King W. Vidor papers
name: label: Creator
content: Vidor, King, 1894-1982
label: Names
content: Associated American Artists
label: Names
content: Big parade (Motion picture)
label: Names
content: Metaphor: King Vidor meets with Andrew Wyeth (motion picture)
label: Names
content: Benton, Thomas Hart, 1889-1975
label: Names
content: Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957
label: Names
content: Sheets, Millard, 1907-1989
label: Names
content: Wood, Grant, 1891-1942
label: Names
content: Wyeth, Andrew, 1917-2009
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- Pennsylvania
label: Topic
content: Filmmakers -- California -- Los Angeles
label: Topic
content: Art, American -- Collectors and collecting
label: Topic
content: Art -- Collectors and collecting -- California -- Los Angeles
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Donated 1985 by the King Vidor Trust.
creator: label: Creator
content: Vidor, King, 1894-1982
setName: label: See more items in
content: King W. Vidor papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of King Vidor measure 2.1 linear feet and include correspondence, printed material, and a variety of materials related to the documentary Metaphor: King Vidor Meets Andrew Wyeth (1980) written and directed by Vidor, including production notes, photographs, and motion picture film.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: King Vidor was an American film director whose prolific career began in 1913, during the silent era, and continued through 1959 when he stopped directing large scale film projects. In addition to his prolific film career, Vidor was an avid collector of American Art who owned works by Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, among others.  

Vidor's final film, Metaphor: King Vidor Meets Andrew Wyeth (1980), is a documentary in which he and Wyeth discuss the impact of Vidor's most celebrated film of the silent era, The Big Parade, on Wyeth's painting. The project began when Wyeth wrote a lengthy letter to Vidor crediting his film, which Wyeth claimed to have watched over a hundred times, with having had a direct impact on the compositions of his paintings, which he only noticed after the fact when his wife, Betsy, pointed it out to him.

When Wyeth contacted Vidor for permission to use clips from The Big Parade in a documentary project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to accompany a 1976 exhibition of these works, Two Worlds of Andrew Wyeth: Kuerners and Olsons, instead of lending his film to that effort, Vidor went to Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania to film Wyeth himself. Together, the two set out to make a documentary telling the story of the aesthetic relationship between their work, with Vidor directing. The film was completed in 1980 but was never commercially released. 

Vidor died in 1982.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2.1 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1936-1982
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.vidoking
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Motion pictures (visual works)
label: Type
content: Video recordings
label: Type
content: Typescripts
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged as 4 series.  Digital photographs of original film containers are filed in Series 4.

Series 1: Correspondence, 1941-1982 (Box 1, 1 folder)

Series 2: Printed Material, 1936-1980 (Box 1, 3 folders)

Series 3: Slides, 1964 (1 folder; Box 1)

Series 4:  -- Metaphor: King Vidor Meets Andrew Wyeth --  (1980), 1976-1980 (1.9 linear feet; Box 1, FC 1-17)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Motion picture film reels were inspected and re-housed in 2017 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund. Motion picture film was processed by Jennifer Graves, and the entire collection was arranged and described by Megan McShea in 2017.  Digital photographs of original film containers were created when the collection was processed showing all original labeling and arrangement of outtakes and trims and are filed in Series 4. Original containers have been discarded.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: A video copy of a selection of outtakes from Vidor's film Metaphor is available for reference use.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Motion pictures (visual works)
label: Genre/Form
content: Video recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Typescripts
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of King Vidor measure 2.1 linear feet and include correspondence, printed material, and a variety of materials related to the documentary Metaphor: King Vidor Meets Andrew Wyeth (1980) written and directed by Vidor, including production notes, photographs, and motion picture film.

Correspondence is mainly between Vidor and multiple galleries and artists whose artworks Vidor collected, and includes single letters from artists Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and Andrew Wyeth. Lengthy correspondence with Associated American Artists is found among other correspondence with galleries. Loan requests from museums borrowing from Vidor's painting collection, and image requests for reproduction rights for paintings owned by Vidor from various publishers are also found, as well as a few sheets of notes related to valuation of paintings.

Printed material includes exhibition catalogs for Millard Sheets and Diego Rivera, clippings on a variety of subjects, including a long article about his film project Metaphor published in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, and periodicals with articles about the artist Grant Wood.  

Scattered slides are mostly of unidentified artwork.   

Material related to Metaphor, Vidor's film project with Andrew Wyeth include photographs of Wyeth and Vidor in Pennsylvania, stills from Vidor's 1925 film The Big Parade, and a still from Metaphor. Production notes include detailed footage and edit notes as well as typescripts of draft narration. Some production notes are arranged as a group, and others are arranged with documentation of the original film containers in which they were found. Motion picture film found in the collection includes a print of the final version of the film, edit master film material (A and B rolls), outtakes, and trims.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: There is an oral history interview with King Vidor held by Columbia University.