Preferred Citation:	Bonita Granville Wrather and Jack Wrather Papers (Film Collection FI-54162). Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.
	Acquisition:	Gift, 2020 (20-10-006-G)
	Processed by:	Katherine Mosley, 2022

Repository:

Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

	American actress, producer, and executive Bonita Granville Wrather (“Bunny,” “Bun”) was born Bonita Gloria Granville in New York City on February 2, 1923, the only child of stage performers Rosina Timponi Granville and Bernard Granville. Granville moved with her mother to Hollywood during the Depression and began acting in films, among them two Andy Hardy films (1944, 1946), The Beloved Brat (1938), Cavalcade (1933), H. M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), Hitler’s Children (1943), Merrily We Live (1938), a Nancy Drew series (1938-1939), Now, Voyager (1942), and Westward Passage (1932). She received a 1937 Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for These Three (1936), based on Lillian Hellman’s play The Children’s Hour.
	Granville was linked with actor Jackie Cooper and made several films with him, including Gallant Sons (1940), Syncopation (1942), and White Banners (1938). During World War II, Granville was involved in the Hollywood war effort, participating in a Hollywood Victory Committee tour of army camps and hospitals, in naval aid auxiliary benefit shows, and in tours promoting the sales of war bonds.
	In February 1947, Granville married Jack Wrather, who had two children, Molly and Jack III, from his previous marriage to Molly O’Daniel. Granville and Wrather’s daughter, Linda, was born in 1949, and their son, Christopher, was born in 1952. After her marriage and the births of her children Granville appeared in a few films and in radio and television dramas, but she primarily transitioned from acting to producing while also being involved in operations of Disneyland Hotel and other Wrather holdings as an executive in Wrather Corporation, joining its board of directors in 1969. She became associate producer of the television series Lassie in 1958, serving in that role and then as producer through its final season in 1973, and she also produced the film The Magic of Lassie (1978).
	Granville was involved in civic and cultural organizations, such as the Los Angeles Orphanage Guild, and she served on boards of the American Film Institute, the John F. Kennedy Center, Loyola Marymount University, The University of Texas, and other organizations. She received many environmental conservation recognitions and was awarded a John F. Kennedy Achievement Medal in 1962 for her work promoting the U.S. Savings Bond Program.
	After the death of Jack Wrather in 1984, Granville became chair of the board of Wrather Corporation until its sale to the Walt Disney Company in 1988. Granville died of cancer on October 11, 1988.
	American business executive, entrepreneur, and film and television producer Jack Wrather was born John Devereaux Wrather, Jr., on May 24, 1918, in Amarillo, Texas, to Ada Mazie Cogdell Wrather (“Mazie”) and John Devereaux Wrather (“J. D.”). Wrather graduated from high school in Tyler, Texas, and from The University of Texas in 1939. He married Molly O’Daniel, daughter of Texas governor W. Lee O’Daniel (“Pappy”), in 1941. They had two children, Molly and John Devereaux Wrather, III, before divorcing.
	Wrather took over the operations of his father’s petroleum business, including the presidency of Overton Refining Company, in 1940 due to his father’s illness and eventual death in 1945. He joined the United States Marine Corps during World War II, serving in the Philippines and Solomon Islands from 1944 to 1945. Following the war, Wrather moved to California, where he began a film production company, Jack Wrather Pictures, Inc., and in 1947 married actress Bonita Granville, with whom he had two children, Linda and Christopher.
	Wrather continued to expand his business interests in petroleum, entertainment, real estate, and other areas. Through his film production companies, he produced The Guilty (1947), Guilty of Treason (1950), High Tide (1947), The Lone Ranger (1956), The Magic of Lassie (1978), Perilous Waters (1948), and Strike It Rich (1948). Wrather also established television production companies and syndication services, acquiring the rights to and producing the television series Lassie, The Lone Ranger, and Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, among others. He owned television and radio stations as well as Muzak Corporation and a significant interest in TelePrompTer Corporation.
