Do read the furious but also informative comments from Hollywood folks who say that, contrary to 20th Century Fox's claims, the studio's film research library was and is constantly in use by both Fox lot personnel and outsiders. I hear Clint Eastwood is unhappy, too, because research for his Flags Of Our Fathers was done there. Also, the comments have some very interesting background info about the history of studio film research libraries in general. See my, What A Damn Shame. Meanwhile, everyone should know that the Warner Bros Research Library is alive and well and open, and I'm told by co-manager Steven Bingen that the studio's "management here, in all honestly, has always been very supportive of what we do. I wish my friends at Fox could be so lucky."
UPDATE: Fox gave me this statement tonight: "Contrary to implications, we are passionate about film history and about our fox history in particular. That's why we maintain one of the best and most costly photo archive departments in the business and keep comprehensive prop, art and film item archives from our films. It's why we organized the benefit for the motion picture home a couple years ago with Swann curating even our old contracts. That, however, is not what the research library is. Rather, it contains a number of general reference, broad interest books and periodicals, like a public library. That collection will be donated to a proper, curated library at a university or a guild, etc., where the public will have even greater access than they do now. The material will be taken care of in a first-class manner. As to the nostalgia that people feel for the days when studios were in many such non-movie specific businesses, we share it, too, and wish the world were still that way, but it's a muddling of points to lump this change into laments about lost film history, as it's not what it is."
HAHAHA! “SWANN CURATING OUR OLD CONTRACTS” these losers sold off the old contracts at auction, that’s an odd definition of “curating.” Corporate doublespeak in action.
Comment by alyssa brady — July 3, 2008 @ 12:40 am
Give me a huge fucking break. Since when can you walk into a public library and find books on what planes look like when they crash and how you recreate a black box, what medical kits looked like in WW2, original articles about the sinking of the Titanic, costume ref. for Spanish California, etc. etc. etc.
I could spend all day long in a public library and not get what I need in two hours at Fox.
Comment by lapland — July 3, 2008 @ 12:52 am
Clearly, whoever wrote Fox’s latest statement has never crossed the threshold of Fox’s Francis C. Richardson research library. Or bothered to check out their website.
To refer to the library as a collection of general reference, general interest books belies a nearly total ignorance of the library’s contents and purpose.
Sure, it’s “general interest” if general interest includes books with specific architectural visual reference photos, a rare collection of battlefield photos taken by the army during World War II, clip files dating back to the 20’s with such gems as an original ticket to the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, books with detailed information about the types and capabilities of various weapons, or medical reference materials that show, in grisly detail, various types of gunshot entry and exit wounds.
Certainly, there is general interest material there - the library exists for visual, technical, and broad historical/story reference, after all - but to characterize it as if it was just like a library you’d find at any college or university is simply laughable.
And if this library (and by implication, its almost extinct counterparts) are and were a part of many studios’ “non-movie specific businesses”, why, pray tell, did every single studio have one?
The answer, of course, is that libraries such as these are incredibly film specific - from the time of their origin, when their visual reference materials guided on-lot set builders, art directors, and production designers and their general reference items were a resource to writers, to today, where the only change is that the visual reference materials are now also used by location scouts and production executives to find the best alternatives to expensive or dangerous locations. And, of course, there are unique reference materials focused on information commonly needed by writers.
Fox’s statements - each revealing more ignorance than the previous one about the nature, use, and vitality of the library - seem to indicate that this was a decision made by people who didn’t have half a clue about the library (because, as has been demonstrated, they never went there) and no idea at all how passionate the library’s many users are. Now they are trying to put lipstick (and then mascara) on this pig of a decision.
At this point it would be best to admit that the decision was a calculated financial one, bow to the pressure to keep the collection intact, and pony up the money to get it properly transferred to a group or institution that will honor it more than the company which, after eight decades of film history that they are perhaps less than “passionate” about, has decided to cut it loose.
Comment by Ex-Fox — July 3, 2008 @ 4:12 am
The current owners of the studio clearly do not have an understanding of what creativity is nor how to nurture it. Obviously, a research library would contain “general reference, broad interest books and periodicals” and I don’t think any of the commenters understood otherwise. In fact, I think they were quick to equate it to other conveniences Fox foots the bill for - like dry cleaning. But a research library on a studio lot is most definitely part of both “film history” and “Fox history”. When I think of all those who may have utilized the library and/or the resources in it, as well as all of the films that wouldn’t have been the same without the convenience of the library, it seems a shame to let it go.
Comment by Patrick — July 3, 2008 @ 6:34 am
Fox: that’s a dumb statement. Yes it’s a library where people check out books, etc. but a lot of people on the lot actually USE it. Sure it’s in a windowless basement but it’s part of 20th Century Fox’s history to just have it. Dumb to close it. The cost of keeping that place open is nothing. It’s tiny little things like this that keep chipping away at Hollywood history.
Comment by troy — July 3, 2008 @ 6:37 am
Fox is passionate about film history? Is that why they sell their movie props on ebay?
Comment by Paul — July 3, 2008 @ 9:17 am
Wow. Just when I thought Fox couldn’t get any stupider, they top themselves. “general reference, broad interest books and periodicals”?! Have they even VISITED the library???
Comment by w5 — July 3, 2008 @ 9:41 am
Left this at the original post, but it’s worth saying again here:
Has the person who wrote the above update for Fox ever been to the Research library? If so, they’re lying. If not, they need to do their research. The 200 or so research books for films past alone are worth keeping the library open. They’re filled with articles, images, detailed artwork pertaining to the period of each film and subject…amazing stuff.
Comment by Diana — July 3, 2008 @ 9:50 am
The old maxim that those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it doesn’t really apply in Hollywood.
Hollywood desperately tries to sell off, ignore, or garbage their history in their never-ending juvenile dementia, yet hasn’t repeated the relative success and quality of Hollywood’s past.
Maybe it’s the bookworm/history buff in me that is just disgusted that anyone would want to discard with any sort of reference library.
Comment by Furious D — July 3, 2008 @ 9:55 am
Fox is a laughingstock, and this snarky, idiotic, babbling “statement” underscores that fact.
Comment by stupid Fox reply — July 3, 2008 @ 10:38 am
WHAT A PACK OF LIES.
OKAY, EVERYONE - HERE’S WHAT YOU DO. ONCE THE RESEARCH LIBRARY IS SHUT DOWN - LET’S CHECK BACK & SEE WHAT “VALUABLE RESOURCE/PERSON/or DEPT” HAS BEEN MOVED INTO ITS PLACE?
Let’s see why the crying need for space was needed. I predict just another asshole do-nothing, job-justification Vice President will be moved in there. That’s the way it goes here at FOX-WITZ.
Note to all visitors to Peter Chernin: When you finish your meeting with him, don’t forget to jump out of your chair, raise your arm shouting “ACHTUNG!”, turn to the picture of Murdock on the wall clicking your heels loudly screaming “Mein HERR!” and goose-step your way out of the room.
This will go a long way to getting you that sought-after green light. And fewer dumb notes from the boss.
Comment by Fox Executive — July 3, 2008 @ 10:48 am
the fox research library is an invaluable onlot resource that i use regularly. the collection is outstanding as is the staff who are tireless in their assistance and knowledge. if moved to another location, it would be useless to those who work on the fox lot.
Comment by ROBBIRO — July 3, 2008 @ 11:00 am
All Chernin and gang know how to do is destroy and dismantle things of worth and value.
True power and accomplishment is creating something that inspires, contributes and adds value to masses of lives.
What is the point of squeezing out every last bottom line penny if all you leave behind is a worthless carcass?
What is the point of having purported “power” if you squander it on stupidity and are reviled and mocked by all?
Shareholders should “bottom line” Chernin and other “moguls” and fire them and get someone to do their jobs cheaper.
Comment by Neeeext — July 3, 2008 @ 12:09 pm
(also at original post)
Obviously the same care went into making the decision to close the library that did to craft this asinine, inaccurate and insulting statement.
The books and magazines that are in the library were what was used to make all of those great 20th Century Fox Films. All Above Eve, How Green Was My Valley, Patton, MASH, on up to the present day. Those were the reference materials that created the blueprint for those films: the scripts, the sets, the costumes. They were an integral part of the filmmaking process - and still are. If that doesn’t somehow relate to “film history,” then I don’t know what does.
I swear our industry becomes emptier and more soulless with each passing day.
