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August 9, 2023 47 mins

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Ever wondered what's the difference between the Warner Archive and Warner Bros Corporate Archive?  We sit down with Warner Bros. archivist Jeff Briggs, and George Feltenstein from the Warner Archive, to discuss the differences and the part each one plays in preserving Warner Bros. film and TV history.

The story originates from how an exhibit at Paris' Pompidou Center led to the birth of the Warner Bros. Corporate Archive and the pivotal role played by Leith Adams.  Jeff relates how he was brought onto the team and some of his highlights in working with archival props, costumes, and archival photos.  Along the way, we discuss the role of the Academy's new museum,  the Jack Warner collection, and the partnership with the USC Film Archive.  We also review the evolution of the studio's historic mailroom tour, initiated in the 1940s, and how it has developed into the current studio tour.  And George relates some of the recent requests he has received from the press during the 100th Anniversary Celebration.

You may also be interested in our April 4th WB 100th Anniversary Podcast:
Celebrating 100 Years of Warner Bros History Through Releases from the Warner Archive - The Early Years


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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello and welcome to the Extras, where we take you
behind the scenes of yourfavorite TV shows, movies and
animation and then release ondigital DVD, blue Rain 4K or
your favorite streaming site.
I'm Tim Lark, your host.
Today.
We have two podcast regularsback on to continue our
celebration of the 100thanniversary of Warner Brothers.
George Felstein has been withWarner Brothers for 27 years and

(00:28):
is the guiding force behind theWarner Archive, and joining him
is Warner Brothers ArchivistJeff Briggs, who has been with
the studio for 29 years and, asan archivist, deals with the
studio's history on a dailybasis.
Hi, george, jeff.
Welcome back to the Extraspodcast.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Oh, it's great to be here, Tim, Hi Tim.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
So it's been a few months since we were on talking
about some of the titles thatcame out in Warner Brothers the
1920s and 30s in celebration ofthe 100th anniversary.
But I think today we want totalk a little bit more about the
archives and some of the workthat's done, jeff, by you and
your department, george.
Why don't you introduce kind ofwhat it is that you want to

(01:11):
talk about today?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, I think that sometimes a little bit of
confusion between the WarnerArchive collection, which is the
boutique brand that is a partof Warner Brothers Discovery
that sells Blu-rays and DVDs tothe home entertainment market,

(01:35):
and then there is the WarnerBrothers corporate archive, of
which Jeff is a seasoned member,that do corporate archivist
work, which is completelydifferent and sometimes people
get confused.
I'll get phone calls or emailsfrom people that want to reach

(01:55):
the corporate archive and viceversa.
So I thought it would be a goodopportunity for Jeff to talk
about what he does at thecorporate archive and what his
experiences have been and howthe two have dovetailed, because
we couldn't do a lot of thethings we do without Jeff's

(02:17):
input, counsel and discoveries.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Well, thanks, george.
Yes, so just a little.
I think we have to go into thebackground of the archives at
the major studios.
I would think, george, you'dagree that the archiving wasn't
really at the forefront of thestudios.
Maybe with the exception ofDisney until fairly relatively

(02:42):
recently, the studios reallydidn't have major archives and I
think they kind of in the earlydays they viewed their, maybe
their materials, their props,their costumes as similar to the
way they viewed their films, asproducts that could be reused.
So maybe the popularity ofprops and costumes which started

(03:05):
to bubble up, I probably in the70s and even more so in the 80s
, kind of made the studios takenotice of things, especially
when we had auctions, famousprops and costumes going for a
lot of money at auctions.
So from a Warner Brothersstandpoint, the corporate

(03:25):
archive which I am an employeeand I actually I started at
corporate archive and I kind ofwent into different archives in
the middle of my career andrecently rejoined officially
rejoined the corporate archivewhich is going strong after more
than 30 years.
It all started essentially withan exhibit in 1991 at the
Pompidou Center in Paris.

(03:46):
There was a history of WarnerBrothers exhibit and it was
curated by a man named LeithAdams who, george and I will
agree we cannot praise more inthe history of Warner Brothers
the importance of him to WarnerBrothers history.
He was the archivist for theWarner Brothers archives down at
USC, the University of SouthernCalifornia, where Warner

(04:07):
Communications had donated ahuge chunk of material back in
the 70s and he oversaw that andwas asked by Bob Daley and Terry
Semmel to create this exhibitfor the Pompidou Center.
That exhibit was put on and wasa huge success and so Leith was
asked to create an archive atWarner Brothers and that became
the Warner Brothers corporatearchive, which was founded in

(04:29):
1992, and I joined the corporatearchive in the summer of 1994.
My early years at the archiveconsisted mostly of looking for
props, costumes, business fileswhich were strewn all over the
various locations of the studio.
The major studio was in Burbankbut there were satellite areas.

