The Wasp Woman: A Makeover Gone Murderous

Posted on March 15, 2013 by ahcadmin

One of my favorite “B” movies from the 1950s is a film called The Wasp Woman, released in 1959. The film is about a woman named Janice Starlin who is the CEO of a cosmetics company. As she is quickly losing her youthful looks, she decides to inject herself with the queen wasp’s jelly. Coincidentally, a string of murders rocks the city. It becomes obvious that Janice’s vanity is the culprit. If she hadn’t been so intent upon recapturing her youth, the vile creature that emerges when she injects the jelly would not have been unleashed upon the city.

Promotional poster from the film. Forrest J. Ackerman papers, Collection #2358, Box 137.

Promotional poster from the film. Forrest J. Ackerman papers, Collection #2358, Box 137.

At the same time, Janice is constantly criticized for her looks. It is presumed that she was only the CEO of the company due to her former beauty. The gang of cronies waiting to take her place is a group of men in gray flannel suits, snickering behind her back and anxiously awaiting her downfall. And of course, they aren’t the ones who bring on that downfall. She does the work for them.

There are some interesting elements to consider in The Wasp Woman. The timing of the plot is similar to many other sci-fi “B” movies of the time as the movie is only about an hour long. Janice’s downfall comes in a matter of minutes, and although most of the film is about how her character develops from a beauty queen to a vile monster, I sort of wished the ending of the film offered a longer reflection on what the story meant. There are so many similar themes to King Kong, a film that would have been familiar to both the creators of the film and its audience due to King Kong’s many re-releases, particularly in the fifties. The idea that beauty killed the beast is predominant in both stories. Particularly in The Wasp Woman, there is a sense that beauty is somehow sinister. The possessors of beauty, young women, can’t be trusted. It is tolerated for its aesthetic power in youth, but when it is no longer there the power that has been afforded to the beautiful is now overwhelming. Therefore, women can’t be trusted with power because the need for aesthetic recognition can turn them, quite literally, into monsters.

This is a common sentiment in film throughout the postwar era, particularly in science fiction. In many films, women are seductresses with malevolent intentions. The interesting thing about The Wasp Woman is that the main character doesn’t start out a monster, like so many other feminine characters in other post-war films. Instead, she merely is a person who is prone to insecurity. The feminine element in The Wasp Woman is a great deal more human (literally) than in other films. If the fear of the aesthetic, or the power of beauty, is so paramount on so many different levels it is clear that appearances were more intimidating than they originally seemed in postwar America. Hence, women could easily be turned into objects of fear and attraction when in all actuality America was still a misogynistic environment.

The Forrest J. Ackerman collection has a great movie poster from The Wasp Woman. It’s a wonderful artifact, although it doesn’t seem to relate to the film as much as it could. The poster portrays Janice as a gigantic wasp with a woman’s face, while in the movie she is the opposite–a woman’s body with a wasp’s face. However, the movie poster does upend the usual monster-holding-woman formula as this time Janice, the wasp woman, is holding a man. It’s interesting to consider what happens when the woman is made out to be the monster rather than the helpless heroine. After the fifties science-fiction films began to feature female protagonists. Barbarella, a film featuring a sexually aggressive Jane Fonda, was released in 1968. Perhaps the best, and my favorite, female protagonist in science-fiction film history is showcased in a film that was released exactly two decades after The Wasp Woman. Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, the protagonist of the Alien series, is one of the most compelling characters in science fiction. She is certainly one of the toughest, meanest, and oddly powerful characters in the history of film. Her mastery of the fearsome is something that couldn’t have quite been conceived in the late 1950s. I don’t think that Ripley could have existed without the realization of the dark feminine power that drives films like The Wasp Woman. Perhaps that is why I take such satisfaction in watching science fiction films from the 1950s, as they were not very afraid of experimenting with feminine power, even if those experiments usually resulted in malevolent depictions of women. And if it weren’t for the Forrest Ackerman collection, I would have never known about The Wasp Woman. Thankfully, I have had the honor of working through it.

