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Ballin (Hugo) papers
LSC.0407
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Hugo Ballin papers
Creator:
Ballin, Hugo
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.0407
Physical Description:
13.0 Linear Feet
(27 document boxes and 6 oversize boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1890-1956
Abstract: Hugo Ballin (1879-1956) was born in New York City. He began his Hollywood career creating motion picture sets for Samuel Goldwyn
and later worked as a director and producer. He ultimately gave up his film career to focus on art and writing. The collection
consists of original paintings and drawings by Ballin, correspondence, literary manuscripts, books, clippings, and photographs.
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.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical 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.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
PORTIONS OF THIS COLLECTION HAVE BEEN DIGITIZED. See the Existence and Location of Copies note for the link to the digitized
materials.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
994622813606533
[Identification of item], Hugo Ballin Papers (Collection 407). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Processed by Simone Fujita with assistance from Kelley Wolfe Bachli in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT),
2010. Prior processing partially completed by Yvonne Schroeder.
The processing of this collection was generously supported by
Arcadia
funds.
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.
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Hugo Ballin was born March 7, 1879 in New York City. He attended the Art Students League in New York, spent several years
traveling and studying in Italy, and became a portrait painter. In 1917, he began working as an art director for Goldwyn Pictures
and subsequently moved to California in 1921. In the 1920s, he began writing, producing, and directing films, and formed his
own production company, Hugo Ballin Productions, Inc. Ballin's wife, actress Mabel Croft Ballin, was featured in his silent
film adaptations of literary classics, such as Jane Eyre (1921) and Vanity Fair (1923). With the advent of talking pictures,
Ballin retired from film to focus on painting and writing. As a noted muralist, he completed a number of significant commissioned
works across the country during the course of his career, including murals at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and
at the State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin. He designed a seventeen-foot medallion of Pallas Athena which hung over the entrance
to the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. He also published several novels, including The Woman at the Door (1925), Stigma (1928),
and Dolce Far Niente (1933). Ballin was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the National Academy of
Design. He lived in Pacific Palisades until he died in 1956.
Collection consists of correspondence, literary manuscripts, books, scrapbooks, and photographs of Hugo and Mabel Ballin and
their family, friends, and residence. Also contains original paintings and drawings, including sketches and watercolors by
Ballin. Correspondents include Walter Winchell, Louis B. Mayer, Booker T. Washington, Edward G. Robinson, Paul Jordan-Smith,
Oscar Straus, Gloria Swanson, Louis Untermeyer, Lionel Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Walter Damrosch, Samuel Goldwyn, Helen Keller,
David O. Selznick, Darryl F. Zanuck, Erich W. Korngold, Howard Pyle, Walt Disney, Royal Cortissoz, John C. Austin, William
Goetz, Harry Rapf, William Wendt, Robert Brackman, George Elmer Browne, Lydia Field Emmet, Edmund Tarbell, Ernest Lawson,
Albert Sterner, William J. Baer, Fredrick Dana Marsh, Howard Giles, Frederick Ballard Williams, Ivan Olinsky, Hobart Nichols,
DeWitt Lockman, Daniel Garber, John Fabian Carlson, Charles Rosen, Jonas Lie, Guy Wiggins, Frederick Waugh, Barry Faulkner,
Cecilia Beaux, Maxfield Parrish, Harry Watrous, Edward Hopper, Edward Bruce, Umberto Romano, Clarence H. Carter, Ernest L.
Blumenschein, Jerome Myers, Dean Cornwell, Leon Kroll, Arthur Hopkins, Abraham Lehr, and Arthur Stringer.
Arranged in the following series:
- Literary manuscripts (Boxes 1-13).
- Artwork by Hugo Ballin (Boxes 14, 26, 31-33).
- Photographs (Boxes 15-20, 26-28, 31).
- Ephemera (Boxes 21-23, 25, 29-30).
- Correspondence (Boxes 24-25).
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online:
Hugo Ballin Papers (3 items) .
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Motion picture art directors -- United States -- Archives.
American fiction -- 20th century -- Archives.
Motion picture producers and directors -- United States -- Archives.
Ballin, Hugo, 1879-1956--Archives.