(04:49):
There were warehouses, officesoff the main lot, sometimes
close to the main lot, sometimesseveral miles away.
We needed to go and bringeverything back together to a
centralized location.
So a lot of my first, I'd say,two or three years at the
archive was going and findingthis material.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
And that has led to the whole company benefiting
from Jeff's expertise andknowledge, not only of these
assets that he's found in termsof photography and various other
things, but it supports everyother division that is dealing
with making the Warner Brotherslegacy available to the people,

(05:30):
and that's terribly important.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yes, absolutely.
To give an idea, just someexamples of some of my fond
memories of early in myarchiving career a lot of the
work we did and I have to thankI'm not the only person that
works at the corporate archive.
There was a whole team ofpeople unbelievably talented
archivists, some who do a lot oflonger work there, but we have

(05:52):
a huge.
We have a very big team nowworking and doing God's work,
basically keeping the studio'shistory alive.
But when I started at thestudio, one of the main projects
was the Warner Brothers Museum,which was on the lot and opened
in 1996.
Unfortunately it closed downduring the pandemic but a lot of

(06:13):
it has been incorporated intothe new tour center.
So if you take the WarnerBrothers tour you can see a lot
of the material that was in themuseum in this new tour center
if you take the tour.
But I spent weeks and weeksgoing through the prop
department and we have a hugefour-story gigantic building on
the lot with, I would say to say, hundreds of thousands of props

(06:37):
and the same for the costumedepartment.
It's a few football fieldsworth of costumes.
Some period going back to thebeginning of the studio.
We even found stuff from thefirst national days there, but
sometimes vintage clothing goingback to, I believe, the 18th
century in some cases.
Some of the highlights were Ifound the I guess you call it a

(07:01):
screen or a divider that was inRick's Cafe in Casablanca, which
you can clearly see in the filmand in stills.
I found that in the propdepartment.
Now again, somebody elseprobably would have found it,
but I can take the bit of creditfor fine writing Right, and
it's amazing.
I think I drew there, but afterlike six hours it's like, oh, I
need a break.
I do whenever I go by there Iget this feeling of nausea from

(07:24):
working too much there.
I mean just memories of that.
It's still a thrill to go backin there, but it can be
overwhelming and it's very.
It can be taxing at times.
And my fondest memory from thecostume department is finding,
oh, I think we had probably fiveor six Levi's denim shirts,
black denim shirts, and we tooka look at them and inside they

(07:45):
had wardrobe tags for James Dean.
They are the denim shirts thathe wore in Giant during the
scene when he strikes oil.
So we have several of those andthose were on display in the
museum before.
That's probably the highlightof the material I found.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
So I'm kind of curious when you came on as an
employee, there's this kind ofthis daunting task.
It feels like I mean, based onwhat I'm hearing you say, how
did you figure out where tostart and were you tasked with
going through the props first orphotos first, or how did that
start off for you?

Speaker 3 (08:18):
Well, as I said, leif Adams was the director of the
archive and he had a vision thatwas started even before I
joined.
You know, we had a very smallstaff there were only about five
of us in the early years and itwas mostly, you know, getting
stuff together with the ultimategoal of putting them in the
museum.
And the museum opened in Juneof 1996 and it's probably my

(08:41):
personal highlight in terms ofall the events I've been to at
the studio.
It was a pretty star studdedaffair.
Who meant so many people werethere?
I mean the highlights ElizabethTaylor was there and she
actually brought her dog withher.
Roddy McDowell brought her.
And let's see who else was thereAngie Dickinson was there,
warren Beatty and Faye Dunawaylet's see from the old days.

(09:01):
Virginia Mayo was there, geneNelson, the director of Vincent
Sherman, was there, and you knowhere I am essentially working
the event and answeringquestions, but we used to have
docents that worked there whowere former employees.
One of our docents actuallystarted at the studio in 1929.
Wow, so he was quite old at thetime and he had some amazing

(09:22):
stories.
I remember him telling me abouthow he worked on Mystery of the
Wax Museum.
We had another employee whostarted it in the 30s and I used
to give him rides home after hewould do the docenty work at
the museum and he used to be adriver for the studio and he
drove everyone from Errol Flynnto Bruce Lee Wow, and he had

(09:42):
some very colorful stories, I'lltell you that, and that was
part of the museum as well.
You know just the rich historyof the former employees who got
to be there and talk to theguests.
It was great and so many ofthem loved doing that.
It was just very exciting forthem as well.
So it was kind of a livinghistory there, as well as the
items we have on display.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
And I think that you know that was a cyclical thing
that kept the museum and eventsat the museum thriving for many,
many years, and it was excitingto know what was coming next.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
Yeah, the first exhibit focused on the first 50
years of Warner Brothers.
So I believe the latest item wehad in there was from the Wild
Bunch.
We had the actual detonator andspecial effects that were used
to blow up the bridge in theWild Bunch in that famous
sequence, and then the andeverything else was before that

(10:43):
we had.
We had borrowed stuff.
We had the original Casablancapiano on display there, the
original Maltese Falcon, thosewe borrowed from their owner at
the time it was a private partyowned it and the upstairs was
all dedicated to Warner BrothersAnimation.
It was a beautiful display.