	Through an agreement with Walt Disney, Wrather built the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim in 1955. He was also a principal owner of the resort hotels and private clubs Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach, California; L’Horizon Hotel in Palm Springs, California; Twin Lakes Lodge in Las Vegas, Nevada; and the Kona Kai Club and Kona Inn in San Diego, California. He also owned ranching and agricultural interests in the U.S. and Australia. Among Wrather’s many other business interests were the A. C. Gilbert Company and boat builder Stephens Marine. Additionally, Wrather served on the boards of corporations and organizations such as Continental Airlines and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as well as the Development Board and Chancellor’s Council of The University of Texas. He also restored the ocean liner Queen Mary and aircraft Spruce Goose as tourist attractions in Long Beach, California.
	Wrather died of cancer on November 12, 1984. After his death, his company Wrather Corporation, which had become publicly owned in 1961, was led by Bonita Granville and their son Christopher until they sold it to the Walt Disney Company prior to Granville’s death in 1988.

	The Bonita Granville Wrather and Jack Wrather Papers consist primarily of photographs and clippings, along with relatively small volumes of color transparencies, contact sheets, film negatives, lobby cards, posters, pressbooks, press kits, programs, scrapbooks, certificates, snapshots, correspondence, telegrams, itineraries, scripts, playbills, sheet music, scores, and other materials, mostly dating from 1930 to 1978. Some family photographs and ephemera date from as early as 1846 and certificates and photographs from as late as 1987. The bulk of the materials relate to Granville’s acting career and to the television series Lassie and film The Magic of Lassie (1978), for which she served as a producer. Other materials relate to Jack Wrather and his activities as a film producer and head of Wrather Corporation; to the couple’s business interests, personal life, and social occasions; and to family members, including their children, Granville’s parents (Bernard Granville and Rosina Timponi), and Wrather’s mother (Mazie Cogdell Wrather).
	The Bonita Granville Wrather and Jack Wrather Papers are arranged in five series: I. Bonita Granville Wrather, 1930-1978; II. Jack Wrather, 1942-1978; III. Business and Financial Activities, 1930-1977; IV. Family and Personal, 1846-1987; and V. Lassie, 1934-1978. The arrangement of materials within the five series reflects the existing general organization of materials as received at the Ransom Center, by format rather than by subject. For example, many of the clippings were compiled in binders either by film title or date, and most film stills were housed together in file folders arranged alphabetically by film title. Any existing labels on folders or envelopes are used as headings in the container list and are indicated in single quotation marks. In addition, early working titles of films are included in film titles. All correspondence is listed in this guide’s Index of Correspondents. Any photographer credits marked on photographs are listed in this guide’s Index of Credited Photographers.
	Series I. Bonita Granville Wrather forms the bulk of the material and consists of film stills, publicity photographs, clippings of reviews and articles, screening and premiere programs, posters, lobby cards, pressbooks, scripts, itineraries, correspondence, telegrams, certificates, and other materials relating to Bonita Granville Wrather’s acting career, as well as materials relating to her participation in the Hollywood war effort during World War II and in civic organizations. The series is arranged in two subseries: A. Acting Career, 1930-1978 and B. Civic Organizations and Philanthropic Events, 1953-1973, undated.
	Subseries A. Acting Career is comprised of material relating primarily to Granville’s film career, with some additional material relating to her work on radio, television, and the stage, all dating from 1930 to 1978. Nearly all of her films, from a two-reel short film titled Hollywood Kids (circa 1931) through The Lone Ranger (1956), are represented, with the exception of early films with minor roles, such as Garden of Allah (1936), This Is the Life (1935); and A Wicked Woman (1934). Granville’s ‘Movie Books’ include clippings of film advertisements, reviews, press mentions, and publicity articles; some promotional ephemera, such as programs for premieres and screenings; photocopy scripts of The Guilty, Guilty of Treason, The Lone Ranger, and Strike It Rich; a shooting script for "The Valley of Blue Mountain," aired as an episode of the television series The Best of the Post; and a preview audience survey card for Guilty of Treason.
