Michael D. (Micky) Moore Papers, 1914-2010

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Summary

Abstract:
Michael D. "Micky" Moore was an American actor and director. He began his film career as a child actor on the silent screen in the 1920s and later became a noted second unit director. His credits includeButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,Patton, andRaiders of the Lost Ark. The collection includes photographs, scripts, storyboards, letters, videos, movie memorabilia, and materials from his memoir.
Extent:
15.08 Linear Feet (24 boxes plus 4 oversize items)
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

[Box/folder# or item name], Michael D. (Micky) Moore Papers, Collection no. 0117, Special Collections and University Archives, University Libraries, Pepperdine University.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection contains materials that span Moore's 90-plus years working in the film industry, first as a child actor in silent films, then as a prop man, and finally as an assistant director, director, or second unit director on almost 100 films. The collection includes correspondence, set photographs, headshots and publicity photographs, autographed photographs from actors and actresses, press clippings, contracts and work agreements, scripts, storyboards, set memos, casting notes, posters, video recordings, materials for Moore's memoir, and personal memorabilia.

Biographical / historical:

Michael D. "Micky" Moore was born Dennis Michael Sheffield in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on October 14, 1914, to Thomas William Sheffield and Norah Moore Sheffield. When Moore's family moved to Santa Barbara in 1915, a neighbor who worked for the local Flying A Studio suggested that the boys audition. Micky and his older brother Pat quickly found themselves in the thick of the early film industry. A year later, when it became clear that Los Angeles was the heart of the film industry, the Sheffield family moved to Hollywood. Both Micky and Pat took their mother's maiden name, Moore, as their professional surname.

Between 1917 and 1929, Moore acted in over 40 films, several of them with his brother. He worked with such silent screen stars as Mary Pickford, Jack Holt, Gloria Swanson, Lillian Gish, Conrad Nagel and Tom Mix. The most influential relationship he developed during this time was with legendary director Cecil B. DeMille, who took an interest in Moore and became a mentor to him. Moore acted in four of DeMille's films, including the epic The King of Kings.

At the end of the 1920s, Moore faced the challenges of moving from child actor to more mature roles as well as the growing popularity of talkies. When these difficulties were combined with the Great Depression, which hit Moore's family hard, it spelled the end of Moore's acting career. For several years, Moore worked in a grocery store or on fishing boats off the coast of Santa Monica, but he never lost his desire to work in the movie business.

In 1933, Moore married his high school sweetheart, Esther McNeil. Spurred on by his new role as head of the household, Moore made an appointment with Cecil B. DeMille to ask for a job, not as an actor, but as a prop man. DeMille said yes, and Moore began his second career in film, this time behind the camera.

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Moore worked on dozens of films as a Prop Man. He also became a father to two daughters, Tricia (1936) and Sandra (1938). At the end of the 1940s, Moore was offered the opportunity to move in to production as an assistant director. He jumped at the chance. As assistant director, Moore worked for some of the most famous directors of the day, including his old mentor, Cecil B. DeMille, on DeMille's last film as a director, The Ten Commandments. He also developed a relationship with noted Paramount Pictures producer and director Hal Wallis. Through Wallis, Moore became a staple on the sets of the Jerry Lewis/Dean Martin films of the 1950s and the Elvis Presley movies of the 1960s. Wallis also gave Moore his first opportunity as a director, for the 1966 Elvis movie, Paradise, Hawaiian Style.

From the 1960s on, Moore became well-known as a reliable and confident second unit director with a knack for action sequences. He worked on some of the most famous movies of the twentieth century, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,Patton,Rooster Cogburn,Raiders of the Lost Ark,Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, andIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Moore retired in 2000 after wrapping his final movie, the Walt Disney picture102 Dalmatians.

After retirement, Moore remained busy. He was frequently asked to speak at classic movie retrospectives and was interviewed for several documentaries, including one on DeMille. He also occasionally consulted with former colleagues to give informal advice on scripts and productions. Most notably, Moore wrote a memoir of his life, titled My Magic Carpet of Films, for which both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg wrote forewords.

Moore's first wife, Esther, passed away in 1992. He remarried in 1997, this time to Laurie Abdo, whom he had known since his days at Paramount, where she was Howard Koch's personal assistant. She passed away in 2011. Micky Moore died on March 4, 2013, at the age of 98 in Malibu, California. He is survived by his two daughters, five grandsons, and four great-grandchildren.

Acquisition information:
Materials were donated by Tricia Newman and Sandra Kastendiek-Drake, daughters of Michael D. "Micky" Moore, in several installments during 2013.
Processing information:

The collection was arranged and described by Beth McDonald, Pepperdine Special Collections and University Archives Intern, under the supervision of Katie Richardson in November, 2013.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into four series: Series 1. Childhood Acting Career; Series 2. Film Crew and Directing Career; Series 3. My Magic Carpet of Films Book Materials; and Series 4. Personal Papers. Folders are arranged alphabetically by title within each series.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Advance notice required for access.

Terms of access:

Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder.

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder# or item name], Michael D. (Micky) Moore Papers, Collection no. 0117, Special Collections and University Archives, University Libraries, Pepperdine University.

Location of this collection:
24255 Pacific Coast Highway
Malibu, CA 90263-4786, US
Contact:
(310) 506-4323
specialcollections@pepperdine.edu
Website