The University of Iowa Libraries

The Twentieth Century-Fox Film Scripts Collection is housed in approximately 200 linear feet of archivalboxes. The material is divided into three sections: film scripts, files on the Roxy Theater, and a file on the Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. Nearly 1,500 titles from the years 1929--1971 are represented in the Twentieth Century-Fox Film Scripts collection. Film materials include motion picture screenplays (both American and foreign) and television scripts, including 100 episode scripts of "PeytonPlace" and 40 episode scripts of "The Tammy Grimes Show". The screenplays range from typescript drafts to dialogue and cutting continuity scripts. Many of the continuity scripts, particularly the "Edited Books," are marked in a variety of pencils and inks with notes which suggest they were used in the process of sub-titling prints for overseas distribution. The annotations may prevent clear photocopies being made.
 
In the early days of motion picture production, studios owned their own theater chains. Twentieth Century-Fox owned the Roxy Theater of New York, then the largest theater in the world with a seating capacity of 6,200. Files on the Roxy Theater include: tax assessments from the 1940's, correspondence and general business agreements. Rounding out the collection is a small section of papers on the TwentiethCentury-Fox Film Corporation. These papers contain: annual reports of 1969--1970, an insurance manual for the corporation and general business agreements.
 
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation is an American film producing and distributing corporation formed by the merger of two companies in the early half of the century. In 1915 William Fox began the Fox Film Corporation; and in 1925 he bought controlling interest in the Roxy Theater of New York, N.Y. Fox Film Corporation merged with Darryl F. Zanuck's Twentieth Century Pictures in 1935 to form the present day Twentieth Century Fox Corporation.

Access: The company retained permanent title to the materials while agreeing to place them permanently on deposit with Iowa. Other clauses in the agreement were intended to assure that the scripts were used almost exclusively by University students and faculty, and clause 6 specified "No copying, duplication or reproduction of the Film Material shall be permitted without our written consent," while clause 7 read, "Access to the "locked and secured area" in which the Film Material is located will be only by letter or written permit to the Librarian." Toward the end of the year 2000, current officers of the corporation and the Libraries agreed to the following procedures governing access to individual items in the collection: 1. The scripts may be consulted in the Special Collections reading room by members of the University community and others. All readers must complete a Manuscript Reader's Registration Form. 2. To obtain photocopies of or from any script, readers (whether onsite or off) must complete the Libraries' Manuscript Reader's Registration Form and must obtain authorization from the Corporation. The company official currently designated to respond to requests is Tom Kennedy, Vice President for Legal Affairs. (P.O. Box 900, Beverly Hills, CA 90213-0900; phone 310-369-8630; FAX 310-369-4118; email: ). In general, those making inquiry to him will be required to complete and return to the company a Screenplay Loan Agreement. If the Agreement is accepted by the Corporation and the request then approved, the company will in turn authorize the Libraries to produce a photocopy at the reader's expense. These are the only circumstances under which the making of copies is permitted.

Use: Copyright restrictions may apply; please consult Special Collections staff for further information.

Acquisition: This collection was accessioned in 1972, at a time when the New York corporate offices were closing and when corporate storage areas in the New York area were being eliminated. Dr. Richard Dyer MacCann, then Professor of Film in the Division of Television, Radio, and Film, Department of Speech and Dramatic Art at the University of Iowa, persuaded company officials that these materials should be preserved, and worked with Leslie W. Dunlap, Dean of Library Administration, and the company's legal staff to produce an agreement on the conditions under which they could be used.

Preferred Citation: Twentieth Century Fox Film Scripts Collection, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa.

Repository:	University of Iowa Special Collections
Address:	Special Collections Department University of Iowa Libraries Iowa City, IA 52242
Phone:	319-335-5921
Curator:	Greg Prickman
Email:	lib-spec@uiowa.edu
Website:	http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/

This collection is indexed under the following subject terms.

Corporate Names:
Roxy Theater (New York, N.Y.)
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Topics:
Collective labor agreements
Motion picture industry
Motion picture theaters
Television programs

Geographic Names:
New York (N.Y.)

Genre/Form of Materials:
Conferences
Contracts
Corporation reports
Motion pictures
Motion pictures
Motion pictures
Screenplays
Screenplays
Screenplays

Title:
Peyton Place (Television program)
Tammy Grimes show (Television program)

Browse:
Film & Television Writing and Directing
English & American Literature
Writers Archive at Iowa
Dramatists, Playwrights, & Scriptwriters for Television & Screen
Study of Theatre Arts and Popular Culture