(11:04):
The highlight for me, which wehad audio recordings of, that
you could listen to with soundsticks, of Mel Blanc vocal
sessions recording for thecartoons.
I'll tell you you listen to anyminute of those and you would
be laughing your your off.
They're magical, yeah,absolutely incredible.
I still remember because Ithink these were from the early

(11:24):
60s and his son, Noel, was withhim and at the end of his
wording you know I would say,okay, kill it, Noel.
Very, very funny stuff.
And then we had a secondexhibit at open 1999 that came
up more up to date.
So we included all the Batmanand Superman material, more of
the Clint Eastwood films.
We had the door from theExorcist and a lot of other

(11:47):
material, and that was.
That was a fun opening too aswell.
Not quite a star-studder, butpretty exciting.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
So did you find, jeff I mean, this is just my own
kind of personal interest inhearing you Did you find that a
lot of the stuff from the earlymovies unfortunately had been
auctioned and and was no longerowned by the studios or wasn't
even available?
And then at some point wasthere more?
You know, at some point lateron did they keep more of that
stuff?

Speaker 3 (12:11):
Yeah, well, the thing that's good from a Warner
standpoint of I mean to answeryour question yes, but to give
it more context, warner Brothersnever had an auction like, for
example, mgm have, where theyauctioned off all of their
treasures.
But I know that I'm sure thatthings just kind of disappeared
over time as time went on.
In the movies, you know thatmarket got more interest.

(12:33):
There was more interest in that.
So, yes, there's a lot ofthings that we don't have and
who knows, if, you know, itcould have been something from,
you know, in the back in the olddays, they might have rented a
costume from another place, froma Western costume or a
different company, and it wouldhave gone back to them, you know
.
But we do have a treasure troveof material that did stay and

(12:54):
thankfully, the wardrobedepartment and the prop
department did reuse a lot ofthat material, which was, you
know, maybe not the best to keepit in the good condition, but
it prevented it from leaving thestudio and overall, you know,
most of the material we havewasn't pretty good condition.
I'm just thinking of the stuffthat we, you know, brought
together back in the 90s and theteam even before I came put

(13:16):
together.
So you know what we have is anoverall very good shape.
But are there big pieces fromWarner Brothers history missing?
Of course there are, and someof those we have seen up at
auction.
You know, it's like the Bogarttrench coat from Cateau de
Casablanca.
No one knows where that is.
Is it out there?
Do someone know they have it?
Or there are some treasuresthat we wish we had but we don't

(13:39):
.
Happily we have a again, as Isaid, a huge collection to share
when we have exhibits.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
I completely agree with Jeff.
I think the MGM auction, whichwas a horrific point in time for
all of Hollywood because itshowed that the once greatest
studio of them all had fallenvictim to I'll just say it an
ignorant majority stockholderwho just wanted to raise cash

(14:11):
and have a fire sale.
And if you think that theyauctioned off Dorothy Slippers
from the Lizard Vase one of thesixth pair for $15,000, which
seemed like a fortune at thetime, and now they're worth
millions and millions, andeverything that wasn't tied down
to keeping what was left of thestudio running was sold, and I

(14:35):
think that sent shockwavesthrough a lot of Hollywood and
got people to start thinkingabout how important it was to
preserve this.
And the fact that we have atthis studio as much of our
historic legacy that we do isnot only I think some of it is a

(14:58):
little bit of good luck, but Iwould say a huge portion of it
is due to the influence of LeithAdams, as Jeff so rightly
pointed out, and what has goneon that began as his
department's work 30 years agoand continues to this day, but

(15:20):
also the work that went on torepatriate and bring back things
that had gone astray forwhatever reason, and now you see
this archival mentality youknow, leading to finally a
creation of a museum ofHollywood history that the

(15:42):
Academy got going and there wastalk as far back as, I think,
the 1940s, but definitely moreaggressive action in the 1960s
to try to have some kind of apreservation of Hollywood's
history and it didn't become anall industry effort until the

(16:05):
Academy got everybody togetherbut within Warner Brothers and I
think Jeff was right in makingthe distinction that Disney
always saw the value in and Ithink that came from Walt Disney
himself of keeping meticulouscare of everything that went
into the making of theiranimated films.

