Search Results: Archives from Royal Books, Inc.

Ottawa: Crawley Films Limited, 1966. Archive of press material and photographs for the 1963 Canadian film, and for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the production company, Crawley Films. F.R. "Budge" Crawley was Canada's answer to Hollywood's Sam Goldwyn, and he produced hundreds of films during his 40-year career, including the Academy Award-winning 1975 documentary, "The Man Who Skied Down Everest." "Budge" and his wife Judith founded Crawley Films in 1938 and won the first Canadian film award in 1950. Crawley has been referred to as "the Godfather of Canadian cinema," and rightfully so. Included in the archive are 27 film still photographs with mimeo snipes affixed to the versos (several on-the-set images and a few with director Bonniere); a folder containing 25 letters ("to salute 25 Years") from various French, American, British and Canadian film and government associations (including former Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, and Eric Johnston, president of the Motion… Read More

Los Angeles: Charles Fries Productions, 1977. Archive of five scripts for four episodes from Season One of "The Amazing Spider-Man" television series in 1977. All belonging to actor Michael Pataki, who played police captain Barbera in the series, each with his manuscript name on either the front wrapper or title page, and his lines and stage directions circled throughout, with one of the scripts also including substantial manuscript changes to Barbera's dialogue and action. "The Amazing Spider-Man" debuted on CBS in September 1977 with a two hour television movie serving as the pilot, the first live action treatment of Marvel's flagship hero outside of some occasional segments that aired as part of PBs' "The Electric Company" earlier in the decade. Five more episodes of Season One aired the following April and May. A second series of eight episodes aired during the 1978-79 season. Although a ratings success, CBS chose not to renew "The Amazing Spider-Man" for a third season, because they were… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1951. Archive of three draft scripts from the 1951 television film, which originally aired on February 26 on CBS as part of the Studio One anthology series. Screenplays belonging to production manager Mickey Delamar, one with his manuscript ink annotations throughout. Delamar worked as a producer, production manager, and assistant director on over 30 films, with a career spanning four decades. His credits include Julien Duvivier's "Anna Karenina" (1948), Francois Truffaut's "Fahrenheit 451" (1966), and Terence Young's "Mayerling" (1968). Based on the 1903 novel by Henry James, about an older American sent to France to rescue his wealthy, widowed fiancee's son from a supposedly corrupt Parisian lifestyle. Shot on location in New York. First script: Blue titled wrappers, noted as copy No. 4, undated, with credits for novelist Henry James and screenwriter Lois Jacoby. Title page integral with the front wrapper, as issued. 152 leaves, with last page of text numbered 161. Mimeograph… Read More

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1951. Archive of 33 vintage film still photographs from the 1951 film, including 31 keybook photographs (mounted on stiff cardboard with three punch holes along the top edge), and one mounted on stiff cardboard with no keybook holes. Also included is an oversize maquette featuring images of dancing couples and hand-painted illustrations of Parisian street life, presumably used in advertising campaigns for the film. Manuscript ink annotations on the versos, noting the film's title. Inspired by George Gershwin's 1928 jazz-influenced orchestral composition of the same name, and featuring a show-stopping 17-minute ballet choreographed to the piece, as well as a number of other Gershwin tunes, including the classics "Embraceable You," "Nice Work if You Can Get It," and "I Got Rhythm." Winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Screenplay and Best Picture, and nominated for two others, including Best Director. Nominated for the Palme d'Or. Photographs… Read More

