The Bill Brothers Film and Moving Image Collection at UF

For Friends of the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida Fall 2006
The Bill Brothers Film and
Moving Image Collection at UF
by Barbara Hood
Public Information Officer
“Bluebeard,” “Danny Boy,” “Dick
Tracy,” “Docunews,” “Flash Gordon,”
“Cyrano de Bergerac,” “My Favorite
Brunette,” “Svengali,” “The Fabulous
Dorseys” – and thousands of other vintage
films now have a permanent home at the
George A. Smathers Libraries and will
be available for research and enjoyment
courtesy of vintage film collector Bill
Brothers of Stuart, Florida.
Brothers has always loved movies
and remembers the wonderful days of
the Saturday afternoon matinee at the
local downtown theater. Unfortunately,
many of the movies and shorts he fondly
remembers were destroyed en masse
because of storage concerns when
broadcasting technology advanced and
tape formats changed.
Brothers, who graduated from the
University of Florida in 1978 with a
BS/BAdm in finance, became involved in
collecting films six years ago as a result
of his career: he is a broadcaster who has
owned television stations and currently
owns numerous FM radio stations
throughout the country.
His moving image library, appraised
at $6.4 million, consists of more than
1,200 titles released between the years
1908 and 1963. The library includes a
wide variety of motion picture and film
categories such as drama, comedy, war,
shorts, thrillers, science fiction, mystery,
family, fantasy, westerns, adventures,
romance, horror, crime and musicals on
one-inch tape, three-quarter-inch tape
and film.
Though most of the collection dates
to the 1930s through 1950s and is black
and white film, some of the early films
are from the silent era. There is also a
collection of early news reels that feature
news of the day from the 1930s and 1940s.
Included are a large number of musical
shorts – long pre-dating MTV – that
theaters played before the feature film and
that helped to sell the latest hit records
from band leaders such as Glenn Miller
or Tommy Dorsey. A large number of the
earliest animations are also included.
Newsreels, musical shorts and
cartoons were all shown to entertain
movie audiences before the feature
Bill Brothers
film and to lengthen the entertainment
experience.
Researching, documenting and
analyzing the collection to determine its
scope took Brothers several years and was
an enormous undertaking.
“It was like digging in a mine,” said
Brothers. “The more you work, the more
you find.”
What’s Inside
Page 3
UF Librarians volunteer at
libraries in New Orleans
Page 4
Message from the
director of development
Page 5
Desiderata
Pages 6
Message from the director

Brothers (Continued from page 1)
Judy Garland and Ray McDonald dance a scene from the
MGM film “Till the Clouds Roll By,” 1946.
Scenes from films in the Bill Brothers
Film and Moving Images Collection:
(Top) William Prince as Christian and
José Ferrer as Cyrano in “Cyrano de
Bergerac,” 1950.
(Middle) George Raft, Mack Grey and
Bill Stern in “Stage Door Canteen,” 1943.
(Bottom): Gary Cooper in “Meet John
Doe,” a Frank Capra production, 1941.
Photos from of the Belknap Collection for the Performing Arts
2 Chapter One
Brothers wants his library to be protected
and preserved for future use and
enjoyment and, as an alumnus, UF was a
natural choice for him to choose to house
the collection. He is hopeful that it will be
comprehensively cataloged and in time
as funds are raised, converted to digital
format to make it easily accessible for
anyone to view and use for research.
Brothers said that faculty can benefit
from the collection by examining the
moving images of events and using them
to illustrate various points in history to
their classes. Students in the future will be
able to look back at history and actually
see the skyline of New York in 1928; see
the dress, the language, the mannerism of
our society as it progressed through the
early part of the century.
“Even more,” said Brothers, “it is
the projected perception of the times. In
something as simple as Flash Gordon, it is
the past guessing at our future.”
“In these films you can see racism in
action, before the impact of civil rights.
There is so much to visibly see in these
films, if one just takes the time to look.
The researcher
can see the
popularity of
smoking, furs,
environmental
degradation, styles,
fashion, propaganda
and news of the day. It is life the way we as
a people visualized it. It is a large
collection that reflects the early history of
American film making,” he added.
John Ingram, deputy director at
Smathers Libraries, was an active player in
having the collection come to UF.