(16:26):
But what we have here at WarnerBrothers is remarkable, not just
in terms of props and costumesand stills, but our studio
itself and the way that it ismaintained and the sound stage
is being functional, and many ofthem are almost 100 years old

(16:49):
and they're still state of theart and can do anything.
This is a magical place and thework that Jeff does, jeff and
his colleagues they'represerving not only the past
legacy, they're also promotingthe current and the future,
because anytime a new movie ismade or a new television program

(17:11):
is produced, everything isanalyzed as what needs to be
kept, and I think that's a looktoward the future, and I find
all of that terribly meaningfuland rewarding.

Speaker 3 (17:25):
Yes, it's good you mentioned, george, that, about
the stuff we've been able to, asyou said, repatriate.
One of the for me one of themost exciting collections we
have actually came from the.
It was jack.
We have a good chunk of JackWarner's personal collection of
memorabilia and history which wewe got from the Warner mansion.

(17:46):
After and Warner Jack's wifedied, I believe in 1990, we had
the opportunity and I say thisis the world we I wasn't there
at the time but to get thatmaterial and take some of it
back and Our Jack Warnercollection is very impressive
and there's some amazing stuffin that.
You know, I was just lookingyesterday and I'm not sure where

(18:06):
this originally came from.
It might have come from theWarner mansion, but we have a
poster.
It's actually a window card forthe first rent in tin film,
when then where the north begins, which just came out a hundred
years ago last month.
It's just exciting to see stuffthat old.
We have some scrapbooks as wellfrom Jack Warner.
I believe we have one for Harryas well, and I dig deep

(18:26):
sometimes and in one of thescrapbooks I found a Letter to
Jack Warner from the comedian AlSt John, who silent comedy fans
will recognize as being thefoil of Fidy Arbuckle and Mabel
Norman back in their films inthe teens and he actually made
some films for Warner Brothersbefore they incorporated.
And in this one scrapbookthere's a letter to Jack from Al

(18:50):
St John.
I almost fell over when I sawthat.
So very exciting stuff.
You know some of it.
You know a little more in theweeds but yeah, I like it.
And something else I'll justmention quick About, especially
on the more recent films the,the amount of care and work that
the incredibly talented peoplewho make the props and costumes

(19:11):
and the design and design them.
There are some movies that Iwon't mention their names, that
I don't think are very good,that Warner Brothers made, you
know, but the, the material fromthem is absolutely stunning,
the work and the care and thelove and it's it's.
You know it's kind of sad whena movie doesn't do well or
doesn't have a good reputation,but within that there is

(19:32):
magnificent work.
Again, I don't want to mentionany titles but there's some in
my mind where you know the propsand costumes we have are just
beautiful.
They're incredible works of artand I think working here has
made me appreciate that factthat even if a movie doesn't
come out as well as it wasintended, there is artistry to
be savored within those filmsand TV shows.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
I'd have to agree.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
So, jeff, what's the?
What's the best way for theaverage person you know people
who are listening right now toSee some of these things, to
interact with some of thesethings I mean, the museum is no
longer Running, as you mentionedIs it through the tours that
are now available on the studioLa?

Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yes, it's for the Warner Brothers studio tour.
It was just finished, about twoyears ago and it's, it's
gigantic.
I mean when I started to hear,the tour center was just in the
tiny building on the lot andmaybe they had about a 10 tour
guides.
I mean, now it's just, it's.
It's incredible how much it'sgrown in the last 30 years.
They've got dozens and dozens,especially in the summer months.

(20:39):
Well over 200 tour guides Iprobably should Double-check
that number, but definitely overa hundred and it's become a
huge tourist attraction.
And it's amazing what's beendone and it's pretty spectacular
, you know it's.
It's different than a universalstudios.
It's not really a theme park,it's more of a nuts and bolts,
look.
But if you love movies and TVshows and in the history in

(21:02):
general, you know the tour iswonderful and the tour center
has, you know, a ton of exhibits, much bigger than anything they
have in the past, and there'salso a small space on the lot
when they have some exhibits aswell.
So for the general public,guess that's the best way to see
that material.
There's a lot of great stuff.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
And I I would have to say and I think this is
terribly important that all ofthe tour guides are trained
Marvelously.
I don't know who does thetraining, but they are trained
to understand and Speak wellabout the history of the studio.

(21:40):
So Whenever I'm like walkingpast a tour bus and I hear the
tour guide Telling people whatthey're seeing, it always makes
me so proud of these wonderfulpeople that they have been
enlightened to the legacy of thestudio and Pass on their

(22:03):
enthusiasm for it to the peoplewho come here for a tour.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
Yes, agreed, yeah, the tour guides are really, are
really a Fantastic and for thoseof you listening who are more
into the classic Hollywood,there is a special classics tour
that they have that is moretailored to the, the classics.
You know, it's funny when Ithink of a classic and with some
other people younger than methink of classics Probably
different things.
But if you want to focus onmore of the older stuff and not

(22:28):
just the stuff from the last 20years or so, they do have a tour
that caters to that and I'mvery proud to say that they gave
me a test tour to get myopinion before they went live
with it, and I was like you guysrock.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
This is awesome when you put together.
Yeah we got great people in thetours group have really done an
outstanding job.
There's been a tour of the lotfor Decades, right, jeff?

Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yes, we have.
Well, I think, the tours weknow and now started probably in
the Burbank Studios era, but wehave, it's funny, we have
photography of a studio tour.
Was called the mailroom tour.
That Started, well, the photoswe have were taken around 1940,
so there was a tour going backto that time, maybe a little
before that.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
It wasn't the you know the, the behemoth that it
is now but I think that was thatwas the point that I wanted to
make was that you know, fromrelatively modest beginnings the
opportunity was always there.
Universal's tour, I think, goesback to the beginning of their

(23:40):
studio.
That's true, I universal wasbasically a B studio until
Really the 1960s I think theywere not in the class of Warner
Brothers and MGM and Paramountand Twain Street Fox.
They were on a little bit of alower rock, but their tour was

(24:02):
always a source of revenue forthem.
And we don't have a theme parkand that's what Universal's tour
really is.
We have a true tour of aHollywood studio.
The physical plant has been heresince 19 opens in 1926, when it

(24:22):
was first National Pictures andthe company moved headquarters
here after buying first Nationalshortly thereafter.
But there's living history onthis lot and then Jeff is going
through and finding amazingphotography of special events

(24:43):
that happened here on the Warnerlot as Employee, including
movie stars events, because itwas like one big family.
And, jeff, I would love for youto talk about things that you
were kind enough to share withme, those Friday the 13th
pictures.
For a tip, I'm not talkingabout the movie Friday.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
Right, right.
Well, I'll jump back a tiny bitand just say In about 1999
there was a decision to spin offa new archive from the
corporate archive and it wascalled the corporate image
archive back then.
Now it's now, what do we callit?
We just call the image archivenow, and I was asked to be the

(25:26):
first employee of that.
So I jumped at that opportunityand it was a similar Philosophy
.
We wanted to unite all of thestudios photography, bring it
back to one central place andstart scanning it.
So starting around 1999, 2000,we had a scan team and we
started scanning material.
We started with the materialthat we had here and this is,

(25:48):
you know, this is after theTurner merger.
So this includes RKOphotography, mgm photography and
we scan the select, the.
Basically we would scan theapproved, the talent or
filmmaker approved images andAlso the historical photography
and lot photography from thestudio, of which there's, you
know, thousands of thousands.

(26:09):
I mean that our system now, ourdigital system in the area that
I oversee, has Close to 1.4million images in it.
That was another exciting youknow going to find, because
there were, you know, as I said,the photography was strewn
about somebody you know, back inthe old days.

(26:29):
They take some photography fromsomewhere and never take it
back.
So, even you know, recently I'mstill reincorporating some
Photography, finding originals,and what was exciting back then
too was to find the originalnegatives.
If we had it Just as an example, we, you know, because back in
the days they would, you know,dupe an image and they hand out,

(26:50):
like those dupes which usuallywould fade over time, and you'd
see an image that would, I, lookokay but doesn't look great.
We would find the originalnegatives or the original
transparencies and scan those.
I'll give you one great example.
We have there's.
You know, the approvedphotography from a film is
called a selection, basically,and Oftentimes there would be

(27:10):
black and white and color.
You, for the film blazingsaddles, one of our biggest
movies in one of this history, Iactually prepped that for
scanning.
This is probably 20 years agoand every single image and they
were about, I wanna say, 350 or400, every single approved image
we managed to scan from theoriginal negative and they look
Absolutely magnificent.

(27:30):
Wow.
And you'll see that stuff onthe more recent blue rays and
dvds, basically anything frommaybe the mid two thousands on.
You're gonna see the fruits ofthe image archives, labor of you
know, finding the best qualityand someone you know who's
deeply invested in one of thosehistory finding Lot photography

(27:51):
or historical photography.
Here's an example about was itabout a year ago, maybe a little
over a year ago we havephotography from that was taken
during the construction of thefirst national lot in 1926.
Some of that was in our systemand it's been many years ago.
But I came across a couplefiles that have more images that

(28:14):
somehow been overlooked.
So we found we had about 30 andI found about 50 additional
photos and, amazingly, we hadCaption sheet, which I don't
know how that's right over thetime.
And so we scan these about 80photos and they look absolutely
magnificent.
They're incredible and you can,you know, we scan them at a
pretty large size.
You can zoom into the littledetails like signs on walls and

