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Finding Aid for the Hugo Ballin papers, 1890-1956
407
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Title: Hugo Ballin papers
Date (inclusive): 1890-1956
Collection number: 407
Creator:
Ballin, Hugo, 1879-1956.
Extent:
27 boxes (13 linear ft.)
6 oversize boxes
Abstract: Hugo Ballin (1879-1956) was born in New York City. He began his Hollywood career creating motion picture sets for Samuel Goldwyn
and later worked as a director and producer. He ultimately gave up his film career to focus on art and writing. The collection
consists of original paintings and drawings by Ballin, correspondence, literary manuscripts, books, clippings, and photographs.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library Special
Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library Special
Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library,
Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of
the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC
Regents do not hold the copyright.
Processed by Simone Fujita in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Kelley Wolfe Bachli,
2010.
The processing of this collection was generously supported by
Arcadia
funds.
[Identification of item], Hugo Ballin papers (Collection Number 407). Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, UCLA.
Hugo Ballin was born March 7, 1879 in New York City. He attended the Art Students League in New York, spent several years
traveling and studying in Italy, and became a portrait painter. In 1917, he began working as an art director for Goldwyn Pictures
and subsequently moved to California in 1921. In the 1920s, he began writing, producing, and directing films, and formed his
own production company, Hugo Ballin Productions, Inc. Ballin's wife, actress Mabel Croft Ballin, was featured in his silent
film adaptations of literary classics, such as
Jane Eyre (1921) and
Vanity Fair (1923). With the advent of talking pictures, Ballin retired from film to focus on painting and writing. As a noted muralist,
he completed a number of significant commissioned works across the country during the course of his career, including murals
at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and at the State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin. He designed a seventeen-foot medallion
of Pallas Athena which hung over the entrance to the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. He also published several novels, including
The Woman at the Door (1925),
Stigma (1928), and
Dolce Far Niente (1933). Ballin was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the National Academy of Design. He lived in
Pacific Palisades until he died in 1956.
Collection consists of correspondence, literary manuscripts, books, scrapbooks, and photographs of Hugo and Mabel Ballin and
their family, friends, and residence. Also contains original paintings, sketches, and watercolors by Ballin. Correspondents
include Walter Winchell, Louis B. Mayer, Booker T. Washington, Edward G. Robinson, Paul Jordan-Smith, Oscar Straus, Gloria
Swanson, Louis Untermeyer, Lionel Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Walter Damrosch, Samuel Goldwyn, Helen Keller, David O. Selznick,
Darryl F. Zanuck, Erich W. Korngold, Howard Pyle, and Walt Disney.
Arranged in the following series:
- Literary manuscripts (Boxes 1-13).
- Artwork by Hugo Ballin (Boxes 14, 26, 31-33).
- Photographs (Boxes 15-20, 26-28, 31).
- Ephemera (Boxes 21-23, 25, 29-30).
- Correspondence (Boxes 24-25).
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Ballin, Hugo, 1879-1956--Archives.
Motion picture producers and directors--United States--Archival resources.
American fiction--20th century--Archival resources.
Motion picture art directors--United States--Archival resources.