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Boardman (True) papers
PASC.0213
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: True Boardman papers
Creator:
Boardman, True
Identifier/Call Number: PASC.0213
Physical Description:
20.4 Linear Feet
(36 boxes and 6 flat boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1904-2003
Abstract: True Boardman began his career as a child actor in silent films. He went on to write for radio and television, including
Silver Theatre and
The Virginian. The collection includes script material, photographs, assorted writings, and a small amount of memorabilia, printed materials,
and family papers related to Boardman's career.
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.
[Identification of item], True Boardman Papers (Collection PASC 213). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
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.
Processed by Bob Dirig, Kevin Awakuni, and Julie Graham.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
4436164
True Eames Boardman was born Oct. 25, 1909 in Seattle, Washington. He received an A.B. from UCLA in 1934 and an MA from Occidental
College in 1971. He began his career as a child actor in silent films working with performers like Charlie Chaplin and Mary
Pickford. After several years of acting in film and theater, he began a radio career writing radio drama for programs including
Silver Theatre and
Lux Radio Theatre. During the Red Scare in the late 1940s, Boardman worked for companies like General Electric and AT&T writing and producing
documentaries. He made the transition to television in the late 1940s and went on to write for programs including
Daktari,
Ironside,
My Three Sons,
Perry Mason,
Silver Television Theatre, and
The Virginian. Later in life, Boardman lectured at various academic institutions and in the late 1990s returned to acting as Ralph Waldo
Emerson in the one-man show,
Apologia Pro Vita Sua. His memoir,
When Hollywood and I Were Young, was published in 1995. True Boardman died on August 4, 2003.
The collection consists of materials related to the career of actor, writer, and director True Boardman. The collection includes
script material, photographs, assorted writings, and a small amount of memorabilia, printed materials, and family papers.
The bulk of the script material includes material for a variety of produced and possibly unproduced radio and television projects
in which True Boardman was involved possibly as a writer, co-writer, and/or director (1934-1977). Included are radio scripts
for
Cassandra,
Family Theatre,
Hollywood Star Preview, and
Silver Theatre, among others. The television writings include
Ironside and
The Virginian, among others. There are also a very small number of scripts for theatrical and documentary/educational-type films. The photographs
include a small number of stills as well as unlabeled, professional-type portraits/headshots of Boardman created throughout
his long and varied career. The assorted writings, most of which are unpublished, include articles, plays, short stories and
a manuscript for what appears to be an unpublished autobiographical work by Boardman titled,
All More of Less True: A Mostly Hollywood Memoir. Additionally, there is a small amount of memorabilia and printed material including a match case given to Boardman by Rudolph
Valentino in ca. 1926 and a small number of
New York Drama: A Choice Collection of Tragedies, Comedies, Farces, Etc serial publications given to Boardman by Francis X. Bushman. The small amount of Boardman Family papers consists of photographs,
press clippings, printed material, and scrapbooks related to True Boardman, Sr. (actor and father); Virginia True Boardman
(actress and mother); Carro True Boardman (grandmother); and his wife, actress and writer Thelma Hubbard Boardman.
Arranged in the following series:
- Personal and Biographical Information
- Acting Career
- Radio Projects
- Television Projects Series
- Film Projects
- Memorabilia
- Photographs
- Printed Material
- Writings
- Boardman Family
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Television writers -- Archives.
Radio scripts
Television scripts.
Radio writers -- Archives.
Boardman, True--Archives.