(28:38):
construction signs.
It's just wonderful and we have.
We managed to.
Maybe about six or seven yearsago we had some photography that
have been deposited down to uscand had been out of order with
his hands for Probably twenty,five, thirty years.
We got it back and scan it andwe had all these studio
publicity Photos from thetwenties through the, through

(29:01):
the fifties or sixties and somebeautiful, beautiful shots,
original, negative, some of itnitrate, nitrate.
We safely put aside and store ina safe place, but that material
just looks wonderful.
I found Some amazing shots ofof, like, the Warner family
standing at a train station,probably from the late twenties,

(29:23):
and you know, in one photo yougot jack Warner and, and here
you're in there too, but youalso have girls and I can have
Wallace there and the Warner,the rest of the Warner family,
leon slush, and there is there.
It's just really exciting tosee that stuff for me and
identify it.
And, you know, for the futureas well, and you know I did deep

(29:44):
, you know, into, you know someof these people who are very
obscure but it's important tonote this material.
So the, you know, the, thephotography has been I can't
call my baby that collectionI've been, you know, intimately
involved with for over twentyyears and Very excited to see
people use it and use, you know,stuff that was scanned, that

(30:05):
that that myself and my team andthe team I work with were able
to scan and preserve.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
I was gonna ask you about who who kind of does come
to you or accesses those photosto expose people who obviously
do books.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
And documentaries as well.
The recent WB 100 documentarythat's on max right now.
George and I Were deeplyinvolved with that boy over two
years, I think George right, yes, I, that was last summer when I
was digging deep into thephysical archives.
I would go there and, you know,look for particular material.
That's when I came across those1926 photos and I found some

(30:45):
photos of, like the dedicationof the Columbia pictures
building in the early brumwickstudios era and it was great to
see them used in the documentary.
And we get requests and there'salso we get requests for, you
know, office decor, you know,and hallway decor is at the
studio and all over the countryat the Warner Brothers offices
to decorate, you know, andsometimes even my great

(31:08):
timelines to help with that.
You know a lot of, there's alot of uses for that.
And the books the other, theWarner Brothers 100 anniversary
book that just came out, the Tcmbranded book yeah, a lot of the
material that came from us.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
There's a sleuthing element which you know is kind
of fun to, since there some ofthem don't have great, great
records.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
No, exactly, yeah, that's, that's a great, that's a
really fun part of it to.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
I just did a podcast with Gregory orin the updates
that he did to his documentary.
I know he worked with you Both,actually, in terms of trying to
get some assets in hd or someof the newer assets and some of
the new stuff that he added Tothat release now which is coming
out on DVD.
And then I recall, of course,working with you on the extras,

(31:55):
when we would need to use stillphotos.
I'll pick some from morecurrent television shows just as
an example.
But when I worked on the bigbang theory, just going through,
you can't just use any image.
It has to be a selected,approved talent, approved by
legal.
Everything in your system therelet's people like myself know,

(32:18):
go in, select the pictures,submit them to legal, make sure
that they're all good and thenand then we can use them in the
extras or in the packaging or inthings of that nature for the
promotion of the extras and homeentertainment release.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
Right, I also internally my share a lot of a
historic photos with.
We have a, an online kind of aSocial media site that's used
for employees and I share a lotof historical information on
that.
You know a lot of our fellowemployees, george, and you agree

(32:52):
that really don't know thatmuch about the history of the
studio, but when given theopportunity to get really
excited about it, so I'm alwaysputting on, like you know, like
that you're in 1010 film 100thanniversary.
I did a little post about thatand give a little historic
information on it and peopleseem to appreciate it, which is
great Because it's important toknow the legacy of the studio,

(33:15):
especially for employees.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
I couldn't agree with you more on that one.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
I know, george, with the 100th anniversary this year,
that you have been involved ingiving some tours of the props
and different archives andthings that nature and people
have been able to see some ofthe pieces that, the videos that
you are in and things of thatnature.
So you've been really activelyinvolved this year too with with
a lot of the archives and thesharing to the media outlets and

(33:43):
other places.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
Without question, and it's been such an honor and a
pleasure and I've metjournalists and television
personalities as well from allover the world and I've
accompanied them on tours of thelot.
And then we go to the corporatearchive.
We had people from Poland,sweden, more than one from

(34:09):
France, I believe, italy.
We had also from the US, we hadCBS Mornings, we had
journalists from the Guardianand various publications,
several of whom interviewed meand about the company's history
and my involvement in what'sbeen going on with the 100th,

(34:31):
because there are certain thingsI was very involved with the
like representing thecorporation through corporate
communications and these toursand press events.
There are other other things Ihad no involvement in.
So I always like to be able tospeak about the things I was
involved in and I have to saythat everyone who came from all

