Scope and arrangement
The Cliff Jahr research files document Jahr's career as a writer and journalist with files on celebrities Jahr profiled and interviewed, and the book Detour: A Hollywood Tragedy - My Life with Lana Turner, My Mother, which he co-wrote.
This collection consists primarily of research files Jahr kept on individuals, topics, and events about which he published articles. Jahr's articles document the lives and careers of such celebrities as Peter Allen, Alan Alda, Farah Fawcett, Dustin Hoffman, Elton John, Tom Jones, Joseph E. Levine, Liza Minnelli, Dolly Parton, Sally Jesse Raphael, O.J. Simpson, Barbra Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor, and Jane Wyman. There are also research files on shows, films, and events, such as 42nd Street, Dog Day Afternoon, and Beatlemania. Research files on articles consist of correspondence with interview subjects and their publicists, research notes, other articles about the interview subject, Jahr's typed drafts and galleys of his articles, and copies of the final published articles. Research files include hundreds of audio recordings of the interviews Jahr conducted with prominent figures in the entertainment industry. All audio recordings are currently unavailable pending digitization. In some cases there are also typed transcripts of Jahr's interviews. Files on Jahr's articles are arranged alphabetically by interview subject's name.
Jahr's files on Detour: a Hollywood Tragedy - My Life with Lana Turner, My Mother consist mainly of multiple annotated drafts, revisions, and galleys of the manuscript. Research files include clippings collected by Jahr and his extensive notes on interviews he conducted for the book, with Crane and others. There are also budgets, contracts, and agreements documenting the logistics of Jahr and Crane's collaboration. Files on Detour are arranged alphabetically by file type.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in two groups: Articles and Detour: A Hollywood Tragedy - My Life with Lana Turner, My Mother. Jahr's organizational scheme has been maintained for these research files. The majority of the individuals represented here are arranged in alphabetical order by last name, though a few are arranged by first name. In cases where Jahr's interview/s of a particular person extended over several cassette tapes, he numbered the tapes himself. Jahr's numbering system is the basis for a presumed chronological order, which is reflected in the order in which the recordings are listed in the finding aid.