Miami: Miami Herald / Broward Weekender, 1993. Archive of 31 black-and-white press photographs documenting the response to the AIDS crisis in Broward County, Florida, 1985-1993. All the photographs have captions, typed, attached, or annotated on the versos and or rectos, identifying many as from the Broward Weekender and the Miami Herald, 23 with date stamps, three with "Return to Broward" stamps, and one with two "Not Used" stamps on the versos. A diverse and somber archive documenting various aspects of the early impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis as experienced by residents of Broward County, Florida, which includes patients, family and survivors, caregivers and healthcare workers, group homes and hospice care, and local and national activism, which as a whole, presents a rather thorough portrait of the healthcare crisis of the time. Among the photographs in the archive are multiple images documenting early AIDS awareness and activism, including bicyclist Mark Landsfeld, astride his bike in 1985,… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1960. Archive of 103 vintage vernacular photographs, a mix of double and single weight, by psychologist and documentary filmmaker Barnett Addis, circa 1950s-1960s. 21 photographs with his stamp on the verso, several of which also include brief manuscript pencil annotations noting the subject, location, or year. As a faculty member, and later director, of the Behavioral Science Media Laboratory at UCLA, Addis made numerous education and instructional films on subjects relating to mental health and psychological or developmental disorders. These include "Tourette's Syndrome: The Sudden Intruder" and "Nurse-Patient Interaction" (both 1976), and "Suicides" (1981). His best known films are two documentaries on Joseph Sullivan, "Infantile Autism: The Invisible Wall" (1967) and "Portrait of an Autistic Young Man" (1985), which were used extensively as research by Dustin Hoffman while preparing for his Oscar winning role in "Rain Man," and both Addis and Sullivan's mother worked as consultants… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1921. Archive of 41 autograph letters from early silent film actor William S. Hart to his fiancée, actress Jane Novak, written on Hart's personal letterhead and dated between May 4 and 26, 1921. Included with the letters are their original mailing envelopes (addressed to Novak's residence at the Biltmore in New York) as well as typescript transcriptions of the letters, with occasional manuscript ink annotations amending errors and providing details on locations, written on Novak's orange and purple letterhead. The archive also contains two typescript pages from an introduction to a children's book written by Hart, the final story in his "Boys Golden West" series, about the adventures of two boys-one Native American boy named Injun and one white boy named Whitey. One of the great Western actors of the early silent film era, Hart quickly gained fame in 1915, after appearing in a series of popular two-reel Western short films for producer Thomas Ince. The shorts' success led to a series… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1988. Archive of 120 vernacular borderless color snapshot photographs of the Detroit Grand Prix, taken in 1986, 1987, and 1988. In the summer of 1982, the US became the first country to host three World Championship Grands Prix in one season, with the older Grand Prix West races in Long Beach and Las Vegas joined by the newly established Detroit Grand Prix in Michigan, near the General Motors headquarters. The Detroit race continued to be held annually for the next six years, in spite of its growing reputation for its narrow, bumpy track (a result of the race taking place on a closed street course in downtown Detroit) and typically hot, humid weather. These factors would ultimately push FISA to declare the track unsafe, ending the circuit's affiliation with Formula One in 1988, to be replaced by the CART-sanctioned Detroit Indy Grand Prix the following year. The photographs in the archive document an attendee's perspective of the races from 1986-1988, won all three years by Brazilian… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1979. Archive of over three dozen documents, including letters, telegrams, mailgrams, notes, forms, and other ephemera to and from director Sam Peckinpah, circa 1970-1979, the majority of which dates from 1978. Most documents regarding the director's then-current film projects, location research in Mexico and Columbia, and the dissolution of Peckinpah's production company Latigo Productions. Included in the archive are: five autograph or typescript letters signed from Peckinpah, eight autograph or typed letters signed to Peckinpah, two autograph notes by Peckinpah, three mailgrams, two telegrams, and numerous documents, memos, forms, and receipts. Detailed inventory available upon request. Among those with whom Peckinpah corresponds in the archive are his personal assistant Paul Peterson, Swedish author and composer Sture Dahlstom, author Jack Martin Smith, and comedian and actor Mort Sahl, as well as Peckinpah's legal counsel Kip Dellinger and Dellinger's wife Lori, Corporate… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1974. Archive of 117 vintage evidence photographs (including 114 in black-and-white and three in color) of massage parlors in the Los Angeles area. Each photograph with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department stamps on the versos. Many photographs with annotations in manuscript ink on the recto margins and on the versos, identifying locations, years, and subjects. Beginning in the early 1970s, Los Angeles saw the proliferation of massage parlors and adult stores, as well as an increase in prostitution by all genders. Provocative names-such as "House of Erotica," "The Institute of Oral Love," "Tiger's Den," and the like-were used by the parlors to convey the idea that more could be obtained than just a massage. By the late 1970s, vice policing crackdowns on solicitation had a marked impact on the city's parlors, and many were shuttered by the 1980s. The archive on offer contains many images of massage parlor proprietors, managers, and workers, as well as a number of photographs of… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1956. Archive of material belonging to noted British film producer John Palmer. Included in the archive are leaves from a photo album with over 100 photographs of Palmer's friends and family members, a photograph of the St. James Street Post Office dated 1929 and mounted on stiff brown board, two leatherbound albums containing 101 vernacular photographs of Europe during the last few months of World War II, a typed letter signed from actor Bernard Miles to Palmer's wife Molly, a manuscript letter from writer Alex Waugh to Palmer, a brief typed letter to Palmer from a columnist at "The Cinema Gazette," a manuscript letter from Palmer to his mother written on Adolf Hitler's personal letterhead, and a typed letter from a BBC executive returning a brief typescript about the war submitted for consideration by Palmer. Several photographs with manuscript ink annotations to the album pages and photograph versos, identifying subjects, although many are not captioned. From the collection of noted… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1937. Binder of vintage photographs compiled by Mary Norris, a nursing student at Evangelical Deaconess Hospital in Marshalltown, Iowa, circa 1937. The photographs provide a detailed visual account, with notations throughout, of her time at the Hospital as a student nurse in training. Included are over 100 vernacular photographs, generally featuring classmates, professors, doctors, and her fiance, Donald Malcolm, and their friends in posed shots, several detailed autograph letters signed from Malcolm, and over a dozen typed or handwritten poems, presumably by Norris, predominantly on the themes of nursing and religion. Also included are invitations to social events, mementos, clipped newspaper articles, and pamphlets or other ephemera regarding her classwork. Taken together these form a detailed and highly specific account of the life of a nursing student just prior to World Word II. The Evangelical Deaconess Hospital, along with the attached nursing school, opened in 1914. It was just… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1960. Archive of 62 vernacular photographs, likely taken by an American GI stationed on a US base in postwar Germany, with 57 of those photographs depicting a fascination with Volkswagen Type 1 Beetle cars that borders on obsession. At least three different Beetles are depicted in the collection, including a myriad of artfully-shot close-up's of body damage, interiors, badges, and cars undergoing repairs. Likely shot between 1962 and 1965, as evidenced by the style of license plate found on the cars, which was in use for US military vehicles in Germany during that time. The photographer is seen in one photograph in front of a mirror that states "Portrait of a Soldier," one of a handful of non-VW related images that also include images of roadways, an office lobby, and an Audi. Full gallery of images available for viewing on request. All photos 5 x 7 inches, Very Good plus or better condition.