–Shaun Milligan, AHC and American Studies Intern

Posted in Interns' projects, Pop Culture, popular culture, science fiction | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

King Kong’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’

Posted on February 21, 2013 by ahcadmin

In the Forrest J. Ackerman collection, one can find a variety of well-known artifacts of the film era, including work from before World War II (the oldest artifact in the collection is from 1890, a literary review that has an interesting article on Idaho if you ever get the chance to read it). I enjoy looking at these materials whenever possible to get away from my work a bit, as the focus of said work has usually been on post-war movies that reflect the gendered anxieties of containment. This week I would like to discuss King Kong, first released in 1933, re-released in 1938 and 1952, and then remade in both 1977 and 2005. My own experience with the various representations of the film has been limited–I watched the original when I was very young (the only thing I remember is that we ate tacos and fell asleep) and the Peter Jackson remake when I was in high school. I have absolutely enjoyed working with the various materials available in the collection as well as watching the various manifestations of the film.

Promotional poster from the French release of the film. Forrest J. Ackerman papers, Collection # 2358, Box 111. UW American Heritage Center.

Promotional poster from the French release of the film. Forrest J. Ackerman papers, Collection # 2358, Box 111. UW American Heritage Center.

In the original King Kong the character of Ann Darrow, portrayed by Fay Wray, plays a powerfully innocent feminine character throughout the movie.  Ann Darrow is a character whose femininity moves the plot–Darrow embodies the beauty that unleashes the mystery of the island. Without her it would be a bunch of dudes wandering around killing dinosaurs and scaring natives. Ann Darrow’s masculine counterpart is a character named John Driscoll (Bruce Cabot), who provides an alternative to the stereotype of masculinity that is utilized all too often in mid-20th century film; Driscoll is humble and often uncomfortable in his own skin. He loves Darrow deeply, but rather than take confident action, he awkwardly asks for her permission to be loved. Driscoll is a relief in an era of he-men.

In opposition to the other science-fiction films I have worked with, which tend to portray the masculine protagonist having most of the responsibility of moving the plot and acting as a moral arbiter, the conflict in King Kong is “beauty and the beast,” meaning that the film’s climax comes down to Ann and Kong. (Assuming that you have watched either the original or the Peter Jackson remake, you know who wins.)  It’s an oddly empowering concept of femininity in film. Yet it can also be interpreted to be misogynist as well. If the empowering element of femininity is merely the aesthetic, what does that say about women, who once again are relegated to the aesthetic and seemingly false existence of eye candy? At the same time the obvious employment of the beauty and the beast trope makes it seem like parody to a certain extent, causing a further sense of disjointedness between the aesthetic and the subconscious employment of femininity as a nefarious force. At least for Ann Darrow, her aesthetic power is what moves the plot and saves the day, which is more than can be said about many science-fiction or fantasy movies of the era.  For it wasn’t Ann Darrow who killed Kong directly, but it was society that was so intent upon killing Kong for daring to kidnap Darrow.

The need to capture both beauty and the beast at the same time, or to contain them, seems particularly telling of the power of gendered aesthetics in the American imagination. It is also revealing of how strongly we react to the dual aesthetics of beauty and beastliness in the terms of gender. Darrow and Kong share something in common, the act of being objectified for pleasure. That shared experience provides a special relationship between the two when they are on top of the Empire State Building. So high up in the air, they are on an alienated island of aesthetic objectification, sharing opposite fates of either death or recapture due to the gendered aesthetics they provide for the world. This is portrayed sincerely in both films and illuminates how important our appreciation of beauty and ugliness are in American culture.

Using the Forrest Ackerman collection to elucidate popular culture is a rewarding experience, especially when we get to use it to analyze classics like King Kong.

Posted in Film History, Interns' projects, popular culture | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Forbidden Planet: An Exceptional Specimen of ‘B Movie’ Ingenuity

Posted on January 24, 2013 by ahcadmin

I recently had the pleasure of watching Forbidden Planet, a science-fiction film directed by Fred M. Wilcox and released in 1956. A young Leslie Nielsen plays a space captain (Commander J.J. Adams) who is directed to a planet to hopefully find the survivors of a research vessel that disappeared years ago. When he gets there he finds two survivors, the hyper-intelligent Dr. Edward Morbius and his young, beautiful daughter, Altaira (Alta for short) Morbius.  Dr. Morbius has created a robot whom he has named Robby. The movie poster (from the Forrest J. Ackerman papers) follows a predictable trope–it depicts Robby menacingly carrying a female figure, presumably Alta, in his arms.