	'Movie Stills' include not only film scenes but also production photographs of film crews, directors, and actors at work, along with publicity photographs, photographs of theater marquee signs, and photographs of film premiere events. Among the many actors depicted in the stills are Fay Bainter, Noah Beery Jr., Constance Bennett, Billie Burke, Eddie Cantor, Claudette Colbert, Jackie Cooper, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Kay Francis, Leo Gorcey, Ann Harding, William Holden, Miriam Hopkins, Leslie Howard, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Hedy Lamarr, John Litel, Myrna Loy, Fred MacMurray, Adolphe Menjou, Merle Oberon, Lawrence Olivier, Dick Powell, Jane Powell, Claude Rains, Mickey Rooney, Barbara Stanwyck, Jimmy Stewart, Frankie Thomas, and Robert Young. However, actors and crew who were part of a film’s production are not identified individually in descriptions. Individuals/Subjects other than Granville are listed only when they were not part of the film production or when the photographs were used as separate publicity news images. For example, Granville’s mother, Rosina Timponi, was frequently photographed on sets with Granville. Many of the publicity photographs have captions attached. Promotional material for films, such as lobby cards, posters, and pressbooks, are also present. For the film Hitler’s Children, based on Gregor Ziemer’s book Education for Death: The Making of a Nazi, Granville participated in a seven-week promotional tour with Ziemer and co-star H. B. Warner which intersected with appearances for the Hollywood war effort; schedules, photographs, clippings, and correspondence regarding the tour are among the film’s promotional material.
	Publicity material for Bonita Granville is comprised of a substantial number of clippings, photographs (many with captions), and scrapbooks, dating from 1932 to 1976. Clippings refer to both newspaper clippings and magazine tearsheets and can be reviews, press mentions, columns, product advertisements, or articles about beauty, fashion, society, parties, and events. Columnists include Herb Caen, Hedda Hopper, Hollywood Reporter, Louella Parsons, Edwin Schallert, and Walter Winchell. In addition to clippings about Granville, tearsheets and clippings of articles purportedly written by Granville are also present. Photographs used for publicity purposes include those by professional portrait photographers, by film studio photographers, and by news photographers. Numerous photographs are of clothing fashion, with captions describing the clothing and noting designers, or of social events with other young actors, particularly Jackie Cooper. Many of the clippings and photographs document the film studios’ work to transition Granville from a child actress to adult roles, as do Granville’s glamour portrait shoots. Where possible, the archivist has noted the published titles of photographs used in newspapers and other periodicals.
	While Granville’s acting career was primarily in film, she also performed on radio, the stage, and television. Of note among materials relating to these performances are a script, photographs, theater program, and clippings from a 1952 production of Louis Verneuil’s play Affairs of State, directed by Verneuil at the Sombrero Playhouse in Phoenix, Arizona. A 1938 script of The Royal Gelatin radio show with host Rudy Vallee is present, and a script of a 1936 episode of the KMTR radio series Tonight in Hollywood featuring an appearance by Granville is located with promotional materials for These Three. A rehearsal schedule and a revised copy of a script of the teleplay The Velvet Alley, which was written by Rod Serling and aired as an episode of Playhouse 90 in 1959, is found in this series, as is a 1955 shooting script for "The Valley of Blue Mountain", which aired as an episode of the television series The Best of The Post in 1961. Materials relating to Granville’s appearances on episodes of the Lassie television series are located with other Lassie materials in Series V.