“I echo Bill’s comments on the value
of these motion pictures that span two
world wars and beyond. They provide
enormous amounts of information on
societal mores, political attitudes, racial
relations, as well as opening windows
on material cultures, both real and
historically imagined,” said Ingram.
“Our greatest challenge now is to raise
funds through grants and outright gifts
to reformat these materials into digital
formats that will be much more easily
accessible to all our users.”

UF librarians volunteer in New Orleans
by Iona Malanchuk
Head, Education Library and
Priscilla Williams,
Head, Authorities and Metadata Quality Unit
UF librarians Iona and Peter
Malanchuk, Betsy Simpson and
Priscilla Williams were among 800
unflinching and energetic volunteers who
spread out across the Katrina-devastated
school, academic and public libraries of
New Orleans last June. They participated
for a full day in American Library
Association’s (ALA) “Librarians Build
Communities” campaign at their annual
conference on June 22-28, 2006. ALA
calculated that three-and-a-half years
of work was accomplished in just a little
over two days by the determination and
resourcefulness of the library volunteers.
In October, 2005 ALA announced
its plan to honor their commitment to
hold the 2006 annual conference in New
Orleans despite the aftermath of hurricane
Katrina. They sent a group into the city
to examine conditions and calculate the
city’s ability to accommodate the large
professional organization. The group’s
report resulted in ALA’s decision to not
only keep the conference in New Orleans
but also to seize the opportunity to use
their knowledge to assist in the clean-up
Iona and Peter Malanchuk
Betsy Simpson and Priscilla Williams.
and reorganization of the city’s devastated
libraries.
The librarians knew they could
handle the logistics of quickly curating
books, journals, CD’s and software. It
was obvious that thousands of boxes of
donated materials needed to be examined
and rapidly sorted due to the less than
prime conditions of the storage areas.
Upon arriving at the assembly
point in the Morial Convention Center,
volunteers were given assignments, along
with “Libraries Build Communities”
t-shirts, water and box lunches donated
by the Heavenly Ham Co. Buses were lined
up to take the groups of volunteers to
their assigned locations at over 20 sites
throughout the city. This scene in the
Morial Convention Center was repeated
twice in the early morning of Friday,
June 23 and again on Tuesday, June 27.
The bus ride was an eye-opener for the
volunteers. The librarians rode into areas
of total devastation and abandonment. It
was odd on the bright and sunny summer
mornings to see no movement on those
particular streets of New Orleans – no cars
or people, no sign of life. Roof after roof
was still blown wide-open, twisted metal
signs were not repaired or cleared away,
smashed cars, bicycles, toys, furniture,
clothing and all sorts of items had been
carried far and wide by the rushing water
and either stacked in a hodge-podge
manner or left alone. A quiet hush took
over the buses as they looked at the
horror of massive destruction and felt the
overwhelming pain of loss.
Betsy Simpson and Priscilla Williams
were among a group assigned to St.
Mary’s Academy. The campus had been
completely destroyed in the hurricane.
Working side by side with librarians from
around the country they were asked to
help prepare space designated for the
library in a newly acquired building, an
old convent that had been vacated two
years earlier. Inside the old, neglected
convent there were signs of water
leakage from the floor above. The team
proceeded to prepare the building to
house a combined middle and high school
library. They mopped up the water, carried
furniture, boxes of books and supplies to
the second floor and into the adjourning
rooms. In addition, they sorted hundreds
of materials into appropriate grade levels
and removed inappropriate titles.
Across town in the Algiers branch
of the New Orleans Public Library Iona
and Peter Malanchuk were assigned to
a library that had sustained structural
damage to the roof, walls and floors.
Mountains of dilapidated boxes of
donated books were piled nearly to the
ceiling throughout the main floor reading
room and circulation areas. Working in
98 degree heat with poor air quality, they
sorted, labeled, filled and lifted over 275
cartons of books which were loaded,
without the use of a dolly or ramp, onto a
semi-trailer truck.
Sitting outside on cardboard boxes
eating the box lunches, the volunteers were
approached by hesitant but curious people
from the neighborhood. Mothers with
children and elderly patrons approached
hesitatingly to inquire about the reopening
of their community branch library that
they missed so much.
The librarians assigned to Algiers
were given an opportunity to be of help
to one more person at the end of the
day: their bus driver. The word quietly
passed among them that the gentleman
driving the bus had lost his home and all
of his possessions and he and his family
were struggling to start over again. One
librarian took off her hat and passed
it around so that upon arrival at the
convention center, two hundred dollars
was handed to the shocked and teary-eyed
driver who was truly overwhelmed by the
generosity of the group of strangers.