N.p.: N.p., 1932. Archive of six extraordinary Autograph Letters Signed, including five in French and one in English, by the pioneering film director Georges Méliès, revealing a great deal about his little-discussed but profoundly important origins in the Robert-Houdin Theatre in Paris, as well as his work as a magician and ultimately a film director. Equally interesting in these letters are various revelations regarding his character, a combination of innocence, boundless enthusiasm, a quizzical nature, a photographic memory, and a great love for artists, magicians, and all performers whose work came under the umbrella of "illusion." One image shown. Additional images of the letters in the archive are available on request. Méliès began his career in theater at the Theatre Robert-Houdin, doing extremely creative work in an area that could be described as an intersection of live theater, pantomime, magic, and vaudeville. After seeing an 1895 demonstration by the Lumiere Brothers, he became… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1960. Archive of 38 double weight and 42 single weight vintage photographs, 39 of which are oversize, of opera singer Anna Moffo, all taken circa late 1950s and early 1960s. The majority of the photographs have stamps or other markings identifying the several photographers represented in the collection. 6 photos shown, images for the remainder can be seen on request. American-born opera singer Anna Moffo was one the leading coloratura sopranos of her generation, debuting on the Italian stage in 1955 and achieving lasting fame there after appearing on Italian television as Cio-Cio San in a 1956 production of "Madame Butterfly." She returned to the United States the following year, and made her debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1959. She would perform there for the next 17 seasons, while often returning to Italy, where she hosted an eponymous television show, and starred in film versions of "La traviata" (1968) and "Lucia di Lammermoor" (1971), as well as dramatic roles in… Read More

