By Tiffany Rueckert
Deep in the basement of the Harold B. Lee Library sits a rare collection of Hollywood”s greatest treasures.
The L. Tom Perry Special Collections Archive acquires and preserves a rare collection of motion picture films and film music.
These rare entities are given to BYU because, “we take good care of the collections, we index them, we make them available to the public,” said James D”Arc, curator of the Arts and Communications, Motion Picture and Film Music Archive.
The University began its collection over 25 years ago. According to D”Arc they have personal mementos, photos, contracts, letters and even an original pencil sketch of the “Gone With the Wind” score. He said the films come in as 16mm film copies and are subsequently cleaned, mounted on cores and then stored in the cold vault.
BYU”s flagship collection of legendary film producer-director Cecil B. DeMille is complete with production, publicity and personal files ranging from the days of DeMille”s playwright father in the late 1800s to DeMille”s death in 1959.
Other collections of motion picture companies, directors and producers include those of Academy Award winning directors and producers Howard Hawks and Merian C. Cooper. The archive also contains all of the original materials of LDS Directors Keith Merrill (“Legacy,” “The Testaments”), and Richard Dutcher (“God”s Army”).
In 1996, D”Arc began producing the Film Music Archive Soundtrack Series. The sound track series was developed to help the materials stay alive in the public consciousness, said D”Arc.
“This is great music, people need to listen to it and not just rerecordings,” said D”Arc. “I dare say we are probably the most prominent archival entity for focusing on film music. To my knowledge there is no other named archive that actively collects and produces film music.”
The music is taken from the original recording elements from the collections at BYU. There is no dialogue or sound effects, just the original music. Some popular soundtrack releases from Special Collections are “Bishop”s Wife” and “Lost Horizon.” The 11th soundtrack is scheduled to come out next month.
For over 20 years the film archives sat nearly untouched.
“There was no real dedicated place to show the films, until the new addition to the library,” said D”Arc. “The auditorium is a wonderful place to show these films: 213 seats, good sight lines, great sound system.”
Special Collections also contains the papers of actor James Stewart, comprising motion picture prints, photographs, home movies and extensive correspondence files. Stewart”s personal copy of “The Glenn Miller Story” will be shown in the HBLL Auditorium on May 22 as part of the Special Collections Film Series.