	Career-related material at the end of Subseries A includes award certificates, fan mail, fan response photographs and letter; correspondence, telegrams, tour itineraries, and similar material. Granville’s school work permit for Bryan Foy’s Foy Productions and her Fox Film contract for Cavalcade are with this material. While film production materials generally are not represented in the Papers, call sheets for These Three are present. Invitations, seating lists, and programs relating to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1942 and 1943 President’s Birthday Celebrations are filed here; photographs of the occasions are located in Granville’s publicity photographs. Among photographs depicting Granville’s participation in the Hollywood war effort are those taken at the Hollywood Canteen; during camp, naval station, and hospital tours, including performances of singing and dramatic monologues; naval aid auxiliary benefit shows; promoting the sale of defense bonds and stamps; and other occasions.
	Subseries B. Civic Organizations and Philanthropic Events contains clippings, photographs, and programs documenting Granville’s involvement in various organizations. Granville served as the commentator at Charity Ball Fashion Shows in 1954 and 1955, and photographs, a clippings scrapbook, programs, and correspondence from those events are present. Granville’s involvement with the Los Angeles Orphanage Guild is represented by programs for its 1964 and 1966 annual benefits, clippings, and photographs with Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, and a child from the Maryville home. Granville was appointed to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Advisory Committee in 1970 and to its Board of Trustees in 1972, and a photograph and clippings related to her appointment and work are present.
	Series II. Jack Wrather is comprised of materials relating to Wrather’s career as a film and television producer, his military service during World War II, and his involvement on the boards of corporations and organizations. The series is arranged in three subseries: A. Film and Television Production, 1947-1972; B. Military Service, 1942-1951; C. Boards of Organizations, 1967-circa 1978. Subseries A. Film and Television Production consists of clippings, photographs, pressbooks, and scripts relating to Wrather’s role as a producer for the films The Guilty (1947), Guilty of Treason (1950), High Tide (1947), The Lone Ranger (1956), Perilous Waters (1948), and Strike It Rich (1948) and for the television series Lassie, The Lone Ranger, and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. Sheet music and a promotion kit for The Lone Ranger are also present. Strike It Rich, which starred Bonita Granville, Rod Cameron, and Wrather’s college roommate, Don Castle, was about the early days in East Texas oil fields and was filmed in and around Lindale, Kilgore, and Tyler, Texas; filming, premiere, and promotional events held in the area are documented by photographs and clippings. Wrather’s military service is represented by snapshots from his World War II duty in the Philippines and Solomon Islands and certificates. Wrather served on the boards of numerous organizations in addition to his own corporations, and Subseries C consists of photographs and clippings regarding his work with Continental Airlines, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and The University of Texas from 1967 to around 1978.
	Series III. Business and Financial Activities includes photographs, clippings, and other materials relating to the Wrathers’ resorts and hotels, entertainment, television and radio holdings, and petroleum operations, as well their promotion of various products. The series is arranged in two subseries: A. Business Interests, 1930, 1937-1977 and B. Product Endorsements and Advertising, 1936-1960, undated. Many photographs related to the Wrather family’s petroleum operations are present; Wrather’s father, J. D. Wrather, built the first oil refineries at Overton and Kilgore in East Texas, and as president of the Evansville Refining Corporation from 1938-1940, Jack Wrather oversaw construction of a refinery for his father’s Overton Refining Company before taking over the family oil business and eventually expanding it into the Wrather Petroleum Corporation. Also of note are clippings, newsletters, photographs, and a promotional kit for Balboa Bay Club, which Wrather was an owner of from 1960 to 1971. Additional photographs and clippings of family and social events held at Balboa Bay Club are located with Family and Personal photographs. The Wrathers were part of an attempt in the early 1960s to establish a Hollywood Museum in Los Angeles, and photographs of the model unveiling and groundbreaking are present. Many of the Wrather entertainment and leisure recreation holdings were folded into Wrather Corporation when it became publicly owned in 1961. Disneyland Hotel materials include hotel newsletters and other clippings, advertisements in magazines and a Disneyland guide brochure, and photographs. Of note among materials relating to Lone Ranger properties are photographs of Clayton Moore, the Wrathers, and President Nixon taken during the Lone Ranger Peace Patrol savings stamps and bonds campaign in 1958. Granville was featured in product advertising as early as 1936, and photographs, correspondence, and clippings of advertisements for foods, beer, soaps, and lotions are found in Subseries B. Additional advertisement clippings for Adam Hats, Arrid deodorant, French’s birdseed, Hollywood Bread, Hollyvogue Hosiery, Lewmac Furs, Libbey Candy Stick glasses, Lustre Crème shampoo, Regent cigarettes, Royal Crown Cola, Thermador, Weber’s Bread, and other products are located in Granville’s Movie Books, Books of Clippings, and scrapbooks. Granville, individually and with her family, also features in advertising photographs for American Express from 1958 and 1960.
