Lillian Michelson Built Hollywood’s Most Famous Research Library. Can Someone Give it a Home?

From the Los Angeles Times:

For more than half a century, the Michelson Library was a working resource for filmmakers, a place where directors, art directors, production designers and prop masters found inspiration, accuracy and ideas. Lillian’s research was used for films as varied as “The Birds,” “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Reds,” “Scarface,” “The Hunt for Red October” and “Full Metal Jacket.”

It was a nomadic life — over the years, Lillian and her collection could be found at the American Film Institute, Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope Studio, Paramount and DreamWorks — but the library’s mandate never wavered.

Need to know what a 1940s Los Angeles gas station or the interior of a Cold War submarine looked like? What about different types of gladiator helmets? Hoping for some direction on what kind of undergarments women wore in a Russian shtetl or what a shtetl itself looked like?

Inevitably, Lillian had the answer in her library, and if she didn’t, she would find the information elsewhere and add it to her library.

Which, since her retirement five years ago, sits in a climate-controlled warehouse on the Westside of Los Angeles — 1,594 boxes filled with 5,000 books and just as many rare and historic periodicals; 30,000 photographs (architectural, set decoration, prop and set stills); and another 6,000 items including clip files, sketches, set drafts and production notebooks.

It’s a unique collection of visual resources but despite its starring role in the 2015 documentary “Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story” and continuous efforts by Lillian and her many friends, no museum, college or Hollywood institution will take it on.

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