Collection of John Bartlett Goodman, III (1901-1991), motion picture art director, bibliophile, author, and collector of Western Americana. Materials include manuscripts, correspondence, movie research materials, artwork and sketches, family memorabilia, ephemera, photographs, postcards, newspaper clippings and historical manuscripts associated with Goodman's interest and research on the American West.
John B. Goodman Collection, 1814 - 1991 (MSS 26)
Extent: 12.8 Linear feet (20 archives boxes, 4 card file boxes, 2 flat boxes, and 8 oversize folders)
John Bartlett Goodman, III, was born August 15, 1901 in Denver, Colorado and moved to California by the age of three, first to San Diego and then to Los Angeles in 1916. After high school he worked in an architect's office, but left in 1920 after a short time to join the art department of the Famous Players Lasky Company, an early motion-picture company. Goodman's forty-seven year professional career in the motion-picture industry included work on 252 movies. He spent seventeen years with Paramount Studios, worked for Warner Brothers Studios, and served as supervising art director (1942-1945) for Universal Studios, after which, he pursued a freelance career as an independent art director. Goodman won an Oscar for his color art direction of the Phantom of the Opera in 1943. He was the art director for the films The Mountain (1955) and Rawhide (1959) and the weekly television series Rawhide (1961-1965). Goodman retired from film work in 1967.
At the same time he entered the film industry, Goodman began his lifelong avocation as a bibliophile interested in American maritime history, early sailing ships, the American West, and California and the Gold Rush. He was a founding member of the Los Angeles Corral of Westerners (1946) and a member of the Zamorano Club since May 1947. Goodman's major works include The California Gold Rush Fleet (1992), the jointly authored and published Scraps of Californiana series, a collection of six Christmas keepsakes for Zamorano Club members, and An Annotated Bibliography of California County Histories, an extensive unpublished manuscript. Goodman's historical and bibliophilic interests complemented his art direction, especially his passion for historically accurate set designs.
John Goodman died on June 30, 1991 in Los Angeles County, California.
The John B. Goodman Collection contains manuscripts, correspondence, movie research materials, artwork and sketches, family memorabilia, ephemera, photographs, postcards, newspaper clippings and historical manuscripts associated with Goodman's interest and research on the American West.
Arranged in eleven series: 1) GOODMAN COLLECTION CATALOG, 2) WRITINGS, 3) MOVIE RESEARCH, 4) ARTWORK AND SKETCHES, 5) MATERIALS LAID IN BOOKS, 6) CORRESPONDENCE, 7) GOODMAN FAMILY MATERIALS, 8) EPHEMERA, 9) NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS, 10) PHOTOGRAPHS, and 11) ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES.