Irving Lerner papers, 1935-1978

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Summary

Creators:
Lerner, Irving, 1909-1976
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

Collection consists of material related to the career of documentary film director and producer Irving Lerner. Includes scripts and treatments, production material, correspondence, clippings, photographs, and scrapbooks. Contains material related to the motion pictures, Studs Lonigan (1960) and The Royal Hunt Of The Sun (1969), the television series, Ben Casey (1961-66), and unproduced projects, The Blue-Eyed Wonder, written by Don Richie, and St. Anthony's Forty Blondes by John Fante and Carey McWilliams. Includes correspondence with Thomas Brandon regarding a book project on the documentary film movement of the 1930s.

Biographical / historical:

Lerner was born in New York City, NY, Mar. 7, 1909; began his film career as producer director of anthropological shorts for Columbia Univ., the Rockefeller Foundation, and other institutions; began his association with the American documentary moments working on Dudley Murphy's, One Third Of A Nation (1939), and on Willard Van Dyke's, Valley Town and The Children Must Learn (both 1940); produced Toscanini : Hymn Of The Nations and A Place To Live (both 1944) for the Office of War Information during WII; headed the Education Film Institute and in 1948, co-directed a documentary short, Muscle Beach; in between his own productions he worked in various capacities on films including, The Savage Eye (1959), Spartacus (1960), Deathwatch (1966), and Steppenwolf (1974); Lerner's television work consisted of directing several episodes of the series Ben Casey (1961-66) and the Canadian series Seaway (1965); died 1976.

Arrangement:

Arranged in the following series:

  1. Correspondence
  2. Documentaries
  3. Feature films and documentaries
  4. General
  5. Projects

Physical location:
Held at SRLF. Please contact the Performing Arts Special Collections for paging information.
Physical description:
13 boxes (6.25 linear ft.)

Access and use

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
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