Woodstock, NY: N.p., 1969. Archive of promotional materials from the Woodstock rock festival, including a bifold brochure advertising the festival's original dates (August 15-17) with two flyers for "Inflatatent" and the third day of the festival laid in, a small blue pin with the festival's logo designed by Arnold Skolnick, and several cards with manuscript ink annotations noting the names and contact information of festival organizers. Also included in the archive is the 1969 special issue of RAT Subterranean News which was distributed for free at the festival. Woodstock was organized by promoters Michael Lang, Artie Kornfeld, Joel Rosenman, and John P. Roberts. The festival, initially planned for August 15, 16, and 17 in Wallkill, NY, had a predicted audience of approximately 50,000 people, leaving the organizers woefully unprepared for the 400,000 attendants who showed up for the event. After protests from Wallkill town officials and several changes of venue, the festival was held in Bethel, New… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1966. Archive of photographs, newspaper clippings, and various ephemera belonging to a Kenny Aumont Brown (1943-2016), of Burlington, North Carolina, largely relating to automobiles and automobile accidents, 1963-1966. The archive, assembled by Brown when in his early twenties, documents his preoccupation with automobiles, automobile accidents, and racing, at a time when Brown was first employed as a tow truck driver for Cobb Motor Company, and later as part of a rescue unit (as seen in one of the newspaper clippings). In his later years, Brown would serve as an Alamance County Deputy Sheriff for 34 years. A copious and insightful vernacular documentation of the relationship of Southern culture and automobiles in the early to mid 1960s. The archive contains 37 standard size black and white photographs, one 8 x 10 inch black and white photograph, four color photographs, 25 newspaper clippings, two newspaper issues, and twelve various documents, all housed in a photo album. The archive… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1970. Archive of 288 vernacular color photographs of country music acts from the 1970s, housed in a contemporary photo album, with the subject of nearly every photograph identified by manuscript ink captions. Occasional additional notations give a date range between 1972-1980 for the photographs, with most being dated 1977-1979. The photographs primarily consist of performers on stage, indicating the photographer was near the stage, with a strong sense of composition and timing. Photographs of performers casually posing for the camera indicate the photographer likely had backstage access for some of the performances. Based on additional information in some of the handwritten captions, the photographs were primarily taken at concerts or events in the Western New York region, - Chautauqua, Dunkirk, Little Valley, and Lakewood - all within an hour of each other, as well as the nearby Erie County (NY) Fair and Expo, and Pittsfield, PA. Other locations include the New York State Fair and… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1990. Archive of original material belonging to mystery and crime author Gerald A. Browne, consisting of 19 typed manuscripts, 13 handwritten manuscripts, 8 corrected galleys, 3 screenplays, and extensive handwritten, typed, and xerographically duplicated materials pertaining to all novels in the author's oeuvre. Browne was born and raised in Litchfield County, Connecticut. He attended the University of Mexico, the Sorbonne, and Columbia University. "It's All Zoo," his debut novel, was written while Browne was living in Paris and working as a fashion photographer. The novel's success heralded a twenty-year career as a bestselling author, until his retirement in the late 1990s. His works were adapted twice for film: "11 Harrowhouse" (1974), directed by Aram Avakian and starring Charles Grodin, James Mason, and Candice Bergen, and "Green Ice" (1981), directed by Ernest Day and starring Ryan O'Neal, Anne Archer, and Omar Sharif. Both films follow jewel heists, a common theme in many of… Read More

Portland, OR: N.p., 1935. Vintage leatherbound photograph album containing 30 photographs of Franz Bakery of Portland, Oregon, circa 1935. Photographs stamped by two local photography studios (Columbia Commercial Studio and Angelus Commercial Studio) on the versos. A comprehensive document of the daily operations of Franz Bakery, with many shots of both the bakery's exterior (with the company's then-slogan, "The Home of Butter-Nut-'The Bread Supreme,'" proudly displayed) and interior. The archive captures nearly every possible view of the industrial operation, including employee offices and canteen, storerooms, the company's fleet of Chevrolet delivery trucks and garage, and of course, the bakery itself. Franz Bakery is still in operation today, and is currently one of the largest bread and pastry manufacturers in the northwest United States. Photographs approximately 10 x 8 inches, housed in an album measuring 11.5 x 8 inches. Album and contents generally Near Fine, with the occasional hint of fading.