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Megan McShea
Scope and Contents
The papers of King Vidor measure 2.1 linear feet and include correspondence, printed material, and a variety of materials related to the documentary
Metaphor: King Vidor Meets Andrew Wyeth
(1980) written and directed by Vidor, including production notes, photographs, and motion picture film. Correspondence is mainly between Vidor and multiple galleries and artists whose artworks Vidor collected, and includes single letters from artists Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and Andrew Wyeth. Lengthy correspondence with Associated American Artists is found among other correspondence with galleries. Loan requests from museums borrowing from Vidor's painting collection, and image requests for reproduction rights for paintings owned by Vidor from various publishers are also found, as well as a few sheets of notes related to valuation of paintings.
Printed material includes exhibition catalogs for Millard Sheets and Diego Rivera, clippings on a variety of subjects, including a long article about his film project
Metaphor
published in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner
, and periodicals with articles about the artist Grant Wood. Scattered slides are mostly of unidentified artwork.
Material related to
Metaphor
, Vidor's film project with Andrew Wyeth include photographs of Wyeth and Vidor in Pennsylvania, stills from Vidor's 1925 film The Big Parade
, and a still from Metaphor
. Production notes include detailed footage and edit notes as well as typescripts of draft narration. Some production notes are arranged as a group, and others are arranged with documentation of the original film containers in which they were found. Motion picture film found in the collection includes a print of the final version of the film, edit master film material (A and B rolls), outtakes, and trims. Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated 1985 by the King Vidor Trust.
Related Materials
There is an oral history interview with King Vidor held by Columbia University.
Processing Information
Motion picture film reels were inspected and re-housed in 2017 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund. Motion picture film was processed by Jennifer Graves, and the entire collection was arranged and described by Megan McShea in 2017. Digital photographs of original film containers were created when the collection was processed showing all original labeling and arrangement of outtakes and trims and are filed in Series 4. Original containers have been discarded.