Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Hal Pereira
- 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.
- Extent:
- 23 archival document boxes (9.6 linear feet)
- Language:
- English and Languages represented in the collection: English
- 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.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
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.
- Biographical / historical:
-
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.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Mrs. Miriam Pereira, 1984. Accession number: 1995.15
- Arrangement:
-
This collection is arranged into three series:
- Series 1: Movies
- Series 2: Television Programs
- Series 3: Research Files
- Rules or conventions:
- Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Collection is open to research under the terms of use of the Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount University.
- Terms of access:
-
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.
- Location of this collection:
-
1 LMU DriveLos Angeles, CA 90045-2659, US
- Contact:
- (310) 338-5710