Bruce Geller papers, 1957-1976

Printable guide [HTML]
Request items

Summary

Creators:
Geller, Bruce.
Abstract:
Bruce Geller created, produced, or wrote for a variety of television and motion picture projects. The collection consists scripts and production files related to Geller's career.
Extent:
80 boxes (33.4 linear ft.)
Language:
Finding aid is written in English.

Background

Scope and content:

Collection consists primarily of scripts and production files related to the career of television and motion picture producer Bruce Geller. Includes materials for projects such as the television series Bronk (1975-76), the Dick Powell show (1961-63), Mannix (1967-75), Mission impossible (1966-73), Rawhide (1964-65), the Robert Taylor show, and the motion pictures The Betsy and Harry in your pocket. Production files include items such as correspondence, budget information, reports, and cast and crew lists. Also includes correspondence, reports, and financial records for the Cinema Video Communications, Inc. (1971-73).

Biographical / historical:

Bruce Geller was born in NY, Oct. 13, 1930. He graduated from Yale Univ. (1952) where he studied psychology and sociology and was involved in many activities including theatre. After graduating from college, he moved to Hollywood where he worked for a year as a reader at Warner Brothers. After marrying Jeannetter Marx, he moved to New York City where he sold his first script to the live NY television show, Jimmy Hughes, Rookie Cop. This lead to other writing assignments for shows such as Rocky King, Detective and Flash Gordon. During this same time period he was collaborating on the musical comedy Livin' The Life, based on Mark Twain's stories of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

In 1956, he sold a script to Kaiser Aluminum Hour, which led to his move back to Hollywood where he wrote regularly for such series as The Dick Powell Show, Zane Grey Theatre, The Rifleman, The Rebel, Dr. Kildare, Rawhide, and The Westerner. In 1962 he produced the Dick Powell Show and co-wrote his first major motion picture, Sail A Crooked Ship (Columbia, 1962). While producing Rawhide in the mid-1960s, he developed the idea for a new "cloak-and-dagger" series, Mission Impossible. The series saw great success during its seven seasons and garnerd Geller an Emmy as both writer and producer. During the second season of Mission Impossible, Geller created a second succssful television series, Mannix which won him a Golden Globe Award in 1971.

He formed Cinema Video Communications, Inc. along with Alden Schwimmer, Harold Robbins, and Blake Edwards. He died May 21, 1978 in an airplane crash outside Santa Barbara, CA.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Mrs. Bruce Geller, 1985.
Arrangement:

Arranged in the following series:

  1. Biographical information
  2. Cinema Video Communications, Inc.
  3. Motion pictures
  4. Television
  5. Other writings
  6. Miscellany.

Physical location:
Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.
Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Access and use

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
Website