Comment by w5 — July 4, 2008 @ 9:58 am
[Also sent to original post]
I’m reminded of the image of the last scene of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” You know it: the U.S. government finally gets its hands on the Ark, they box it up and stick it in a huge warehouse with the millions of other valuable but boxed, discarded and forgotten artifacts…never to be seen again (at least until the 1950s, but that’s another rant/story). I defy anyone with a soul to go into the Fox Research Library and not be blown away by its contents. But we’re talking about people who have no soul. Based on this most recent statement about the Fox Research Library, I’d gather that the folks who made this decision never set foot in it. Moreover, I’d bet that they never set foot in a general public library (“ewww, look at all of these, non-industry…people!”). I’d assume that they might’ve accidentally stumbled into a university library, just to write various term papers. Of course, my highly biased opinions of these folks would lead me to believe that they probably paid for somebody else to write their term papers, thus avoiding a visit to a university library altogether. So, of course, these people are perfect for making a decision about a studio library – they’re made for Hollywood. None of them give a shit about the history of the town or their own studio, so any artifacts about the studio mean nothing to them. And we know about how much these creatures respect the contemporary creative community, so why give a fuck about their creative needs? These suits have no clue about the actual process of making films and TV shows. I love how their concern for the public is allegedly what’s driving them to close the library. These are people who are making the decisions for what types of projects entertain the public, and they don’t have a clue as to how the projects are even made. The library can be saved if those powerful creative types speak up against this erasing of Hollywood’s history, its present and its future. It’s the creative people in Hollywood who will suffer the most if this library is closed…which means the valued public that these “suits” are looking out for will suffer too.
Comment by jamesina — July 4, 2008 @ 1:33 pm
What a waste.
I’m sure Fox investors will be pleased with the close attention being paid to maintaining the bottom line at all costs.
Comment by Shanghai Slim — July 6, 2008 @ 1:59 am
[Also sent to original post]
Well said, LW
your virtual tour earlier hit the nail on the head.
I was there with every step you described. Thank you for conveying in just a few words, the tip of a very large archival iceberg.
That said, I didn’t plan on posting a second time, feeling I’d been more than comprehensive with an earlier post. But the new …statement from an unnamed rep who has been put forward to speak for the studio,
Well, let me say that this ‘clarification’ if one may call it that, needs to be addressed by knowledgeable sources.
A further note to the drafter of the statement: You definitely ought to come visit the library and have a personal tour given by the staff.
…in fact, I’m certain the Director will be more than accommodating with a fun, informative walk round that will change your conception of the library for the better. If not the Director, then the Manager. Every bit as good. In fact, ANY member of the staff should be readily able to show you things that will not only disprove your earlier statements, - but with all due respect- make you regret having committed them to print.
I mean it. Come get a tour. I gave dozens of them in my tenure there, and even now, 3 years absent from Fox, I could give one that should prove to you, or anyone without a doubt that this statement:
“… is not what the research library is. Rather, it contains a number of general reference, broad interest books and periodicals, like a public library”
…is flat out WRONG.
Whoever wrote it, or helped shape it or whatever…
has failed to take into account any number if things that make this library so unique.
If you read my last post, then consider this a warning of sorts… or in the words of Margo Channing:
“Fasten your seatbelts, its going to be a bumpy night!”
Lets start with the hundreds of custom assembled production research books and binders, dating back to the 1930s, each assembled from painstaking photostatic and emulsion picture copies.
-Not to mention production notes, facts, articles, lists. Each customized and relevant to the individual feature. Each feature a piece of Fox History.
These books are often held together by the sheer attention of the staff, carefully repairing decades old folds and tears, smoothing moisture curled pages.
or carefully separating photos that had stuck together following years of non temperature controlled storage. Recopying fading mimeographs & age darkened pages so their information isn’t lost for good
These old research books are a TREASURE.
Then there are the modern versions, in the form of dozens of 3 ring binders. Chock full of individual tabbed subsections filled with gorgeously arranged color xeroxes & print ups, pinpointed articles, whole chapters from select volumes, specially highlighted and placed for maximum relevance.
These ‘Modern’ research books by the way, also deal almost exclusively with Fox and their affiliated production company’s projects.
(Making them an important and positive legacy to Murdoch era of Fox history.)
Then there are all the customized ‘pitch books’ for films that either did or didn’t see the light of day, but had fantastic graphic and information representation, that elevated meetings well beyond some pacing, gesticulating artist, or creative exec trying heroically to shepherd a project through ‘the process’.
Even if a project is passed on, or goes into turnaround, that book goes back to the library to wait for when its needed again, either when the project is resurrected or more often, when the materials are relevant to some NEW research request. -Saving by the way, valuable work hours, not just for library staff, but for the people over at the production company. Countless are the times the library staff has heard:
“Already? WOW! that was quick!”
Quick as it may be sometimes, but not magic. hundreds, thousands of hours of prep and organization have gone –often by people long dead and gone- into making someone’s wild request a hard copy reality inside of an hour.
