The Thalberg Collection

Back before combining movies with academia became entirely respectable, producer Walter Wanger 'ls suggested to President Ernest Martin Hopkins that Dartmouth teach its undergraduates to write for the screen. Wanger believed that the success and quality of feature films depended heavily on the ability of those who wrote for them, and that liberal arts institutions could prove ideal training grounds for future Hollywood writers. Professor of English W. Benfield Pressey defended Wanger's idea, and the notable quality of that year's movies, which included The Story of Louis Pasteur, gave weight to Pressey's argument. At the time, however, only one textbook mentioned

screenwriting, and just twelve screenplays had been published in English. It was tantamount to teaching English composition without Strunk and White, and Pressey turned to Wanger for copies of screenplays. In 1936 the English department slowly began to incorporate

screenwriting into its creative writing courses, and screenplays sent by Wanger began arriving from Hollywood by the dozens. By the time screenwriting was offered as a separate course in 1938, Wanger had officially established the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Script Library. Wanger considered producer Thalberg, who died in 1936, one of the "two true geniuses" Hollywood ever produced (Charlie Chaplin was the other). At Wanger's request, the censors at the Hays Office of the Motion Pictures Producers Association of America sent their copies of scripts to the College after they had finished reading them. That arrangement lasted into the forties.

The Thalberg Collection now comprises over 2,000 screenplays, covering the years 1934 to 1951. While the collection is dated, its size makes it the best available collection of its kind, according to Blair Watson, director emeritus of Dartmouth College Films. For many years, before major institutions such as the University of Wisconsin and U.C.L.A. began their own script libraries, Dartmouth's was unique. Now housed in Baker Library's Special Collections, it still offers students and scholars access to some of the best of Hollywood's early years Holiday, Gone With The Wind, The AsphaltJungle-and some of the worst TwoLatins From Manhattan and I WalkedWith A Zombie.

President Hopkins was given a king's tour of Hollywood by 'Walter Wanger '15. Wanger,who produced such classics as Stagecoach, Foreign Correspondent, and Cleopatra, originated and endowed the Thalberg Collection.