Wiard Ihnen

The Wiard Ihnen collection spans the years 1897–1960 (bulk 1936–1954) and encompasses 6 linear feet. The earliest Ihnen film for which the collection includes material is a 1934 contract for Becky Sharp (1935). Several other contracts for Ihnen's services between 1935 and 1942 document his studio work and salary. The largest amount of production material is on The Time of Your Life (1948), including set plans, set cost reports, and memos. There are voluminous research materials for The Robe (1953), on the final version of which Ihnen did not receive credit. The only original sketches for produced films are for The Countess of Monte Cristo (1948), The Robe (1953), The King and Four Queens (1956), and The Gallant Hours (1960). Script and research material for Ihnen's unproduced film A Dual Role (also known as Eight Days of Matrimony) round out the production files.

A general correspondence file and biographical data file shed light on Ihnen's activities from the 1920s to the 1940s. Of interest is Ihnen's 1942 letter of recommendation for production designer Robert Boyle. Other important documentation includes Ihnen's various handwritten and typed lists of art directors, set designers, sketch artists, and art department personnel, circa 1940s. Plans, sketches, photographs, and notes chronicle the conversion of the Marquis Theater to the Academy Theater in the mid-1940s.

The collection is composed of items relating to Wiard Ihnen removed from the papers of his wife, Edith Head, which came as a bequest to the Academy Foundation upon her death, and also includes material transferred to the Academy Foundation upon Ihnen's death by his friend, former silent film art director Harold Grieve.

Gift (bequest) of Edith Head, 1983; Harold Grieve, circa 1980.