Why? Because virtually every page of most of these books is sourced back to the magazine, the book, the clip file that was used to create the greater whole.
Whats that? You need more than just that page about the Sioux courtship protocol? Right there on the back. There, see? Book title, author, page number.
Next thing you know, and a brisk walk ten rows down on the right and you’re holding the very volume that was referenced. ( and very likely finding half a dozen other great illustrations and passages while you’re at it)
Like I said, NOT magic. Research books require time and due diligence, painstaking organization and sourcing.
And when you fail to do it, it comes back to haunt you, so the staff really cares and tries to code these pages for the best, fastest research experience
a production or client could require.
So these books are not the result of taking the easy route.
If it were easy, everybody would do it. Everybody who valued a research library and trained staff, that is.
As a freelance researcher, you have to charge the client handsomely to assemble such a book.
To be sure, at Fox, you can’t check these books out anymore. Its the best way to protect these resources.
However you can copy or scan the pages, or even arrange to have much of the book reproduced down the hall. It’ll cost you, but not nearly what it would to do it yourself.
Just ask the Last Samurai’s art department, when the movie jumped from Fox to Warner Brothers.
The producers & art department happily worked out a deal to reproduce them in their entirety. They knew the goods when they saw them.
Speaking of ‘the goods’…
Its worth a mention that the old books had plain covers, just typed labels. A lot of modern ones have simple labels too, or a xeroxed image to show the subject.
However, many (if not most) of these modern research and pitch books are adorned with custom created covers that reflect the theme, content and more important… the heart and soul of the projects contained within.
Some of these covers are simple, others… I don’t mind saying, are works of art. Staff members - on many occasions on their own time- would spend hours finding the perfect Image, font, color card stock spines and backing. There are examples of hand pasted/collaged covers, others that are masterpieces of photoshop.
I know I used to do it just for the reward of that
“For me?” look on an Execs face, or the moment when a filmmaker weighs the book in their hand, and whistles low, and appreciatively.
And I wasn’t alone. The library manager often made time to come up with great covers and contents. Not because it was her job. She cared enough
to make these books special outside as well as in.
These are custom coffee table books. Not available in any store. And they are created by researchers who often feel as passionately about the projects as the artists who conceive and produce them for Fox.
Tangent? Perhaps, but it demonstrates – in detail- that no public library has anything to compare.
Then there are the review files, so comprehensive that only the Academy library, or AFI could rival them - and only because they have larger staffs to continually clip and file them.
That reminds me… The collection of clip files housed in rows of mobile shelving. I often refer to them as the backbone of the Research Library.
And thats almost faint praise…
Picture thousands of folders containing clipped articles on any and every subject, from periodicals far and wide, or rescued from partially destroyed books. Ephemera like bus transfers, campaign buttons, velvet covered menus, speeding tickets, grocery specials clipped from newspapers long extinct, religious tracts bumper stickers, whoopie cushions, greeting cards, proclamations, schedules, maps, tide charts, chewing gum wrappers NASA launch schedules. Auto dealership brochures, “Most improved runner up” green award ribbons…
You get the idea.
Its worth mentioning that the Library namesake
Frances C. Richardson continued to save articles and collect items of interest for the clip files well into her retirement years at the Motion Picture home.
Her attention to detail and interesting subjects, not to mention distinctive penmanship still mark these clippings as proof of what company loyalty REALLY means.
In that light, how could the staff do anything but contribute to this endless and painstaking process?
Which they do… clipping, sorting, heading & eventually filing the wealth of minutiae that can help a writer, or save an art department emergency.
‘The virtual tour’ posting by “LW” mentioned a stretch of the collection affectionately called “Fox Land” Though there is also a huge section of the clip files dealing with Fox film and TV projects
-Not to mention an impressive array of press kits & media, the happy legacy of the library once being neighbors with advertising and publicity.
The library also has a comprehensive collection of fiction titles that Fox purchased the rights to, with an eye to future production, as well as novelizations and adaptations from Fox films and TV shows.
Then there are the specialized magazines and comics from Fox franchises like The Simpsons, Lost in Space, Planet of the apes. The library still even has a small but impressive STAR WARS collection, from back in the day when it was still Fox’s baby. Not to mention a whole array of MASH books,(right down to the MASH cookbook.)
And Biographies? Well, if they were a Fox star, or director, or executive, the library has a place for that book or article about them.
Then there are the hidden gems, the ones that even the staff are shocked to find now and then.
