Scope and arrangement
The Michael Pye research files on the entertainment industry contain documentation of the film and entertainment industries compiled by Pye while reporting for The Sunday Times of London, and during the writing of his two books on the entertainment business. Dating from 1960 to 1980, they include annual reports of several film studios; brochures; press releases; financial statements; clippings; film souvenir publications; correspondence between Pye and studio publicists; and Pye's notes.
The files cover major film studios such as Columbia Pictures, Gulf and Western Industries (former owners of Paramount Pictures), MGM Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, United Artists/Transamerica Corporation, Universal Pictures/MCA, and Warner Brothers. They also document smaller American and British studios; the Star Wars Corporation (formed by George Lucas to produce the first Star Wars film); and other entertainment concerns such as the Royal Shakespeare Company and companies owned by Robert Stigwood. The Star Wars Corporation file includes production information, copies of production sketches, and edited essays by Richard Edlund and John Dykstra describing special effect techniques used in Star Wars. The file on Twentieth Century Fox holds a typed draft of an article by Pye on the company.
Also present is a file of legal papers regarding a lawsuit involving Coppola FM Company, a radio production venture owned by Francis Ford Coppola (Pye was not a party to the lawsuit); a file on Norman Lear containing a biographical press release and a 1978 address Lear delivered at the Edinburgh Festival; files of brochures and clippings regarding film financing and technology; and a file of industry box office figures dating from the mid to late-1970s.
Arrangement
The files are arranged by subject.