Films, Cinema, & Television: Resources in the Special Collections Research Center

-- A number of people have been interviewed about their moviegoing experiences over the years.

-- This collection contains fliers, announcements, and programs for various student organizations at the College of William & Mary. The organizations include Film Club, Film Festival Society, Film Productions Club, Fine Arts Society, Classic Movie Club

-- Richard Williamsburg was a law professor at the College of William and Mary. He discusses movie going and life in Williamsburg starting in the 1970s

-- Includes documents on the Cinema Classic Society, 1981

-- An archive of film exhibition in St. Petersburg during the twentieth century: a portrait of film exhibition and movie-going scene in Soviet and Post-Soviet Moscow. The project is inspired by Williamsburg Theater Project (led by Professor Arthur Knight) and the international initiative, the History of Moviegoing, Exhibition, and Reception (HOMER) Project.

-- Collection is primarily correspondence between Robert Garrett Johnson (1895-1987) and Lilian Hancock Nance (1898-1990), both of Moneta, Virginia. Topics of the correspondence include discussion of Robert and Lilian’s relationship, friends, family, parties and events, Robert’s cat named Jack, World War I (including letters dated May 1917; June 28, 1917), the movie “The Birth of a Nation” (see letter dated November 6, 1923)...

-- Diary, 1922-1923, of Geraldine Toepp, an 18 year old Catholic girl from an affluent family from South Bend, Indiana. Geraldine begins each entry with the weather for the day. She regularly mentions going to church and visiting with friends. Her daily activities include sewing, shopping, reading, swimming, writing letters, attending movies, listening to records, and playing cards and other games. In 1923, Geraldine increasingly spends time at the movies, attending shows on almost a daily basis.

-- Diary, 1929, of Anna Bob Taylor, a teenager from Houston, Texas. Includes information about a trip taken to Europe, including stops in England, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands from June until August. Also iIncludes information about her day at school, people with whom she meets, activities in which she participates, and her relationship with her mother. Events include dates on which she goes, going to the movies, and taking a trip to Chattanooga with other students. She seems to be a student at the Ward-Belmont Girls School in Nashville, Tennessee.

-- Diaries, accounts and address book of Anna P. (Anne) Warner (b. 1876) of Washington D.C. and Rebecca P. (Bess) Warner, sisters of Washington, D.C. The Anna P. Warner Diary, 1925-1929, includes an account of a party to see “Sea Beast” John Barrymore. (this was a 1926 silent film adaptation of Moby Dick).

-- The Zelda Haus Papers cover her time at both Marion Junior College and Susquehanna University. Includes letters between Zelda Haus at Marion College and Mrs. Edward Page in Bridgeton, NJ, and her parents in Fort Defiance, VA, concerning the following topics: value of education, homesickness, examinations, church, laundry, hiking, women’s suffrage, overworking, weather, new roommate, musical performance, science exhibit, yearbook pictures, health of Paul and Phillip (brothers?), Sunday School, movies, parties, request for items from home.

-- Diary of Dodie Bailey of Bailey's Cross Roads, Virginia, near Falls Church. She began the diary when she was 14 years old and ended it in 1933 when she was 21 years old. She talks of her social life which includes dates, dances, swimming, movies, drives, church, family events and school - but mostly about boys.

-- Diary, 1934, of Marie Rifenburg of Rhinebeck, New York. Primarily concern her day to day activities, which often take place with a person named Elmer. She mentions many trips "after supper" to a place called The Hill Top. Many entries also concerns various movies which Rifenburg went to see, often including their names, the names of actors and actresses in the movie, as well as her opinions on them. There are also three advertisements for movies that were clipped out of local newspapers.

-- Diary, 1935, of a teenage boy of Brooklyn, New York. Daily diary entries record school and leisure activities, holidays, chores performed and the occasional comment on local or national events. He mentions that his family owned a beauty parlor and observed Jewish holidays. He first attended Ultrecht High School and then transferred to Samuel J. Tilden High School. He seemed to have done well in school and enjoyed playing the violin. He mentions library visits and reading, frequent visits to the movies and also going out with his friends.

