Title: Michel F. Amestoy Collection

Dates: 1934-1967

Collection Number: WGF-MS-061

Creator/Collector: Amestoy, Michel F., 1910-2002 United States. Army Air Forces. First Motion Picture Unit

Extent: 2 linear feet

Repository: Writers Guild Foundation Archive

Abstract: The Michel Amestoy Collection, 1934-1967, primarily contains scripts for military training films and industrial films and documentaries written by Amestoy during his career in non-fiction film. The collection also includes a small number of scripts and treatments for entertainment films and television, as well as research materials on companies and topics, and publications related to the Army Air Forces First Motion Picture Unit.

Language of Material: English

Available by appointment only.

The responsibility to secure copyright and publication permission rests with the researcher.

Michel F. Amestoy Collection. Writers Guild Foundation Archive

Donated by Helen Amestoy, December 3, 2002; additional donation by Kami Amestoy Lee and Margot Amestoy on July 8, 2021

Michel Francois Amestoy, Jr. was born in Los Angeles on September 10, 1910. He was the grandson of Domingo Amestoy, a prominent banker and real estate developer in early Los Angeles. A graduate of Loyola University, Amestoy began working in 1940 on training films being produced by the Research Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Between 1940 and 1942, Amestoy researched and wrote more than 30 training and morale films. He also worked in the Office of Civilian Defense on air raid precaution films. Amestoy enlisted in the Army Air Forces in 1943, and was posted to the First Motion Picture Unit in Culver City. While serving in the AAF, Amestoy wrote more than a dozen training and orientation films, many of which dealt with highly technical material. After the war, Amestoy embarked on a career as a writer for industrial films and documentaries, working with producers including John Sutherland, Gordon S. Mitchell and Rocket Films. He also worked on films for the U.S. State Department, including a year in India with the US Information Service. Amestoy was married to Helen Monnette, who also hailed from a prominent California family, and they had three daughters. Amestoy died in Los Angeles on April 3, 2002, at the age of 91.

The Michel Amestoy Collection, 1934-1967, is organized into two series. Series I: Production, 1934-1967, is divided into three sub-series. Sub-series A: Scripts, treatments, stories 1934-1952, includes a script for the 1938 film Suez (written by Philip Dunne and Julien Josephson), as well as two scripts for the television series The Unexpected, and an outline and prototype script for the proposed television program John Nesbitt’s Stories of the World. The sub-series also includes several other stories or scripts by Philip Dunne and his brother Finley Peter Dunne, Jr including a draft of Peggy Shippen. Also included are a few autobiographical essays written by Amestoy about his experience as a victim of robbery in India and a comical story about buying jewelry for his wife. Sub-series B: Industrial films, 1946-1967, includes scripts and other materials related to industrial productions that Amestoy worked on in the years following World War II. These include A is for Atom, Skifully Yours, and several films made on behalf of corporations including the Lane-Wells Company, the Byron Jackson Company, Kaiser Aluminum and Oldsmobile. Many of these are from his time working for John Sutherland. Many scripts and notes for the USIS documentary film This Is India is included. Sub-series C: Military training films, 1941-1959, includes scripts for films Amestoy worked on for the Research Council and the Army Air Forces First Motion Picture Unit, including Safeguarding Military Information, which was shown to the public in 1942. It also includes the script of a film commissioned by the Marine Corps in 1959. Series 2: Research and Biographical, 1941-1957, includes Amestoy’s research materials on companies and topics, as well as film catalogs. Of special interest is an unpublished article entitled “The General’s Commendation,” about life at the First Motion Picture Unit, and an original 1944 telephone directory from the First Motion Picture Unit. Amestoy’s compiled credits and jobs are also included.