Albert Lewin papers

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: 2144

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection contains the papers of American writer, producer, and director Albert Lewin (1894-1968) consisting of stills, scrapbooks, manuscripts, business and personal correspondence, publicity, personal photographs, clippings, sheet music, and screenplays.

The Correspondence includes letters from Jean Renoir, George Cukor, Man Ray, John Wayne, and letters exchanged between Lewin and his wife, Millie. There is also correspondence related to Lewin's 1966 book The Unaltered Cat. There are bound musical scores for The Cuban Love Song (1931) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). Screenplays include The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947), and Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951).

Dates

1909 - 1968

Creator

Lewin, Albert, 1894-1968 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Advance notice required for access.

Rights Statement for Archival Description

Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Cinematic Arts Library at ctlibarc@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Cinematic Arts Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Biographical / Historical

Albert Lewin (1894–1968) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Lewin graduated from New York University with a B.A. in English, followed by a Masters in English from Harvard University, and subsequently taught at the University of Missouri from 1916 to 1918. He would have gone on to a professorship, if not for a chance viewing of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), which persuaded him to enter the film business.

Lewin worked as a drama and film critic for the Jewish Tribune until the early 1920s, when he went to Hollywood to become a reader for Samuel Goldwyn. Later he worked as a script clerk, and then became an MGM screenwriter in 1924. Lewin was appointed head of the studio’s script department and by the late 1920s was producer Irving Thalberg’s personal assistant. In 1942, Lewin began to direct. He made six films, writing all of them and producing several himself. As a director and writer, he showed literary and cultural aspirations in the selection and treatment of his themes.