Finding Aid for the Warner Bros. Research Department Research Albums LSC.1745
Finding aid prepared by Julie Graham, 2004
UCLA Library Special Collections
Online finding aid last updated 2021 January 6.
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Warner Bros. Research Department research albums
Creator:
Warner Bros. (1923-1967). Research Department
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.1745
Physical Description:
2.4 Linear Feet
(6 flat boxes)
Date (inclusive): circa late-1930s-circa early 1940s
Abstract: The six production research albums contain photographs and other background research materials for Warner Bros. films:
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.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], Warner Bros. Research Department research albums (Collection 1745). UCLA Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Provenance unknown.
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.
Processed by Julie Graham, 2004.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
8281020
Herman Lissauer was an American researcher and technical advisor active in film from 1936 to 1946. Lissauer met Jack Warner
in the mid-1930s and became the head of the research department at Warner Bros. (From information compiled by the Margaret
Herrick Library)
The Warner Bros. research department began in the 1920s, Around 1935 the department was reorganized and headed by Dorothy
Hageman; about one year later, Herman Lissauer replaced Hageman. The department adopted a system in which a single researcher
would be assigned to a project, and take responsibility for the bulk of research requests, from story conception to publicity
associated with the film's release. Staff had varied background and subject knowledge and developed expertise at knowing how
and where to find information. The unit maintained an intricate file system, which was in large part a collection of indexed
visual information and the the core of their department. A great deal of the information was garnered from newspaper clippings,
catalogues, magazines, illustrated books, and art prints.
The department received project scripts to help prepare the file of materials for the story. By time production began, the
research department would have completed a "bible," primarily pictorial, for all the contributing departments. At the end
of production these bibles and their supporting files then became part of the department's research collection.
The Warner Bros. Research Department: Putting History to Work in the Classic Studio Era, by Fred Andersen; http://www.jstor.org/stable/3378351
The collection consists of Warner Bros. research albums. Included are six albums containing photographs and other background
research materials. Films represented are:
All This and Heaven Too,
Angel of Mercy,
City for Conquest,
International Squadron,
The Letter, and
Man from Fleet (released as
A Dispatch from Reuters). The albums appear to have been assembled before 1941, and compiled or compiled under the direction of Herman Lissauer.
The albums are arranged alphabetically by project title.
Warner Bros. research albums compiled by Herman Lissauer, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Motion pictures -- Production and direction -- Archives.
box 1
box 2
Angel of Mercy set research (undated)
box 3
box 4
box 5
The Letter (undated, released 1940)