Promotional poster for the 1956 film. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Forrest J Ackerman Collection, Collection #2358, Box 124.

Promotional poster for the 1956 film. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Forrest J Ackerman Collection, Collection #2358, Box 124.

Much like The Day the Earth Stood Still, the movie poster is not symbolic of the plot of the film. Robby is a helpful robot that is incapable of hurting humans. Instead, he helps humans survive whenever possible. It’s sort of ironic that the only person Robby ends up carrying in the film is a man who has been knocked unconscious. The fact that Robby is neither dangerous nor sexually malevolent in any fashion is telling as to why and how the film was marketed the way it was. People flocked to films that represented wicked alien others harassing, capturing, and holding helpless women. These films were produced in an era of containment when gender performance was ostensibly rigid. Many films reflected this in their representations of strong men rescuing (and seducing) weak women. Forbidden Planet isn’t as severe in its depictions of men and women but still followed the paradigm of having the dominant male (Commander Adams) rescuing an endangered female (Alta).

Production still from the film. Forrest J. Ackerman papers, Box 106, Folder 72. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Production still from the film. Forrest J. Ackerman papers, Box 106, Folder 72. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Forbidden Planet was a massive production. The film’s budget was $1.9 million, an unheard of amount at the time for the production of a science fiction film. Many of the science-fiction movies I have been researching were “B” films, created for the sole purpose of putting people in theater seats. “B” films were created as an added bonus to seeing an “A” film with a bigger budget and better-known actors. People found the deal of seeing two films at once irresistible, so showing a second film that was created on a small budget proved to be extremely profitable for movie studios. “B” films had low budgets and were often poorly produced due to short filming schedules. Forbidden Planet was clearly expected to accomplish more than other science fiction films of the time. And from a critical perspective, it did. It’s a great film with a much more thorough attention to plot and aesthetic than the average “B” sci-fi film. Its soundtrack was revolutionary as it was produced completely electronically. Robby the Robot alone cost $125,000. Robby starred in a sequel to the movie, The Invisible Boy. He is now a science-fiction icon.

The radical factor that distinguishes the film from other sci-fi films of the era is not its unique production, however, but is instead its unique attention to the human element. There is a dark theme running throughout the film that investigates the ethical place of science in society.  Although most science-fiction films of the era employ this theme, there is a human element to Forbidden Planet that tries to reach outside of the gendered aesthetics of the postwar era at the same time that it is employing them, making the film remarkably conflicted and interesting to watch.

I invite you to take the time to view this fine example of postwar science fiction–it won’t disappoint!  As Warren Steven’s character Doc Ostrow remarks, “The total potential here must be nothing less than astronomical.”

Posted in popular culture, science fiction, Student projects | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Rollo the Red-Nosed Reindeer?

Posted on December 21, 2012 by ahcadmin

Did you know that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was almost named Rollo–or even Reginald?

Sales brochure for Montgomery Ward store associates, advising employees on how to increase their holiday selling power. Montgomery Ward records, Collection # 8088, Box 44, Folder 3. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Sales brochure for Montgomery Ward store associates, advising employees on how to increase their holiday selling power. Montgomery Ward records, Collection # 8088, Box 44, Folder 3. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Montgomery Ward, the world’s first general merchandise mail-order business, originated Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as an advertising campaign in 1939. Copywriter Robert L. May drafted a poem about a reindeer with a shiny red nose that that would assist Santa Claus in his deliveries, and 2.4 million copies of his illustrated poem were distributed for free to Montgomery Ward shoppers.

Montgomery Ward records, Collection # 8088, Box 44, Folder 3. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Montgomery Ward records, Collection # 8088, Box 44, Folder 3. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

In the 1940s, the hard-bound book was released, and a song composed about the reindeer written by Johnny Marks was recorded by singing cowboy Gene Autry.  By the time the familiar television special premiered in 1964, Rudolph’s likeness had been licensed for more than 500 items.

