Catherine L. Benamou, the curator of the Univ. of Michigan Welles collection recently wrote to tell Wellesnet that the Richard Wilson–Orson Welles papers are now open for viewing and research by Welles scholars and all other interested parties.
You can access the online site to see an overview of the 62 boxes of material on Orson Welles career HERE.
Catherine is also back working on the preservation of It’s All True, to add to the 6 or so reels of unseen material from the film that have already been restored.
It appears that special emphasis will be given to restoring footage from both the My Friend Bonito episode and the gorgeous Technicolor footage from the Carnaval episode.
To celebrate, I’ve posted some images from the Univ of Michigan collection on It’s All True at the Wellesnet Facebook page HERE.
In the meantime, The Orson Welles–Oja Kodar collection of papers the Univ. of Michigan acquired is still being processed, but is also open for research, as long as specific requests are directed to the Special Collections archives manager, Kathleen Dow.
The Wilson–Welles collection spans Orson Welles entire creative life, starting with his early stage productions at the Todd School, until the memorial tribute Richard Wilson arranged after Orson Welles death in 1985.
Here are just two samples from the first to the last files in the Wilson–Welles collection:
Winter of Discontent (1930)
Script, undated. Photocopy of an annotated text, in folder marked by Richard Wilson as “Todd School, Five Kings”
*************
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
*************
Orson Welles Memorial Tribute
Held November 2, 1985 at the Directors Guild Theater in Hollywood.
Includes correspondence, messages to be read at the tribute, planning notes, and obituaries (2 folders).