The American Heritage Center has recently processed the papers of Louis C. Brandt (collection number 6800). Mr. Brandt was an assistant director and producer for television and films from the 1930s to the 1970s.
During his career, Mr. Brandt worked with Phillip Yordan and Samuel Bronston, two famous American movie producers. Bronston’s production company, Samuel Bronston Productions, was a pioneer in the practice of filming epic-scale movies overseas due to the less-expensive production costs.
One example of this practice is the movie King of Kings (1961), on which Brandt was an Executive Production Supervisor. Brandt’s papers contain production materials related to King of Kings and several other films shot overseas during the 1960s, including El Cid (1961) and Battle of the Bulge (1965). The production notes consist of production meeting minutes, budgets, shooting schedules and other materials that give a thorough perspective on the challenges of filming overseas. Reviews of studio facilities in a variety of countries are included in the collection as well.
Memo from production of King of Kings, 1960, Louis C. Brandt papers, #6800, Box 2, Folder 13. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
In addition to chronicling Brandt’s work filming overseas, the Brandt papers are notable for the inclusion of production materials related to the 1950s television series Superman. Correspondence related to Brandt’s personal life and professional career are included as well, as are production ideas, screenplays and equipment catalogs, among other things.
Labor distribution log for Superman, 1952. Louis C. Brandt papers, #6800, Box 3, Folder 6. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
An inventory for the Louis C. Brandt papers can be found at the following link: https://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=wyu-ah06800.xml. Processing of the Brandt papers was made possible by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, a unit of the U.S. National Archives.
-Shaun Hayes, Processing Archivist
