2.96 Cubic feet (consisting of 5.5 boxes, 1 folder, 7 oversize folders, 8 map case folders, 1 flat box (partial), plus digital images of some collection material. )
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Theater programs
Ephemera
Business ephemera
Date:
1893-1969
Summary:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Motion Pictures forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana
Scope and Contents note:
Motion pictures were first publicly exhibited in the United States at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois in 1893. While the films exhibited there were technically crude with little to no plot or story and far from the polished product of today, they immediately caught the public's attention.
Within a short time the motion picture industry (creation, distribution, and marketing) had grown into a lucrative business. Those first motion pictures were often short serial films run in a series to keep customers coming back to follow the story's plot line to its conclusion. Gradually, films became longer and a number of performers developed legions of fans guaranteeing a certain amount of box office business from name recognition of the star alone.
Initially, the film industry consisted of many small companies, but competition cleared the field and fewer, larger corporations cornered the market in both production and distribution. Independent theatre owners, who were at first almost wholly independent of the production companies, also became rare as the major theatre chains developed their own movie studios to ensure a steady stream of films to be shown at their theaters. The film industry, at first based in New York City and on the East Coast, moved to the famed Hollywood, California, in the late 1910s early 1920s.
The Motion Pictures section of the Warshaw Collection consists of various types of materials relating to motion pictures. The collection is especially strong for the silent movie era, 1893-1927. This portion of the collection is divided into seven series.
Materials in the Archives Center:
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)
Forms Part Of:
Forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.
Missing Title
Series 1: Business Ephemera
Series 2: Other Collection Divisions
Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers
Series 4: Photographic Reference Material
Provenance:
Motion Pictures is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Motion Pictures, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
An artificial collection of posters on various subjects, at present organized according to donor and/or subject. Examples of contents include motion picture posters and propaganda posters.
Scope and Contents note:
An artificial collection of posters on various subjects from various sources, including curatorial units, the public, and SI staff. Series one consists of miscellaneous posters, typically acquired one or two at a time. The remaining series contain posters acquired from individual sources, usually all relating to one topic. Detailed cataloging information for many of these posters can be found following this finding aid. This collection is augmented periodically by new acquisitions.
The movie posters, all except two from the 1990s, represent a wide range of popular films, including both adult and children's films, live action and animated, and studio and independently made films.
Arrangement:
Collections divided into four series.
Series 1: Miscellaneous Posters, 1917-1990
Series 2: World War One Posters, 1917-1919
Series 3: Motion Pictures Posters, 1963-2016
Series 4: Soviet Propaganda Posters, 1959-1960
Biographical / Historical:
Motion pictures have been exhibited in the United States since debuting at the Columbian Exposition in 1893. The public=s love affair with Athe movies@ has never waned. Beginning with silent films with simple plots the motion picture industry has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry where the small simple film costs millions of dollars and a great portion of a motion picture budget is designated for advertising. Movie posters have been an integral marketing tool for the motion picture from its inception. Movie posters attempt to capture the essence of the film in one clear defining image and image that will hopefully remain in the consumers mind. Early movie posters boasted original artwork with bright colors and bold lettering. Beginning in the 1950s, movie posters began to use actual photographs from the movie itself as the primary artwork for the movie poster. In the latter 20th century almost all movie posters were photographic in nature. With the expansion of motion pictures into the home video market from the early 1980s onward, movie posters became not only a marketing tool for the movie theatre but for the video store as well.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Nelse L. Greenway, July 6, 2001, and Martha Rosen, May 29, 2002.
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research access on site by appointment.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Hawkes, Philip, 1897-1962 -- 20th century Search this
Extent:
0.15 Cubic feet (1.5 document boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Place:
Fryeburg, Maine
Westbrook, Maine
Bingham, Maine
Date:
1934-1950, undated
bulk 1939-1942
Summary:
This collection contains the business records of the Westbrook Theatre Corporation of Westbrook, Maine. Records include the Colby, Rialto, and Knights of Pythias motion picture theatres in Bingham, Fryeburg, and elsewhere. The collection includes financial records, business correspondence, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
Series 1, Westbrook Theatre Corporation Records, 1934-1950, undated. This series contains ledgers, business-related correspondence and documents, monthly accounts detailing attendance, cost, revenue, and program for the three theatres managed by Westbrook; equipment advertising and specifications, licenses, receipts, documents related to various film exchanges and motion picture production companies (including Paramount, RKO, and Universal), union contracts, check books, a weekly report card book (a book of standardized forms for motion picture projectors produced by the International Photographers of the Motion Picture Industry, a branch of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)), and black and white photographs of the Colby Theatre in Bingham, Maine.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into one series.
