Gifts, 1936, 1941
Open for research
Luke Borders, Stephen Mielke, 2005
King Wallis Vidor was born February 8, 1894, in Galveston, Texas, to Charles Shelton and Katie Lee (Wallis) Vidor. The son of a prosperous lumber merchant, Vidor saw his first movie,
After leaving high school, Vidor made newsreel footage and short films around Galveston and Houston. While in Houston he made several films with fellow Texan Edward Sedgwick, who later gained prominence as a comedy director. In 1915, Vidor married aspiring actress Florence Arto and the two soon moved to California.
Arriving in Hollywood, Vidor found minor jobs at movie studios, eventually working as a freelance scenarist and short film director for Universal. In 1919, Vidor directed his first feature film,
Over the next thirty-five years, Vidor directed more than forty movies for MGM, Paramount Pictures, Selznick Pictures, and Warner Brothers. Notable among his films are
After retiring from directing in 1959, Vidor taught at film schools at the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles. He died in Paso Robles, California, on November 1, 1982.
Baxter, John.
Vidor, King.
The King Vidor collection consists of photographs, scripts, props, publicity materials, production reports, studio memos, and other production materials primarily from the 1941 film
The
Included in the materials are the book review that inspired Vidor to make the film, Vidor's working copy of the book with numerous handwritten notations, and a transcription of a letter from Marquand to Vidor about the screenplay. Also present are several drafts of the screenplay, including retakes, the script clerk's copy, and the prop man's copy.
Photographs constitute the bulk of the materials and include costume, makeup, set, production, and film stills. The film's stars, Hedy Lamarr, Robert Young, Ruth Hussey, Charles Coburn, Van Heflin, Fay Holden, and Bonita Granville, are depicted in many of the photos. Publicity photos of actors and actresses considered for casting but not selected are also present.
Scenes and settings are documented with twenty production design sketches, and with architectural drawings and models for six of the movie's sets. Costume sketches include twenty-two original women's gowns by Robert Kalloch and thirty-three men's wardrobe sketches by Gile Steele, a six-time nominee and two-time winner of Academy Awards for costume design.
The tools of film making are represented by various props, a production board with shooting schedules, a scene slate, and a small brass periscope. Various daily reports and breakdowns for production, footage, and wardrobe track the financial and business aspects of the film.
Comment cards from members of a preview audience accompany editing notes from the preview. The original musical score by Branislaw Kaper is documented with one folder of sheet music, memos, editing notes, and photographs of the orchestral recording.
Several items located with publicity materials may actually have been used for Vidor’s lectures at The University of Texas. Other publicity materials include box office analyses, advertising plans, clippings, and promotional images.
All of the
Four matted photographs of Vidor dating from around 1924 include handwritten captions indicating their use in magazine or newspaper stories. Their provenance is undetermined.
King Vidor correspondence can be found at The Harry Ransom Center in the Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Records, The E. P. Conkle Papers, the Margaret Cousins Papers, The Robert Downing Papers, the Alice Corbin Henderson Collection, the David O. Selznick Collection, and the Swami Vidyatmananda Collection.
Additional King Vidor archival materials are located at The University of California at Los Angeles, The University of Southern California, Brigham Young University, Columbia University, and the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.