Chapter One 3

Message from the director of development
Lane Jimison
Good morning friends. I am an honored to serve as the director of development
for the University of Florida’s Libraries. I look forward to many years of productive
resource development for this prestigious and wonderful library system.
Resource development
activities must be guided by
a clearly stated institutional
mission and vision. As we
continue to visibly show
the value of our programs
and services with resulting
good works and positive
outcomes, we will attract
more outstanding gifts to
the library.
– Lane Jimison
Director of Development
My professional career includes over 18 years of development and administrative
experience. I recently served as the executive director of the Florida 4-H
Foundation, Inc., housed within the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences,
University of Florida. 4-H, serving over 245,000 Florida youth, ages 5-18, is one of
the leading youth development programs in the nation. I am proud of the work that
was accomplished during my tenure with 4-H.
Certainly I have much to learn about our fascinating libraries here at UF. The
scope of the library system is incredible. I will depend upon the faculty, staff and
volunteers to help me understand the many collections, programs and services we
offer. Together, we will take the powerful message about this unique educational
tool to our funders, donors and friends.
Resource development activities must be guided by a clearly stated institutional
mission and vision. As we continue to visibly show the value of our programs and
services with resulting good works and positive outcomes, we will attract more
outstanding gifts to the library.
Good business models advise new directors to initiate a 60-day project which sets
the pace for strategic management. My project is to meet personally with each of
the Library Leadership Board members in their homes or offices, thank them for
their commitment to the library, and begin the initial steps to implement our plan
of work. I am very excited to begin this project.
Resource development is a wonderful and deeply human profession. We all know
that the essence of major gift fund raising lies in building strong relationships
with those who are able and willing to support our important work. We respect
and honor those who have given generously to the library, and invite everyone to
join us as we prepare and implement a strategic plan for funding the University of
Florida Libraries.
Lane Jimison
Director of Development
4 Chapter One

Friends
of the Libraries
Thank you for
your support!
Name
Address*
City State Zip
Home Phone
Business Phone
Yes. I/we wish to support the George A. Smathers Libraries with a gift of $
Make checks payable to the University of Florida Foundation, Inc. and mail to Lane Jimison, director of
development, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, PO Box 117001, Gainesville, FL 32611-7001.
To pay by credit card please fill out the following: ❑ MasterCard ❑ Visa ❑ Discover
*NOTE: If using a credit card, the address you use above must match the credit card billing address.
Credit Card No.
Exp. Date
Cardholder’s Name
Cardholder’s Signature
Employees of the University of Florida may wish to take advantage of the payroll deduction process to provide
their level of support. Check here for payroll deduction. ❑
For more information contact Lane Jimison, director of development, at (352) 273-2505 or ljimison@ufl.edu
Please use my gift for the following:
Smathers Libraries Purchase Fund
Special & Area Studies Collections
Latin American Collection
Price Library of Judaica
African Studies Collection
Asian Studies Collection
P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History
Baldwin Library of Historical
Children’s Literature
Belknap Performing Arts Collection
Rare Books
Manuscripts
University Archives
Architecture & Fine Arts Library
Education Library
Journalism & Communications Library
Map & Imagery Library
Music Library
Marston Science Library
Digital Library Center
Other
Please send information about
making a planned gift/bequest
Your gift may be eligible for a charitable contribution
deduction.
Desiderata
Giving to UF is now
just a click away
UFgiving.uff.ufl.edu
Visit our online giving
Web site and find out how
simple it is to support
the Smathers Libraries
Students, faculty, and librarians are always looking for the perfect resource to
complement their research. While we do our best to be responsive to special needs, there
are always a few titles or equipment needs that lie beyond our grasp. If you are interested
in helping the Smathers Libraries acquire any of the following, please contact Lane
Jimison, director of development, at (352) 273-2505.
INSPEC Archive – Electronic Access to Science Abstracts Journals 1898-1968 via
Engineering Village 2. Fully searchable electronic access to over 70 years of international
scientific and technical literature in physics, electrical engineering, electronics,
computing and control engineering. $25,000
Landmarks of Science II Monograph segments 42 - 49 @ $4,635 each
Microfilm collection of the most important scientific books published since the 1600s.