First pages of the illustrated poem by Robert May. Montgomery Ward records, Collection # 8088, Box 44, Folder 3. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

First pages of the illustrated poem by Robert May. Montgomery Ward records, Collection # 8088, Box 44, Folder 3. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

You gotta admit, Rudolph is looking pretty good after 70+ years!

The poem continues with Rudolph's self-consciousness . . . Montgomery Ward records, Collection # 8088, Box 44, Folder 3. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

The poem continues with Rudolph’s self-consciousness . . . Montgomery Ward records, Collection # 8088, Box 44, Folder 3. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

The American Heritage Center is the repository for more than 300 boxes of records from Montgomery Ward Company, 1860-1989.  In addition materials documenting the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer campaign, the collection contains Montgomery Ward catalogs, competitors’ catalogs,  correspondence (1889-1985) including approximately 20,000 letters between the general public and Ward regarding the National War Labor Board and the 1944 government seizures; scrapbooks of newspaper and magazine articles on Ward and competitors (1971-1987) including extensive national press coverage of the 1944 seizures. Subject files (1862-1985) include information on takeover attempts, price controls, A. Montgomery Ward’s role in preserving Chicago’s lake front, company history, the National War Labor Board, and miscellaneous artifacts.

–Ginny Kilander, Reference Department Head

Posted in Advertising, Holidays, popular culture, Retail history, Retail stores | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Arthur E. Demaray, National Parks Pioneer

Posted on December 19, 2012 by ahcadmin

Arthur E. Demaray was a United States government administrator for the Department of the Interior, National Park Service.  The American Heritage Center just completed processing this collection and a new online finding aid for the Demaray papers is available!

Old Faithful Camp and geyser, Arthur Edward Demaray papers, Collection #4031, Box 30. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center.

Old Faithful Camp and geyser, Arthur Edward Demaray papers, Collection #4031, Box 30. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center.

Demaray spent most of his career in key leadership roles in the National Park Service during the agency’s formative years, the New Deal period, and through the war time years as the agencies point of contact with Congress. He is known for his effectiveness as an administrator, his pioneering efforts that lead to the establishment of several national parks during these turbulent times, and his ability to work with the infamous Interior Secretary, Harold Ickes. Demaray was in U.S. government service for forty-eight years (1903-1951). His career began at the age of 16 in 1903 for the U.S. Geological Survey as a messenger boy; he was later apprenticed to and became a draftsman for the department. In 1917, he transferred to the newly formed National Park Service, where he proved to be a very effective administrator and political liaison and served as Assistant Director and Director of the National Park Service until his retirement in 1951. Demaray was born on February 16, 1887 in Washington D.C and died in Tucson, Arizona in 1958.

The lobby of the Old Faithful Camp Lodge, Arthur Edward Demaray papers, Collection #4031, Box 30. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center.

The lobby of the Old Faithful Camp Lodge, Arthur Edward Demaray papers, Collection #4031, Box 30. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center.

The collection contains correspondence (including a few letters from Harold Ickes), diaries, photographs, articles, publications, awards, medals, memorabilia, and Plains Indian artifacts all related to Demaray’s career. There is material relating to his various trips including brochures and other travel literature, postcards, scrapbooks, and photographs. Also included are personal and family memorabilia, such as articles by Elise Demaray Anderson; family photographs including ambrotypes and daguerreotypes; and genealogical information on the Demaray, Demarest, Briggs, Shryock, and Fravel families. There are a large number of photographs of the National Parks and Monuments across the United States; Yellowstone; Great Smoky Mountains; Crater Lake; Mammoth Cave; Yosemite; Grand Canyon; many of the Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah parks; National Park Service officials; Civilian Conservation Corps camps; and photographs by Jack Ellis Haynes, Official Yellowstone photographer. There are also photographs of Harold Ickes, Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and personal family snapshots and photo albums of family, friends, and their travels.

Postcard of deer near Mammoth, Arthur Edward Demaray papers, Collection #4031, Box 41. University of Wyoming American Heritage Center.

