Papers of Burton Benjamin (1917-1988), a CBS vice-president and producer of news and documentaries, relating to his work on the award-winning CBS documentary series “The Twentieth Century,” 1957-1966, and other news projects. Production files contain research materials; scripts; transcripts and notes from interviews with Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Robert Dole, Patty Hearst, Eric Sevareid, and others; a transcript of CBS coverage of the assassination and funeral of John F. Kennedy; files on the 1980 presidential election, and other materials. General files contain publicity, distribution figures, press releases, memoranda between Benjamin and production staff, and seven and nine-year reports. Also included are several undated scripts for “Robert Montgomery Presents” (NBC) and “Schlitz Playhouse of Stars” (CBS). Scripts, research files, staff correspondence, papers on Yuri Andropov, and materials regarding the Nuclear Arms Debate. Memos, notes, scripts, and transcripts for “CBS Reports” for which Benjamin is the executive producer. Additions, 1968-1985, including biographies, scripts, memoranda, clippings, and a speech. These are mainly production files for: “Honor, Duty, and a War Called Vietnam”; “Terrorism: War In the Shadows”; “Hiroshima Plus 40 Years… and Still Counting”; and a CBS News Special “Justice Black & the Bill of Rights: 1968”; the text of a February, 1972, speech given at the University of Michigan; and a memo re CBS coverage of national political conventions in 1980. Video tapes of several CBS News series such as “The Twentieth Century” and “The Twenty-First Century” (1957-1969) and “World War I” (1964-1965); videos of miscellaneous CBS News Reports, 1960s to 1980s; miscellaneous video on the CBS/Westmoreland lawsuit; two notebooks of collected quotations of Benjamin’s on television and politics; and a copy of his book, “Fair Play.”
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All Collection Details:
- Author: Benjamin, Burton.
- Title: Papers, 1957-1985.
- Size: 8.8 c.f. (22 archives boxes); plus additions of 4.6 c.f. and 368 videorecordings.
- Category: mixed collection, producer, television, and television documentary
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