	Series IV. Family and Personal is comprised of materials relating to the Wrathers’ personal and social life and their family members and is arranged in two subseries: A. Clippings, Ephemera, and Other Materials, 1846-1986 and B. Photographs, 1855-1987, undated. Granville was from an entertainment family. In addition to her stage performer parents, Rosina Timponi and Bernard Granville, her maternal uncle, Rollo Timponi, was manager of Chicago’s Illinois Theatre, Colonial Theatre, and Erlanger Theatre; her maternal grandfather, Francis Emil Timponi, was musical director of the Blackstone Theatre and Hooley’s/Powers Theater; and her maternal grandmother, Maria Brambilla, was a ballerina in the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, member of the Kiralfy Brothers company, and instructor of Stage and Fancy Dancing in the Chicago Musical College’s School of Acting. Clippings, photographs, and ephemera relating to these family members, as well as to the Wrathers’ children, Chris (marriages to Nancy, Charlotte), Jack III (marriages to Lana Wood, Cathie), Linda (marriages to Donald Brown, Rod Lozier, Anthony Finocchiaro), and Molly (marriages to Russell Forsyth, Hodge Dolle, Jr.), and some of the couple’s grandchildren are located in this series.
	Granville’s father, Bernard Granville, performed with the Al G. Fields Minstrels, Ziegfeld Follies, and in other vaudeville shows and musical comedies. Among materials relating to his career are theater programs, including an "Indictment to Genius" tribute to George M. Cohan; photographs of Bernard Granville alone and with other performers; clippings; and ephemera. Among his personal papers are letters he wrote to Bonita Granville after her move to California in 1932 until his death in 1936.
	Photographs of Granville’s mother, Rosina Timponi Granville, are scattered throughout the Wrather Papers, but photographic portraits of her, including from her childhood, are located in this series, as are clippings from her performing career.
	Other personal photographs and snapshots include those from Bonita and Jack Wrather’s childhoods, travel, social events, family portraits, and portraits used for business purposes. Photographs and a scrapbook from the couple’s wedding on February 5, 1947, are present. Photographs of the couple together and with friends on numerous cruises to Europe from 1949 to 1965 are located with travel photographs in Hawaii and other destinations. Besides family members, friends such as Betsy Bloomingdale, Bob Cummings, Art Linkletter, Audrey Meadows, Ann Rutherford Mays, and Wrather Corporation executives Roy King, “Bill” William Shay, Edward Tisch, and Walter Walz, among many others, frequently appear in photographs and clippings.