Postcard of deer near Mammoth, Arthur Edward Demaray papers, Collection #4031, Box 41. University of Wyoming American Heritage Center.

This is a rich addition to the many collections already available on the National Park Service.  If Arthur Demaray and his career fits with your research interests, please feel free to contact the AHC Reference Department with questions you might have about this collection or others on the topic.

–Jamie Greene, Processing Archivist

Posted in environmental history, National Parks, newly processed collections | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Buddy Mays, Photojournalist of the Southwest

Posted on December 17, 2012 by ahcadmin

The AHC is pleased to announce that we have just recently completed a new online finding aid for the Buddy Mays papers.

Buddy Mays using a camera in a crowd of people. Written on the back: "Gallup, NM Navajo Press photographer at work." American Heritage Center, Photofile: Indian - Tribe - Navajo.

Photograph taken by Buddy Mays. Written on the back: “Gallup, NM Navajo Press photographer at work.” American Heritage Center, Photofile: Indian – Tribe – Navajo.

Buddy Mays was born in 1943 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. After high school, Mays served in the Coast Guard until 1965.  Following his Coast Guard service, he studied vertebrate zoology at New Mexico State University, where he began working as a photographer for the Las Cruces Sun News. After college, Mays became a photographer for the Albuquerque Tribune, and stayed there until 1972. Since then, Mays has been a freelance travel writer, author, and photographer. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1978 for a series of photographs on American Cowboys. The bulk of his work concerns the American Southwest, Southwestern history, wildlife, outdoor recreation, whitewater rafting, and southwestern Indians. In 1996, Mays moved from New Mexico to Bend, Oregon.

This collection contains both published and unpublished essays, articles, and books by Mays, most from the 1970s. Manuscripts for two of Mays’ books, “A Pilgrim’s Wildlife Notebook” and “Wildwaters” are included. It also contains photographs taken by Mays of travel, outdoor activities, people, wildlife, and images of the Southwest. There is a collection of photographs titled “Cowboy Life in the Southwest: a Vanishing Heritage.” There is also correspondence with publishers, colleagues, and friends, and professional files (including notebooks) documenting Mays’ work as a travel writer and photographer.

Posted in American Indian history, Journalism, newly processed collections, Photography | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Payson W. Spaulding, Attorney for Progress

Posted on December 7, 2012 by ahcadmin
Payson Spaulding's law office on Main Street in Evanston, WY. Spaulding appears on the right. Payson W. Spaulding papers, Box 96, Folder "Photographs--Evanston, Wyoming--1904-1936," Box 96. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Payson Spaulding’s law office on Main Street in Evanston, WY. Spaulding appears on the right. Payson W. Spaulding papers, Box 96, Folder “Photographs–Evanston, Wyoming–1904-1936,”  American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Payson W. Spaulding established himself as a notable attorney in Southwest Wyoming, serving the community and state for 70 years. He was counsel for the Lincoln Highway Association, Union Pacific Railroad Company, and John D. Rockefeller’s Snake River Land Company, which involved Spaulding in the establishment of the Lincoln Highway and the Jackson Hole National Monument.

Payson Spaulding, May 30, 1904. Payson W. Spaulding papers, Box 96, Folder "Photographs--Payson W. Spaulding--1904-1936," American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Payson Spaulding, May 30, 1904. Payson W. Spaulding papers, Box 96, Folder “Photographs–Payson W. Spaulding–1904-1936,” American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Payson W. Spaulding was born in Bingham, Maine in 1876; however, he spent most of his youth growing up in the Midwestern states of Minnesota and Illinois. Spaulding attended Kent College and the University of Colorado law school, where he earned his law degree in 1901. Shortly after graduation he moved to Evanston, Wyoming, opened a law office, and married Nelle Johnson Quinn. Spaulding was interested in automobiles and road travel. He was the first person to own an automobile in Evanston and in 1908 he joined J.M. Murdock and his family on a transcontinental automobile tour to New York.

spaulding auto and snow

Snowfall near Evanston, WY during the winter months of 1935 and 1936. Payson W. Spaulding papers, Box 96, Folder “Photographs–Evanston, Wyoming–1904-1936,”  American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

He also took a personal interest in oil drilling; investing time and money mining Southwest Wyoming and Nevada.  He continued to practice law in Wyoming until 1971 and died in 1972 at the age of 95.

