwritten diaries, C.A.S.H. files, photographs, audio and audiovisual materials, personal files, punk rock memorabilia, and NOLA files related to her documentary on the survival of African culture within New Orleans.
- Extent:
- 25.8 linear feet (53 boxes, 7 shoe boxes, 3 flat boxes, and 1 oversize flat box)
- Language:
- Materials are in English.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Janet Cunningham papers (Collection 2355). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Janet Cunningham papers range in date from 1967-2018 and contain Cunningham's handwritten diaries, Contemporary Artists Space of Hollywood (C.A.S.H.) files, Contemporary Artists Service of Hollywood (C.A.S.H.) files, photographs, audio and audiovisual materials, personal files, punk rock memorabilia, and New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA) files related to her documentary on the survival of African culture within New Orleans.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Janet Cunningham moved from New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA) to Los Angeles in 1978 with her son Beau to pursue a career as a Hollywood writer. In 1981 she opened the Contemporary Artists Space of Hollywood (C.A.S.H.) nightclub and gallery next door to the Zero Zero Club on Cahuenga Boulevard where she hosted punk music shows, theater, and art exhibitions; screened films and videos; and served NOLA inspired red beans and rice to artists and fans. The same year she opened C.A.S.H., Cunningham was invited by the University of California, San Diego graduate program of sociology to deliver her "Punk as a Social Movement" lecture for a course on social upheaval. Cunningham spent most of her career in Hollywood as a casting agent with her Creative Artists Service of Hollywood (C.A.S.H.) agency where she employed punks as paid extras in films, television shows, and music videos. Her casting credits for film include Valley Girl, Night of the Comet, and Cafe Flesh. She also cast music video extras for the following artists: Rockwell, Billy Idol, Ramones, Stray Cats, Blue Oyster Cult, Oingo Boingo, Josie Cotton, Bangles, Plimsouls, and Wasp. In addition to her work with C.A.S.H., Cunningham also worked as a writer, actor, production designer, art director, and landscape designer. Between 1996 and 1998, she produced, directed, and shot a documentary in NOLA about the survival of African culture within the city. After a battle with cancer in March 2018, Cunningham passed away at Garden Crest Rehabilitation Center in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Her son Beauregard Baker predeceased her in 1986.
- Acquisition information:
- Kathryn Gillum; Gift; 2018.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Kelly Besser, 2018.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's Library Collections and Archives.
- Arrangement:
-
This collection has been arranged in the following series:
- Series 1: Diaries, 1967-2008
- Series 2: Contemporary Artists Space of Hollywood and Creative Artists Service of Hollywood (C.A.S.H.) files, 1980-2010
- Series 3: Personal files, 1970-2018
- Series 4: New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA) files, 1996-2018
- Physical / technical requirements:
-
COLLECTION CONTAINS AUDIO AND AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: This collection contains both processed and unprocessed audio and audiovisual materials. For information about the access status of the material that you are looking for, refer to the Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements note at the series and file levels. All requests to access processed audio and audiovisual materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
PORTIONS OF THIS COLLECTION HAVE BEEN DIGITIZED. Please consult digital facsimiles instead of originals.
COLLECTION CONTAINS UNPROCESSED DIGITAL MATERIALS: Digital materials are not currently available for access and will require further processing and assessment. If you have questions about this material please email spec-coll@library.ucla.edu.
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Janet Cunningham papers (Collection 2355). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
-
A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988