(34:54):
four corners of the globeCouldn't have been nicer and
everybody was just blown away bythe studio and the tour and the
corporate archive and all thethings that we have, including
10.
Patmobile's, stretching fromkeeping to Robert Pattinson,

(35:17):
they're all in the corporatearchive and they all work.
It's amazing to go there andsee all this and it's been so
meaningful to me personally tobe able to speak of the
company's history to all thesepeople, and it's the work of the
people of present day as wellas the past who unite us all in

(35:39):
Warner Brothers history, andthat's it's been a delightful
thing.
It's a wonderful thing to beable to talk to you about today,
tim.
Well, this is not an old radioStation, I think A TV station.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
Not a大, not a Kurtz Stadium.
I know that one of the greatjoys as an employee of Warner
Brothers and I've talked toother people recently and they
say the same thing is justwalking around the lot and you
look at the stages and you seethose placards and you just see
history right there and it's sofascinating.
And obviously you go inside andinside it's either empty or it's

(36:09):
a brand new movie or TV show.
So it's living history as well,because it keeps moving on and
on the placards you'll see a TVshow from last year or this year
and so you see the movies, theTV shows, everything that are
being filmed in the sound stagesand it's a terrific lot for
that purpose of just walkingaround and feeling the history.

(36:31):
And now the tours, I thinkreally have up the ante and I
know that I had my mom gothrough it, my aunt and family
and relatives, and it was agreat way for them to kind of
just learn and see somehighlights of the studio and
it's a fantastic.
I love the way that WarnerBrothers and the work that you
guys have done to help promotethe history of the studio has, I

(36:55):
think, really helped garnermore interest in the studio.
The studio tour has justexplodes in popularity and I
think it just shows thepotential of making sure that
these archives are getting thehistory out there to the fans.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
Agreed.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
Couldn't agree more, and you know, what it all comes
down to at the end of the dayare the films themselves, and
that's where the Warner archivecollection steps in in terms of
making the films that relate tothis history we're talking about
available and looking betterthan they ever have before, in

(37:32):
some cases, better than they didwhen they came out, and it's
really a thrill to be part ofthe living history of this
studio as it continues to growand felt.
And at the time that we'rerecording this, everything is
Barbie, and that's a wonderfulthing Because, you know, I never
thought anybody would make amovie like that and it's a

(37:56):
remarkable, clever, intelligent,insightful film that hits the
zeitgeist of multiplegenerations and people of
multiple interests.
And it's once again, very, verygood to have a big, successful
motion picture coming from ourstudios here, because it was a

(38:19):
welcome return back to havingexcitement around a new release
that is loved the world over,and I hope it is just the
beginning of a new era ofsuccess for the company.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
So that leads into an interesting question for you,
Jeff, and that is how soon doesa film that is in theaters start
having assets that is going tocome your way Photos, images,
props, things of that nature?

Speaker 3 (38:48):
Usually from the corporate archive side, the
props and costumes they oftenwill get and this is I'm not as
involved, I haven't been asinvolved with this but I know
the reps really well who do dealwith this material and they
usually get them before themovie has come out, I think
after the filming stops, andthen they get the assets because
you know, I've seen Barbiestuff here months ago.

(39:10):
And for the photography, wereally for the new films, I'm
somewhat involved with the pressphotography.
You know the stuff that you seeonce again, I mean, it's a
different world now.
Everything once it's online,it's online and then it's
released, right.
So we in our system and youknow, in terms of being archived
, it's pretty much when it getsreleased to the public, you know
, maybe a teeny bit before, butit's usually at the same time

(39:34):
and we make sure that thematerial is kept safe.
And you know, I talked to theincredible photo editors for our
features and they, after thefilm comes out, we usually try
to put a little more photographyin, so it's a little more to
choose from going forward.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
Well, that's pretty interesting.
I mean, that's right up to theminute of what you're working on
and what's in theaters.
And you have to understand thatsome of those props, yes,
they're done with the movie, butthey may ask to use them to
shoot commercials or sequels orprequels or all kinds of
promotional things over the nextnumber of months, or even
things for the homeentertainment.