The AHC has just finished processing the collection and has produced a new online finding aid.  The collection contains legal case files regarding civil, divorce, corporate, criminal, land, water, and probate cases from Payson W. Spaulding’s private practice.  These files contain correspondence, legal documents, and financial records concerning the case and/or clients; including his work with the Lincoln Highway Association, Union Pacific Railroad, and the Jackson Hole National Monument and involvement of Rockefeller’s Snake River Land Company in acquiring land for the monument.

–Jamie Greene, Processing Archivist

Posted in Biography and profiles, newly processed collections, Wyoming history | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Science Fiction and Gender in the 1950s

Posted on November 28, 2012 by ahcadmin

The portrayal of gender in science fiction is a fascinating and sometimes overwhelming topic of discussion. As science-fiction is often referential and sensitive to the time period it was written and portrayed in, it is far from being just fantasy and yet is still encapsulated in the imaginative. It is a metaphorical space, a world apart, yet still our own world apart, where new biologies and technologies inspire us while traditional structures of society, gender and power reveal us.

With this in mind I am conducting a visual and cinematic survey of the Forrest J. Ackerman collection at the American Heritage Center.  As Ackerman was such an avid fan everything sci-fi there is a breadth of material to work with in his collection. My goal is to use production stills, promotional materials, and movie posters to discuss gendered themes that are concurrent with the mood of and timbre of the American post-war and Cold War era in which gender became a crucial ground of conflict and statement with a cultural and political push to solidify the domestic and feminine in order to establish security and order.

These themes are overly apparent in various artifacts in the Forrest J. Ackerman collection. While the collection is overwhelmingly fun to go through (partly because it includes the recently named tribble, “Furry Ackerman”), it is also revealing in its scope and diversity. A good example of the gendered ideals of the American postwar and Cold War eras comes in the form of the movie poster. Seemingly, it is impossible to promote a science-fiction or horror film in the 1950s or 1960s without illustrating a damsel in distress, often scantily clad, in the arms of the villain or monster of the movie. One great example is the movie poster to The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which the powerful alien robot Gort is holding the terrified and seemingly hopeless woman who doesn’t appear in the film whatsoever.

Film Poster from the 1951 movie. Forrest J. Ackerman Collection, oversize folder 116, Collection No. 2358, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

The Day the Earth Stood Still is actually a fairly empowering movie in the terms of the women it represents. One of the main characters, Helen Benson, is a widow who is raising a son by herself. She is independent and turns down marriage to live her life in a way she finds suitable. Yet the movie poster still follows the cliché of damsel in distress that has no way of getting away from the beast (in this case Gort) without the aid of masculine intervention.

Investigating into the paradoxes of the cultural mind of the postwar and Cold-War America opens a discussion of how gender construction affected policy and culture in America. The Forrest J. Ackerman collection is my portal to this investigation.

Posted in Interns' projects, Pop Culture, popular culture, science fiction | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Tim McCoy, Western Star

Posted on November 15, 2012 by ahcadmin

Tim McCoy on a horse, 1930’s. Tim McCoy Collection, Coll. # 6415. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center.

Thanks to a continuing grant from the NHPRC, the American Heritage Center has recently processed the Tim McCoy papers and a new, online inventory is available for this collection.

Tim McCoy was a mid-20th century Hollywood Western movie actor, military officer, and promoter of the American Wild West. He was born in Saginaw, Michigan on April 10, 1891, the son of an Irish Union Civil War soldier and Police Chief. As a young man he had a desire to go west and while attending college he decided to seek his adventure and purchased a one-way train ticket. He ended up in Lander, Wyoming where he worked as a ranch hand and learned Native American sign language and customs from the Indians in the area, eventually he settled in Thermopolis, Wyoming.

Tim McCoy with children at Fort Larned, Kansas, 1958, Tim McCoy Collection, Coll. # 6415. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center.

