I love my college. I'm taking a course in sci-fi films this semester and my professor had our class meet at the Lilly Library so we could be shown just a small portion of the library's large sci-fi collection. For those of you who don't know about the Lilly Library, they have crazy large collections, complete with first editions, screenplays, press kits, film stills, actual films, comics, and hundreds of other things. It's insane. People donate stuff to them all the time, and I actually got to see some of Pauline Kael's collection today. Apparently, when she wrote a review for a movie, she would compile a folder of materials on it, including scraps of paper with her own handwritten notes, coloring books, and various publicity things. It was so cool. I also got to handle the shooting script for the first Star Wars film (before it was officially titled A New Hope), as well as screenplays for The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Thing from Another World.
But what was most exciting about the Lilly Library today was their Orson Welles exhibit.
As I wrote at the beginning of the year, IU is celebrating Welles's 100th birthday and this exhibit is just one of the amazing things they're doing. The IU Cinema won't start showing his films until April, but as soon as they do, I'll keep you all apprised. Anyway, I was able to take photos and I figured you guys might like to see all the cool stuff I saw. I didn't take a picture of every thing, which you probably won't believe after you finish this post. Basically this entry is going to be photo after photo. I tried to put them in order of the numbered cases they were in, too. It was a little tricky to take some of the pictures because everything was encased in glass, and a few might be blurry--I did the best I could. Enjoy! And if you're in Indiana, seriously,
check out IU's events to celebrate Welles!
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| Welles's birth certificate. |
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| Report cards. |
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| Welles's first wife, Virginia, and their daughter, Christopher. I love the bottom part of this description: "Once, when [Chris] informed her father that 'girls aren't called Christopher,' Orson Welles replied, 'That's right. You're the only girl in the world who is, and that makes you unique as well as beautiful.'" |
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| A letter Christopher wrote to her father. |
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| Probably my favorite piece from the exhibit--isn't it sweet? |
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| I grinned so hard when I saw Vincent Price in this photo--I didn't realize he had worked with Welles before! |
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| The Cinema will actually be showing this--so excited. |
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| Sorry for the blurriness. I took a few shots and this one was the best. |
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| Welles's sketches for Too Much Johnson. |
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| Still for Too Much Johnson. I don't know who the guy is with Joseph Cotten. |
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| Another sketch by Welles. |
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| This description went with the poem above it. |
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| If you look, you'll see "Craig" instead of "Kane". |
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| This letter was written by... |
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| Helen Keller! |
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| This description goes with the next four photos. |
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| Page one. |
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| Page two. |
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| Page three. |
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| Page four. |
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| This letter was written by Welles to Peter Bogdanovich. |
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| Costumes for Chimes at Midnight. |
Hope you all found this interesting! April cannot come soon enough. Also,
here's a cool article about the exhibit. (Unfortunately most of the stuff this article talks about wasn't in the actual exhibit, so that was a little disappointing.)
With love,
Michaela
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