John Gay Papers

Title: John Gay Papers

Dates: 1958-2003

Collection Number: WGF-MS-077

Creator/Collector: Gay, John, 1924-2017

Extent: 16.75 linear feet

Repository: Writers Guild Foundation Archive

Abstract: The John Gay Papers, 1949-2013, consist of Gay’s scripts, outlines, notes and correspondence created during his five-decade career as a screen and television writer and playwright. The collection features Gay’s most famous works such as Around the World in 80 Days, Fatal Vision, Separate Tables, and Run Silent, Run Deep and Diversions and Delights. There are also drafts and correspondence for many unrealized projects.

Language of Material: English

Available by appointment only.

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

[Identification of item]. John Gay Papers. Collection Number: WGF-MS-077. Writers Guild Foundation Archive

Donated by son Larry Gay on April 4, 2017.

John Gay was born on April 1, 1924 in Whittier, California and grew up in Los Angeles with an interest in theater and acting. He worked a stint as a clerk at the U.S. Coast Guard office during WWII, which brought him to New York, where he graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He spent several summers in stock at the Boothbay Playhouse in Maine, where he met his wife Barbara (Bobbie) Meyer, also an aspiring actress. They married in 1949 and soon after were hired by TV station WOR in New York to write and perform in a daily domestic show titled Apartment 3C. This morphed into a weekly mystery series called Mr. and Mrs. Mystery, which aired until 1952. He began writing plays and scripts for anthology TV series and would continue for five decades as a screenwriter. He was hired by Burt Lancaster to adapt the novel Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), his first feature film, which brought his family to Los Angeles permanently. Gay’s career resulted in 14 feature films, 39 TV movies, 5 episodes of live TV and various plays. Much of his writings were based on books and/or real people and true events. He was nominated for an Oscar with co-writer Terrence Rattigan for Separate Tables (1958) and was nominated for 2 WGA Awards, 1 Emmy, 1 Cable ACE and 3 Edgar Allen Poe Awards during his career. Gay was also awarded three honorary awards by the Writers Guild: the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement (1984), the Morgan Cox Award for service to the Guild (1992), and the Edmund H. North Founders Award for his leadership and service (2003). Gay’s play Diversions and Delights [Well Chosen Enemies], a one man show based on the life of Oscar Wilde, starred Vincent Price and premiered in San Francisco before traveling across the United States and Australia during the 1970s. He also wrote the plays Christophe and Summer Voices. Gay was a longtime member of the Writers Guild of America. He was a Board Member from 1971-1975 and again from 1977-1979, then served as the WGA’s Vice President from 1985-1987. He helped lead negotiations during looming writer’s strikes. He was also a board member of the Writers Guild Foundation from 1987 to 2001.Beginning in the early 1960s, Gay served on more than two dozen guild committees, including the screen grievance committee (1962-73), TV-Film negotiating (1966), membership and finance (1967-68, 1979-81), Working Rule #8 disciplinary (1972-75), screen credits (1973-2002), strike planning (1980-81), and many others. He also was an officer of the guild's pension plan and its health fund, and held several positions, including president and vice president, of the guild's credit union. Gay published the autobiography Any Way I Can: 50 Years in Show Business in 2008, co-written with his daughter Jennifer Gay Summers. He died on February 4, 2017, in Santa Monica, California at age 92, survived by his children Lawrence, Jennifer, and Elizabeth.

Series I: TV Scripts, contains material for much of Gay’s output and is divided into two groups. Subseries A: TV Movies, 1971-1996 contains scripts, notes, outlines, shooting schedules, and research for a majority of Gay's television movies, many of which were based on true events or books. Notable works include Around the World in Eighty Days, The Bunker (1981), Fatal Vision (1984), Ivanhoe, A Private Battle (1980), Inherit the Wind (1988), The Red Badge of Courage, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Witness for the Prosecution and Things in Their Season (1974). Many projects contain multiple drafts and Gay's handwritten margin notes can be found throughout the collection. Subseries B: Episodic Television, 1956, 1959, contains Gay’s scripts for Lux Video Theatre’s The Sentry, Playhouse 90 episodes The Day Before Atlanta and Out of Dust, and Lynn Riggs’ original Out of Dust playscript. Series II: Films, 1960-1979 contains scripts for most of Gay’s feature films including Separate Tables, Hallelujah Trail and Run Silent Run Deep. Multiple drafts are available for The Power (1968), Soldier Blue (1970) and Sometimes a Great Notion (1971). Series III: Unproduced Projects, 1956-2002 contains scripts, notes, research and outlines for Gay's unproduced projects, some based on books and some original ideas. Works include a Mary Pickford biopic, an Enola Gay miniseries, a TV adaptation of Giant, a Robin Hood story, multiple drafts of And the Band Played On, a TV adaptation of Tea and Sympathy, an adaptation of the play Family Portrait by Coffee and Cowen, and a feature version of The Travels of Jamie McPheeters. Series IV: Plays contains Gay’s scripts for the stage, including Christophe; PSI; Soap; Summer Voices; and Mencken. Gay’s play Well Chosen Enemies aka Diversions and Delights includes multiple drafts of the playscript, copious notes and research pertaining to its development, and clippings about the show. Series V: Correspondence, 1951-2013 contains letters written primarily written to Gay pertaining to his work in the entertainment industry, arranged chronologically. A large portion is from his first agents, Blanche Gaines (TV-NY) and H.N. Swanson (Film-LA) and reveals the day-to-day work of being a new TV writer as well as an agent in the nascent TV industry. Some correspondence is related to Gay’s service and business of the WGA and WGF, both of which he was involved with for decades. The correspondence spans his career and includes some other notable industry people and information about WGA arbitrations in which Gay was involved, including the film How The West Was Won. Series VI: Professional Artifacts contains many of the trophies, certificates and plaques garnered by Gay over his career, including his honorary awards from the WGA. Also included are playbills from Boothbay, photos, brochures and programs from conferences and Gay’s typewriter, a Royal Model O “Touch Control” c. 1930s.