He joined the army and served in the cavalry during World War I and became Adjutant General of Wyoming after the war. In 1922, he resigned his commission in order to assist with recruiting Indians and translating for the Western film “The Covered Wagon.” McCoy and his Indian group toured the U.S. and Europe promoting the film. When McCoy returned to Hollywood after the tour, MGM signed him to a contract to star in a series of Westerns. McCoy rapidly rose to stardom, making scores of Westerns and occasional non-Westerns, transitioning from silent film to talkies. By the mid 1930s the popularity of Tim McCoy and his Western films was beginning to wane, partially because of the Depression. In 1935 Tim McCoy left Hollywood to tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus and later formed his own wild west show called “Col. Tim McCoy’s Wild West and Rough Riders of the World,” in 1938 his show went bankrupt and closed.

He returned to films in 1940, but World War II would call him back to the Army. After the war he retired from both film and the military, but continued to make occasional movie and television appearances including his own television show, “The Tim McCoy Show” in 1952. He also wrote short articles, stories, and poetry about the American West, Indians, and cowboys, including his autobiography, “Tim McCoy Remembers the West,” in 1977. During his life he was married twice, first to Agnes Miller, which ended in divorce in 1931 and then to Inga Arvad until her death from cancer in 1973. He had a total of five children, three with Agnes and two with Inga. On January 29, 1978 at the age of 86 Tim McCoy died of heart failure at the Raymond W. Bliss Army Health Center/Hospital in Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

–Jamie Greene, Processing Archivist

Posted in Biography and profiles, Hollywood history, newly processed collections, popular culture, Western history | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Why are Barbara Stanwyck’s papers at the AHC? Because we asked for them!

Posted on November 1, 2012 by ahcadmin

One of the most frequently asked questions about the American Heritage Center is how and why we wound up with such a large and significant collection relating to the history of popular entertainment in the U.S.—film, television, and radio in particular.  “How did such material, mostly created on the two coasts, wind up in Wyoming of all places?” is often how such questions are phrased.

The short answer is, “Because we asked for it first.”  As far back as the mid-1960s, then AHC director Gene Gressley, along with his counterparts at Boston University, University of Wisconsin, and University of Texas, noticed that these major industries, so crucial to understanding American popular culture, were not being aggressively pursued by repositories in their own back yard.  So these four archives began actively soliciting the papers of (in the AHC’s particular case) writers, directors, producers, composers, and some actors.

So despite Wyoming’s distance from New York and Hollywood, some well-known figures in these industries agreed to donate their papers because our Center was the first to ask.  And once having acquired the papers of prominent personalities, others associated with these industries were increasingly apt to agree to place their papers here.  Approximately the same process occurred in Boston, Madison, and Austin as occurred in Laramie.  Of course long since archives at California universities such as UCLA and USC, along with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences also have been extremely active in documenting the television and film industries.

For this reason I have frequently had occasion to explain to visitors that anyone studying popular entertainment might be advised to start in New England and work west, beginning their work in Boston, heading west to Wisconsin, then southwest to Texas, northwest to Wyoming, and finally southwest to California.  Not quite the geographic journey most people expect.

Even long after some of the early acquisitions at the AHC, they served as magnets for other donations.  For example, Stan Lee, creator of Spiderman, the X-men, Fantastic Four and other globally popular comic book characters, was a huge fan of Jack Benny, and agreed to donate his papers here because Benny’s papers had been acquired years earlier.

But celebrities have also chosen to entrust the AHC with their papers for other reasons.  Television journalist Hugh Downs, long-time co-host of both the Today Show and 20/20, was approached by the AHC for his papers (as part of our national collecting of the history of journalism) and promptly asked members of his staff to investigate the best place for him to entrust with his archives.  After sufficient research, his staff reported that the Center was the best place.  Naturally, we agree.

We invite you to learn more about our various collecting areas, including, of course, our single largest set of collections, documenting Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain West.  Our current collection development policy can be found online if you’re curious about the ways in which the AHC builds its extensive body of collections.  And while it came a few decades too late to have made the work of Hugh Downs’ staff easier, in 2010 the AHC received the Society of American Archivists’ Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor available to a U.S. repository.

Posted in American Heritage Center, American history, Archival preservation, Archival work, Entertainment history, popular culture, television history | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment