William Bast papers, 1956-2005

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Summary

Creators:
Bast, William
Abstract:
William Bast was a television and film writer, as well as a friend and biographer of James Dean. The William Bast papers consists largely of scripts written over the course of more than forty years.
Extent:
44.4 linear feet (111 boxes)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], William Bast Papers (Collection 2290). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection consists mostly of scripts written by William Bast across his career, both produced and unproduced. Projects from early in his career tend to be represented by only a single script, while later projects often have several drafts, some heavily annotated. These later projects are often accompanied by agreements, research material, and some production documents. There is a very small amount of personal correspondence. There is also very little about James Dean, and most of what is present is in the context of the television movie based on Bast's first biography.

Biographical / historical:

William Bast was born in Wisconsin in 1931. While attending college at UCLA he shared an apartment with James Dean. Later, he and Dean moved to New York City independently of one another and roomed together there as well. In 1956, a year after the actor's death, Bast published the first biography of Dean. In the 1960s Bast began writing for television, both in Hollywood and in London. He worked in a variety of genres, including medical dramas (Ben Casey), science fiction (The Outer Limits), and crime shows (Hawaii Five-O). In the 1980s he created, with his partner Paul Huson, the short-lived series Tucker's Witch and The Colbys, a spin-off the wildly popular program Dynasty. Bast and Huson continued their collaboration throughout the 1990s, writing several television movies. In 2006 Bast published a second biography, Surviving James Dean, in which he revealed that their relationship had occasionally been sexual in nature. William Bast died in Los Angeles on May 4, 2015.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Paul Huson, 2015.
Processing information:

Processed by Doug Johnson, 2016.

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Arrangement:

The collection is organized into the following series:

  • Series 1. Television productions
  • Series 2. Feature film productions
  • Series 3. Unproduced material
  • Series 4. General files

Physical / technical requirements:

CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: This collection contains processed audiovisual materials. All requests to access digital materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

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.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other 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.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], William Bast Papers (Collection 2290). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

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
Website