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Janet Leigh Collection
MSS 320  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Biography / Administrative History
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms
  • Related Material

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Janet Leigh collection
    Dates: 1947-2004
    Collection number: MSS 320
    Collector: Leigh, Janet
    Collection Size: 14.5 linear foot
    Repository: University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Dept. of Special Collections
    Stockton, California 95211
    Abstract: The majority of the collection is material that decorated Leigh's home. Including: photographs, movie posters, correspondence, advertisements and magazine covers, and recognitions and awards.
    Physical location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
    Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English

    Access

    Collection open for research.

    Publication Rights

    Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

    Preferred Citation

    Janet Leigh collection. MSS 320. Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library.

    Biography / Administrative History

    Jeanette Helen Morrison was born in Merced, California on July 6, 1927 and died Janet Leigh Brandt in Los Angeles on October 3, 2004. She started at the College of the Pacific in September of 1943 and studied music and psychology (music therapy), joined Alpha Theta Tau, and was involved in student government. She married a fellow student, Stanley Reames, in the fall of 1945. The Reameses left Pacific in the spring semester of 1946 and moved to Los Angeles - the same year that actress Norma Shearer discovered Jeanette. She soon signed a contract with MGM, changed her name to Janet Leigh, and debuted in The Romance of Rosy Ridge. She later married Tony Curtis (1951-1962) and Robert Brandt (1962-2004).
    Leigh is most famous for the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. She was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress and won the Golden Globe Award for best supporting actress in 1960. She also appears in dozens of other films including Touch of Evil, Manchurian Candidate , and Bye Bye Birdie.
    Her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, attended the University of the Pacific briefly (fall semester 1976 and winter session 1977) before her film career took off.
    Throughout the years Leigh focused her energy on helping numerous charitable causes, including SHARE, Inc. (women who raise funds for the "developmentally disabled, abused and neglected children as well as medical research for all forms of developmental disabilities") and the Motion Picture and Television Fund (assists those in the industry with limited means). Leigh received an honorary degree from the University of the Pacific in May of 2004.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The majority of the collection are materials that decorated Leigh's home. Following her death in 2004, her heirs donated her materials to the University of the Pacific. Her Golden Globe award and items from the collection are on exhibit in the Holt-Atherton reading room. The remainder of her personal papers were donated by her heirs in 2013.
    The Janet Leigh Collection consists of four series: photographs, movie posters, correspondence, advertisements and magazine covers, and recognitions and awards.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
    University of the Pacific
    Motion picture actors and actresses -- United States
    Morrison, Jeanette Helen
    Brandt, Janet Leigh
    Reames, Jeanette

    Related Material

    "Leigh, Janet" and "Curtis, Jamie Lee" student folders in the University Archives
    Awards and posters at the Janet Leigh Pacific Theatre on the University of the Pacific campus