These are significant texts in all disciplines of science often held by very few libraries
and therefore very difficult to access for scientific or historical research.
Annual Book of ASTM Standards 2006. ASTM International standards have an important
role in the information infrastructure that guides design, manufacturing and trade in
the global economy. These industry standards are examined for updating every 5 years,
and the MSL’s latest set is from 2001. These standards are used heavily in engineering
course assignments.
(from astm.org) 2006 Print 0-8031-4058-4 $8155
Corpus mensurabilis musicae. Core set of polyphonic music from the 14th to 16th
centuries published by The American Institute of Musicology. Collected works of
trecento composers, French and Italian masters, and Flemish composers form the
nucleus of the series, and these works are complemented by volumes of compositions by
Spanish masters, partly monophonic repertories from the 13th and 14th centuries, and
complete editions from selected important codices. $9,500
Chapter One 5

GEORGE A. SMATHERS LIBRARIES
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
Library West • Smathers Library • Music Library
Marston Science Library • Education Library
Architecture & Fine Arts Library • Allen H.
Neuharth Journalism and Communications Library
Dale B. Canelas
Director of University Libraries
John Ingram
Deputy Director of Libraries
Director for Collections
Michele Crump
Interim Director for Technology Services
Bill Covey
Interim Director for Support Services
Carol Turner
Director for Public Services
Lane Jimison
Director of Development
Chapter One is published three times annually
and distributed to friends of the libraries and
selected institutions. A web version is available
at http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/admin/giving/
chapterone.htm. Questions and comments
should be addressed to the editor, Barbara
Hood, (352) 273-2505, or bhood@uflib.ufl.edu.
http://www.uflib.ufl.edu
Chapter One
George A. Smathers Libraries
PO Box 117001
Gainesville FL 32611-7001
NON-PROFIT ORG
US POSTAGE PAID
GAINESVILLE FL
PERMIT NO 94
A message from the director
What have we accomplished?
In this, my last communication with
you, I want to express my thanks to all
of the donors who have enriched the
libraries over the past 20 years. They are
numerous and their contributions have
made a huge difference for the collections
that we provide for students and faculty.
Most astonishing as I reviewed previous
issues of Chapter One, was the enormous
span of the interests of our donors and
the many different subject areas that
they strengthened.
From a stunning collection of
Faulkner books to multiple gifts of
Rawlings letters; from a gorgeous group
of Holy Land maps to manuscript records
documenting Florida’s agricultural
history; from richly illustrated volumes
of Alice in Wonderland to major archives
documenting African-American life in
the 20th century; from a remarkable
collection of history of science to a
collection that documents statistics
and probability in the last half of the
20 th century; from multiple unique
collections of African Studies materials
to an unpublished manuscript on Florida
history; from Cuban 19th-century travel
6 Chapter One
diaries to an early 20th-century comics
collection; from the papers of prominent
Florida officials to the smashing Brothers
Collection of early to mid-20th-century
films; our donors reflect intelligent
engagement with every aspect of life. All
of these gifts have immeasurably enriched
the University of Florida.
In addition to gifts of manuscripts,
papers and collections, many of our
friends gave us funding to provide better
support to academic programs. Among the
many gifts we have received for enhanced
collections are endowments in the
following subject areas: African Studies,
Animal Studies, Architectural Studies,
Art, two for the Baldwin Collection of
Historical Children’s Literature, Biological
Science/Medicine & the Humanities,
Electronic Collections, Florida Agricultural
History, Florida History, Irish Literature,
general science, humanities and social
science collections, Music, Rare Books,
and three for Special Collections. For
our programs, the Marston Library,
the Education Library, and the Digital
Library Center all attracted endowment
support for their efforts to assist faculty
and student academic work. The Gaylord,
Van Dyke, Athletic Association, Smathers,
Moye, and Leadership Board endowments
all support the library’s greatest needs.
Over the past 20 years the value of our
endowments has grown from about $1
million to $9.3 million. The growth is
substantial; this certainly could not have
been achieved without help from all of you.
It has been a pleasure to get to know
the many interesting people who become
library friends. Working with all of you
has been a rewarding and satisfying
activity for me and my thanks go to all
of you who have helped the libraries do
a better job of supporting the work of
students and faculty.
Dale Canelas
Director of University Libraries