A checkout slip signed to Otto Preminger, used as a bookmark in a volume of Belgian history.
The JANES Aircraft of the World circa 1964, where someone…
(Frank Tallman or Paul Mantz?) drew in pencil -over the aircraft schematic- how to reduce a full sized C-82 to create ‘the Phoenix’ for “Flight of the Phoenix”
(yes, we discourage that sort of thing in libraries, but really… how COOL a discovery is that when you’re doing research for the 2004 remake? )
A note in the circulation file NOT to check out any more Playboys to Russ Meyer -until he returns the one he has overdue.
I mention these little details for a very good reason.
There are still dozens, hundreds, maybe a thousand such surprises, delights… histories still hidden away. Just waiting for someone to take down the right book, turn the page, & value the experience.
& maybe even make a damn fine movie in the process, or at least have a story to tell next time cocktails are poured.
We who are passionate about saving the Research Library realize full well that the next step is that someone may very well offer up some variation on this compromise: “How about we keep the all the Fox related stuff then, and jettison the public library type everyday crap”
Not a good idea at all. they’re too co-mingled. Also, these seemingly separate aspects belong just where they are.
Also the collection should be maintained AT Fox, or at least as part of Fox. If off lot, then fully funded, protected and supported. Not just supported, but valued for the truly priceless ever surprising, ever renewing…resource that the Library represents. A resource, I’d like to say in closing… that holds the key to making fair projects good, good ones great, great ones classics.
A resource that points to how the greats were made, and chronicles missteps and dissapointments
so they can be hopefully avoided in the future…
Look at Fox’s most storied films and the Library was there for them, and not just there for… but PART of for so many of them. And not just classics, but the blockbusters… moneymakers. The coin of the modern studio realm
The Research Library has always been there for Fox, and in recent history, for the industry as a whole. For you too if you need it.
Do the right thing. Preserve it, preferably where it is, definitely as part of Fox.
I didn’t mean to go on this long, but it needed to be said. ( and Margo did warn you )
That said… thanks for reading. As the ad-pub kids say every spring:
“For your consideration”
Comment by B Thomas — July 6, 2008 @ 8:51 pm
Wow. I read this and then went to read the original post and all the subsequent comments (and it seems to me people are continuing to post their comments at the original article rather than here at the update), and am amazed that a: Fox would contemplate closing down this resource, and b: they’re trying to whitewash it. Not enough white paint in the world to cover this particular fence, guys.
Comment by Connie C. — July 7, 2008 @ 9:31 am
What isn’t being discussed here is in my mind the greatest loss in such a breakup of the collection. That is the loss of qualified experienced personnel who can help navigate your way through the collection. No matter where the various parts of the collection would end up, there will be no one trained to quickly put their finger on that picture or piece of data you need. It’s easy for those without familiarity to see such employees as glorified clerks, who are expendable and interchangeable. In fact, without the years of experience and specific skills which this library’s employees have mastered, the information (in whatever format) needed on a wide variety of projects might as well be ‘unavailable’. There is art in what these folks do. A collection which has been meticulously organized to give the maximum level of access will never work as well in a deconstructe state, if at all.
Comment by E. Suess — July 7, 2008 @ 12:24 pm
E. Suess, I couldn’t agree with you more! Excellent point and well said!
Comment by Diana — July 7, 2008 @ 7:05 pm
There is NO passion at Fox from middle management to the top. There is tremendous passion and creativity at the production level. But that passion is never encouraged, in fact it’s actively smothered by those above. There is no inspiration there, there is only treading water. Fox is where good ideas go to die, the Simpsons being the only thing nonwithstanding that fact.
Comment by EX-FEG and Proud — July 9, 2008 @ 1:13 am
I was working at Fox when they sold off the prop department. Later I used the research library while working on “AMC Backstory” (a tv show about movies).
It was amazing to see the items in that library. The bang per square inch of information and history in that relatively small and windowless basement area was incredible.
Last Friday I had the chance to visit the lot and called about trying to get my wife and son in to get a glimpse of the library. That’s when I got the sad news.
I never drive by Century City without picturing it as the back lot it used to be. Can you imagine if that land had been leased instead of sold? Talk about financial short sightedness - I always figured that Fox brass must not be able to go to work without regretting that they don’t own it anymore. Apparently not.
I guess it won’t be long until Twentieth Century-Fox joins MGM as a tenant in one of the office towers on what used to be their own kingdom.
Comment by sam g — August 18, 2008 @ 1:24 pm