Biographical / Historical:
The Westbrook Theatre Corporation was formed July 30, 1934 in Westbrook, Maine. The president was Colby W. Robinson and Philip W. Hawkes was treasurer. There were 161 shares of stock divided among Robinson (eighty shares), Hawkes (eighty shares), and Marion Hawkes (one share). At its inception the corporation's stock was valued at ten dollars a share. The corporation ran the Colby Theatre in Bingham, the Rialto Theatre, and later rented the Knights of Pythias Hall in Fryeburg, Maine.
The Corporation was independent, not allied with or owned by one motion picture studio. Film rentals were handled through exchanges, and motion pictures produced by Paramount, RKO, and Universal (to name three producers) regularly appeared on its programs. Programs included such first run films as Citizen Kane, Young Man With a Horn, and The Howards of Virginia, motion pictures with well-known stars produced by the major studios. B pictures made up a considerable portion of the fare as well as motion picture serials such as the Blondie comedies, and Westerns. The meticulous recording of daily programs, attendance, and receipts as well as supporting documents provides an accurate basis for research into the daily life of an independently run motion picture theatre.
The papers indicate that day to day management and running of the theatres was the job of Robinson and his wife Verna. Later Verna's sister, Lucy, seems to have joined the business. With Robinson's death in 1950 it is unknown if the Corporation continued or was dissolved. Philip and Marion Hawkes rarely show up in the documents. The Hawkeses eventually moved to Southern California so perhaps that explains their absence from the records.
Colby W. Robinson was born in Bingham, Maine on November 16, 1900, the son of Walter E. Robinson and Nellie M. Preble. Robinson's father was a merchant. On October 21, 1925 Robinson married Verna L. Kimball, the daughter of Leon L. and Ruth Clifford Kimball. Verna's father was a farmer in Albany, Maine and Verna was born on February 28, 1904 in Albany. By the 1940 United States census, they were living in Portland, Maine along with Verna's younger sister Lucy. Robinson listed his occupation as theatre manager; Verna was listed as bookeeper, and Lucy was a theatre cashier. Robinson died in 1950, and it is unclear if the business continued past his death as the records in this collection cease in 1950. Verna died November 28, 1988. Both of them are buried in the village cemetery at Bingham, Maine. They had no children.
Phillip Hawkes, treasurer, was born in Westbrook, Maine on July 17, 1897 to E. Leroy and Maude Laura Hawkes. Leroy Hawkes was a laundryman. He married Marion A. Harlow on April 5, 1924. By the 1930 census, Hawkes is listed as a superintendent in a laundry. Hawkes died on September 21, 1962 and Marion died November 17, 1986. Both are buried at Forest Lawn Cypress Cemetery in Orange County, California.
Provenance:
Donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian, by Archives Center employee Craig A. Orr in 2013.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Westbrook Theatre Corporation Records, 1934-1950, undated, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Westbrook Theatre Corporation Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
This collection was collected from movie theaters and video stores in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and with few exceptions, exclusively covers the decade of the 1990s. The collection contains movie posters from a wide range of motion pictures; animated, children's, adult, studio, and independently made films and consists of full size, six-sheet posters with two small four-sheet size posters. The collection is arranged alphabetically by motion picture title.
Historical:
Motion pictures have been exhibited in the United States since debuting at the Columbian Exposition in 1893. The public's love affair with the movies has never waned. Beginning with silent films with simple plots the motion picture industry has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry where the small simple film costs millions of dollars and a great portion of a motion picture budget is designated for advertising. Movie posters have been an integral marketing tool for the motion picture from its inception. Movie posters attempt to capture the essence of the film in one clear defining image and image that will hopefully remain in the consumers mind. Early movie posters boasted original artwork with bright colors and bold lettering. Beginning in the 1950s, movie posters began to use actual photographs from the movie itself as the primary artwork for the movie poster. In the latter 20th century almost all movie posters were photographic in nature. With the expansion of motion pictures into the home video market from the early 1980s onward, movie posters became not only a marketing tool for the movie theatre but for the video store as well.
Donor did not want to have her name in collection title so the donation was added into this artificial collection.
Provenance:
Donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution by Martha Rosen, 2001.
Collection Restrictions:
Unrestricted research access on site by appointment.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Archives Center Poster Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Collection Director:
Heye, George G. (George Gustav), 1874-1957 Search this
Container:
Box 232, Folder 14
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1923-1924
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Collection Rights:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from the National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation Records, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
