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September 22nd – Top Ten Things I Learned During My Trip To The USC Cinematic Arts Library

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bruce11

  1.  Los Angeles traffic sucks!  I left Las Vegas at 4:00 AM….got back to Las Vega at 11:30 PM.  Drive should have taken 4 hours each way for a total of 8 hours.  Thanks to Los Angeles traffic I spent almost 14 hours in the car.
  2.  Doing this trip with out WoC or the kids was not as much fun…..though Samantha requested we take photos of her Woody doll…whereever we went….so Woody did the research with me.

bruce-123.  The USC Cinema Arts Special Collection has a Cecil B. DeMille Conference Room…..this is where I was sent to do my research.

4.  In my 5 hours in the Cecil B. DeMille room….I found box office numbers on almost 600 Warner Brothers movies.  That puts my Warner Brother ledgers tally to over 1,000 movies….thank you Laurent.

bruce-13 5.  There are some very strict rules in the DeMille “conference room”.  No cameras, no pens, no bags and there somebody in the room with you 100% of the time.  They supply you with some index cards and a pencil.  The room has 6 desks….5 for research…one for the guard.  My desk was the one with the green lamp.

6.  The Warner Brothers ledgers looked nothing like I thought they would.  They came out in one cardboard box…..and were typed papers that were stapled together.  Overall there were 17 different collections of box office grosses.

bruce-14

7.  This seemed like a perfect room for Steve Lensman…..as there were plenty of photos of Charlton Heston….including these two Heston collectibles that I sat beside for 5 hours.

8.  As I was packing up to leave I got permission to use my camera in the archive room…..after all the archives were put away..of course.   So this picture is inside the secured room.

bruce-99.  USC’s Edward Comstock and Samantha (not my Samantha) were very very helpful…..and I greatly appreciate their help.

10.  And finally the big finds……(1) Lots of John Wayne worldwide box office grosses.  (2) Lots of Alfred Hitchcock worldwide box office grosses.  (3) A Sayorna box office for domestic and worldwide….hey Bob….the gross will be going up.  (4) A Story of Mankind box office total….yeah I know the movie sucks….but I have been searching for that number for years.  (5) As stated before….box office grosses on almost 600 more movies.  Going to crash….now….that was a long day.

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20 thoughts on “September 22nd – Top Ten Things I Learned During My Trip To The USC Cinematic Arts Library”

  1. Hey Laurent….the most recent ones from the index cards to go into the database: Stanwyck movies: So Big! 394,000 domestic 79,000 international Purchase Price 299,000 domestic 45,000 international, Ever In My Heart $273,000 domestic 209,000 international, Lost Lady 272,000 domestic 108,000 international, Gambling Lady $495,000 domestic $158,000 international.

    Bette Davis…Baby Jane $3,586,000 domestic $1,550,000 international. Dead Ringer $853,000 domestic 900,000 international…..Sadly I am having a hard time reading my own writing….he I will continue to work my way through the index cards.

  2. I like the Story of Mankind, it’s such a curio, seen it 3 times. It’s one of those 50 worst films of all time from that book.

    1. Hey Dan….I have never seen Story of Mankind….but it has many stars that I have done pages on….and every time I got to that movie….I found little information on the movie…..but no more…as I have a domestic and worldwide number. Three times watched…..you might be the all-leader in watching that movie….lol.

  3. It was a pleasure.
    John Wayne was under contract at the Warner during in 1932 if I remember correctly, before the Monogram and the Republic Pictures.
    About the Winsconsin, is not a rumor….

    1. Hey Laurent…yep Wayne was under contract to Warner Brothers….the ledgers had a Wayne section in 1932….it had 6 Wayne movies listed…a few I had before….but the others were new information…a 7th Wayne Warner Brothers movie was also in that section of the ledgers…Baby Face. I have done a little research on the UA ledgers in Wisconsin…I will have to do some depper research.

        1. Hey laurent….got the new numbers….wow…it took awhile but I think we have successfully made this data change….I appreciate all of your hard work…as you doing the translations made your same of the bargain much more difficult than my side…you are the man!

          1. Hey Bruce, I really enjoyed this exchange too. I think it is an exchange win win. Really it was a pleasure.
            Uh, if on occasion you can send me the latest movies from the Warner Ledger 😉
            Yes I know I abuse lol.

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