(40:10):
So everybody needs to knowwhere those are, yeah, so we
keep them safe, nice and safe.
Well, this has been reallyinteresting.
I appreciate you guys coming onthe podcast to explain just a
little bit about how thearchiving process goes on at the
studio, because we've all seenthe articles online.
We've all seen the videos ofyou, george, giving the CBS this

(40:33):
morning, one especially, Ithink, was pretty well noted by
people on our Facebook group andpeople who buy the Warner
Archive product.
It was great to see you onthere and the archives in there.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
So that was a lot.
We couldn't have a betterambassador.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
Yes, and the Guardian article too, yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
It was very exciting for me because for as long as
I've been here and Jeff wasshocked when I told him this I
had never been to the corporatearchive.
I can't believe that.
I knew what it was and I wouldask for things to be sent, and
they'd be sent, and I knew thepeople there, but it just never

(41:11):
came to my having been there,and once I was, I was like, oh
my God, I could spend days here.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
It's overwhelming.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
And frankly there were a lot of things that well,
almost everything that is thereI didn't touch or go near.
I'd be afraid to open up a boxor a garment bag or anything.
That's what we have archivistsfor.
They know how to handle thatkind of.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
Thing.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
But the way they keep all the costumes together.
There's a whole like HumphreyBogart section of costumes and
the Doris Day section ofcostumes and Jimmy Cagney and
Edwin G Robinson and JoeCrawford and Betty Davis and
Natalie Wood, and it just goeson and on and on.
It is astounding and they didadmit they did put some of the

(42:08):
more awe-inspiring stars in themost viewable racks but it's
three stories high in terms ofthe costumes.
And then I see some of thecostumes from some of my
favorite television shows thatWarren Brothers just made, like

(42:30):
Lucifer or Longmire, which are,and things like everybody loves,
like the big bank, dirty.
I mean there's just friends andtwo and a half men and it's all
there alongside the Betty Daviscostume from Now Voyager.
It's astounding.
And there's animation, thereare toys from Hannah Barbera.

(42:51):
It is absolutely astounding andit's so well cared for and so
well inventory.
We're very fortunate to have acompany that supports that kind
of approach to archival activity.
And of course, as I've said onTim your podcast many times, the
film and tape archival aspectof what is done at Warner

(43:15):
Brothers is rooted in decades ofpreservation and that has its
roots back into the preservationprogram that started at MGM in
the 1960s preserving nitrates tosafety, and MGM having been
bought by Turner by the MGMlibrary and Warner Brothers

(43:37):
buying Turner that brought thesense of film and tape archival
preservation to Warner Brothers27 years ago.
So there's just so muchprotection going on looking
forward to the future.
It's a very exciting time forpeople who like and care about

(43:59):
the past as well as making surethat the present is available
for future generations.

Speaker 3 (44:07):
Right, and what's important in Georgia you
basically said this, but I'llsay it again and underline it is
all the archivists, not justthe corporate archive, but the
film and tape people.
They really care about thisstuff.
I feel fortunate that we workwith people who care so much and
are dedicated to keeping thishistory alive.

(44:28):
I feel very honored to workhere and among such great people
.
It's really, I feel reallyblessed.
There's nothing more I lovethan when I take someone to the
warehouse and see them light upwhen they see this material.
It's like when I first showedmy son one of his favorite
movies when he was a kid orsomething.
Just to see that reaction isjust thrilling, because I share

(44:51):
in that as well.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
Jeff, I echo everything you said.
I think we're, like mine, bigshock on there, very much feel
the same all along, withoutquestion.
I think it's really great, tim,and I thank you, that we've had
a chance to kind of talk aboutthis on the extras and share

(45:16):
kind of what goes on here that alot of people don't hear about,
specifically the work that Jeffdoes that contributes to so
much of what Warner Brothers canoffer the public in terms of
having a view of its legacy.
It's really quite remarkable.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
Well, I want to thank you both for coming on the show
.
I want to thank Warner Brothersfor allowing us to talk about
this topic today and share thatwith the fans, because it really
is a unique sneak peek intoWarner Brothers, one of the
major studios of Hollywood, andhow you guys keep the archives
and the history of this greatstudio for the future.

Speaker 3 (45:59):
Tim, it's the best studio in Hollywood.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
Without question.
I say that without bias.

Speaker 3 (46:06):
I agree, same here.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
What's always great to have George Feldenstein and
Jeff Briggs on the podcast.
We're fortunate to be hearingdirectly from the same people
who most media outlets are beingdirected to this year for the
100th anniversary celebration ofthe studio.
So thanks to George and Jeffagain, and to Warner Brothers.
If you haven't had a chance tolisten to George and Jeff's
discussion of the early films ofthe studio, you can find that

(46:35):
episode in our podcast archivesfrom April 4.
Their knowledge of these filmsand the history behind them is
right up there with the bestfilm scholars in the world, so
we are very lucky that they arefriends of the podcast.
If you're on social media, besure and follow the show to stay
up to date on our upcomingguests and to be a part of our
community.
And if you're a fan of WarnerBrothers, you're invited to a

(46:56):
Facebook group called WarnerArchive and Warner Brothers
catalog group.
So look for that link and oursocial media links in the
podcast show notes.
And for our long-term listeners, don't forget to follow and
leave us a review to iTunes,spotify or your favorite podcast
provider.
Until next time you've beenlistening to Tim Alarc, stay
slightly obsessed.
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