	Series V. Lassie consists of materials relating to the films and television series about the fictional collie dog Lassie first created in a short story by Eric Knight. The Lassie television series, sponsored by the Campbell Soup Company, ran for a total of 19 seasons, on CBS from 1954 to 1971 and syndicated from 1971 to 1974. The Wrathers purchased the rights to Lassie in 1956 and produced the series from 1957 to 1974. Advertising and promotional material, clippings, photographs, scrapbooks, and other materials document the production and publicity for the series. Location photos include snapshots taken before and during filming of episodes around the United States; many of them likely were taken by Jack Wrather. One episode, "More Than Meets the Eye", was filmed at the Braille Nature Trail in the San Bernardino National Forest using a self-guided trail built by the production company and children from the Braille Institute of America in Los Angeles; photographs, clippings, a Braille script, and an audio transcript of a news release about the program are present. Among promotional materials are press kits, publicity files, and scrapbooks of clippings and photographs from promotional tours and appearances made by Lassie, Bonita Granville Wrather, Jon Provost, Robert Bray, and Lassie’s trainer Rudd Weatherwax. Photographs and clippings document Lassie’s Picture Animal Top Star of the Year (PATSY) awards and conservation awards. Lassie served as mascot for the Keep America Beautiful anti-litter campaign, and clippings and photographs from the White House ceremony naming Lassie as mascot and other events are present. As a promotional campaign, the Lassie Gold Awards were first presented in 1958 to recognize dogs that had performed a heroic or humorous action. Lists of Gold Award recipients and their owners, award certificates, photographs, clippings, press releases, and letters dating from 1958 to 1970 are compiled together. Because many of the presentations were made on local news and children’s programs, Bozo the Clown, Ranger Hal, and other personalities are depicted with the recipients and owners.
	While photographs and clippings from the films Lassie Come Home (1943) and Son of Lassie (1945) are present, most of the Lassie film material pertains to The Magic of Lassie (1978), which was produced by the Wrathers and William Beaudine, Jr., written by the Sherman Brothers and Jean Holloway, and featured the actor Jimmy Stewart. Numerous photographs, marketing and press material, and music scores composed by the Shermans and orchestrated by Irwin J. Kostal are among materials documenting that film’s production and publicity.

For additional materials related to Bonita Granville Wrather at the Ransom Center, see the David O. Selznick Collection and the King Vidor Collection (materials relating to the film H. M. Pulham, Esq.).

Archives with important holdings related to Bonita Granville Wrather and Jack Wrather include Columbia University Libraries (oral history interview with Bonita Granville, 1959), Southern Methodist University (Oral History Collection on the Performing Arts in America), the National Museum of Forest Service History (Harvey Mack Collection), the William H. Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount University (Jack and Bonita Granville Wrather Papers and Wrather Investment Corporation Incorporation Records), and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture National Agriculture Library (U.S. Forest Service Lassie Collection).

	Non-commercial sound recordings containing songs, demos, and interviews from The Magic of Lassie were transferred to the Center's Sound Recordings Collection and are cataloged in a separate database.
	Non-commercial films containing home movies, television programs, feature films, trailers, and film clips were transferred to the Center's Moving Image Collection and are cataloged in a separate database.
	Locks of Bonita Granville’s hair (1924-1947, undated), a wooden desk photo cube with photographs of the four Wrather children, and a Botaurus Societas patch were removed from the Papers and housed with the Center’s Personal Effects.
	Two copies of the book Lassie: Lost in the Snow by Steve Frazee (Racine, Wisconsin: Western Publishing Company, Inc., 1969)

	People
		Granville, Bernard, 1886-1936
		Provost, Jon, 1949-
	Organizations
		Balboa Bay Club (Newport Beach, California)
		Overton Refining Corporation
		Wrather Corporation
	Subjects
		Actors--United States--20th Century
		Animals on television
		Celebrities--20th century
		Entertainment
		Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.)--Social life and customs--20th century
		Lassie (Fictitious character)
		Lassie (Television program)
		Lone Ranger (Fictitious character)
		Television producers and directors--United States
		Women television producers and directors--United States
		Motion picture actors and actresses--United States
		Motion Pictures--American
		Television programs--20th Century
		World War, 1939-1945--Motion pictures and the war
		World War, 1939-1945--Propaganda
	Document Types
		Clippings
		Film stills
		Lobby Cards
		Photographs
		Playbills
		Posters
		Programs
		Scrapbooks
		Scripts