-- Diary, circa 1930s, of a teenager named Darlene from Colfax, Washington. She discusses such topics as relationships, friends, movies she watches, and events which she attends, among other items. She also describes her activity as a baton twirler.

-- Diary, 1937-1941 of Lloyd Hartman (1913-1987) of Spokane, Washington. Entries are fairly regular for the years 1937-1940 and record daily activities, weather and health. The writes mentions social outings, like visits to movies, his work at a bank and occasionally comments on the world-political situation.

-- Papers, 1868-1951, of Lyon Gardiner Tyler, his wives Anne Baker Tucker Tyler and Sue Ruffin Tyler and his descendants. Includes correspondence of Margaret Mitchell concerning movie "Gone with the Wind"

-- World War II Diaries, 1942, of a Civil Defense employee, Norman Freed, of Brooklyn, New York, who attended night classes in optics and engineering while working full-time. Entries cover his social life, like parties, trips with friends to the beach, movies or theater, as well as work assignments and studies. He often works late and talks about being send to other states to work for the War Department. Most of his friends are college graduates and take defense courses at New York Universities and are looking for jobs in the engineering and design sector.

-- Diary, 1943, kept by Private William J. Lawler while he was stationed in Atlantic City, New Jersey and Denver, Colorado during World War II. Most of his entries in the diary are very detailed, and some of the entries were written by his wife, Nancy Selina. The entries record his life as a service member in the United States Army. Topics include Lawler going to school, taking care of his new daughter, traveling across the country, going to movies at the service club, and writing letters to his wife.

-- Letters, 1945, of Elizabeth Williams, of Petersburg, Virginia, to her husband, Earl. His first letter describes her reaction to the surrender of Japan on 14 August 1945. She also describes her social life in Petersburg, Virginia, movies she saw, friends with which she interacted, and other events. Earl Williams was in the United States Navy and stationed aboard the USS Indiana.

-- Diary of Paul Eugene Nelson (1929-2003) of Phoenix, Arizona, with entries for the years 1942-1944. Nelson was an 8th grader when he began writing his diary. He records daily activities like school, church and library visits, pep band practice and leisure activities, walks to town, etc. Mentions titles of books and magazines purchased, and movies watched, and also mentions several military parades in town.

-- Diary, 1946-1947, of a 68 year old maid in Seattle, Wash. The following description has been provided by the seller and has not been verified. "Marten seems to be registered with an agency which places her in various jobs, none of which she is happy with. She mentions illnesses and other problems, talks about what she cooks, mentions movies and other entertainments..."

-- Artificial collection of correspondence; 1935, 1939-1945; primarily of soldiers serving in the US Armed Forces during World War II.

-- Diary of Phyllis Gabowitz of Highland Park, Middlesex County, New Jersey. She was a 6th grade student at the time she wrote her diary in 1958. The "Ponytail" diary measures 4" x 5 1/2", and has 123 handwritten entries. Included with the diary is a 5" x 7" photograph of the author and her classmates, and on the back of the photograph she gives the names of her those shown in the picture. The following description was provided by the seller: "Phyllis writes of watching TV shows like "My Friend Flicka", "Real McCoys", "Lassie", "Fathers Knows Best" dancing with her friends to "American Bandstand" ....She writes of movies she went to see..."

-- Diary of a 14 year old boy in the 8th and 9th grades who lived near Groversville, New York. Entries center around his school and extracurricular activities though he sometimes mentions his father and mother. He is on the baseball team and gives quick rundowns of the games, plus the results of professional team games. After school activities usually involve playing sports – football, baseball, tennis, basketball, marbles - with his friends or his school teams. In the evenings he goes to movies, usually giving the title and his opinion, and listens to fights or Sherlock Holmes on the radio.