Inside the spring 2020 Stories to Tell exhibition, Ransom Center film curator Steve Wilson explores the archive related to the recently restored film, The Queen, which documents the 1967 “Miss All American Camp Beauty Pageant” held in Manhattan. The New York contest was a parody of the Miss America pageant and featured drag queens when laws against cross-dressing and widespread anti-gay attitudes put the participants at great personal risk. The Center worked in partnership with Kino-Lorber to restore the film, and in 2019, The Queen was re-released. Learn more through this Q&A with multi-platform drag historian and videographer Joe E. Jeffreys (read more). [Read more…] about All hail ‘The Queen!’ An interview with drag historian Joe E. Jeffreys
Film
THE QUEEN
Lewis Allen was a respected theater and film producer. His biggest hits on stage were Annie (1983), I’m Not Rappaport (1985), A Few Good Men (1989), and Master Class (1995). His films include The Connection (1961), The Lord of the Flies (1963), and Fahrenheit 451 (1966). But, when Allen’s daughter Brooke donated her father’s archive to the Ransom Center in 2006, she told me that of all her father’s films, the one which he was most proud of was a 1968 documentary called The Queen. [Read more…] about THE QUEEN
Modified research services offered remotely
The Harry Ransom Center continues to monitor the local and global developments related to COVID-19, as well as changes in university guidelines.
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Early special effects
Leslie DeLassus is a film historian and instructor with a Ph.D. in Film Studies from the University of Iowa. While working on her Ph.D, DeLassus came to the Ransom Center to research early film special effects innovator, Norman O. Dawn, and his groundbreaking work.
Preserving a Texas villain: Leatherface
I have yet to encounter someone who doesn’t know of the 1974 horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. While you may not have seen it, you’ve almost assuredly heard of it. The film follows five teenagers on their way to visit a desecrated grave when they pick up a hitchhiker. They find themselves at the hitchhiker’s family home where they are thrust into a world of terror. The hitchhiker is the brother of a chainsaw wielding, cannibalistic serial killer called Leatherface, a name born from his grisly habit of creating and wearing flesh masks from his victims. [Read more…] about Preserving a Texas villain: Leatherface
Mad Men archive open for research
The archive of the television show Mad Men is open for research at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin. Researchers will have access to the creation and production history of the series’ 92 hourlong episodes. [Read more…] about Mad Men archive open for research