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Lillian Michelson
Born	June 21, 1928 Florida
Title	Movie Studio Reference Library Owner
Spouse	Harold Michelson
Children	Alan, Richard, Dennis
Website	https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0585125/

Overview

"Need to know what a 1940s Los Angeles gas station or the interior of a Cold War submarine looked like? What about different types of gladiator helmets? Hoping for some direction on what kind of undergarments women wore in a Russian shtetl or what a shtetl itself looked like?"

Lillian Michelson owned the last remaining research library for movie studios, an essential pre-Internet resource for filmmakers. Her research supported the efforts of movie prop masters, storyboard artists, directors, writers, musicians, costumers and production designers. Working in many prominent movie studios and institutions through the 1960s-2000s, Ms. Michelson became known as “the dean of film research” in Hollywood. Her contacts, tenacity and wealth of idiosyncratic information contributed to numerous classic American movies.Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Mel Brooks and others depended upon Lillian for research skills to bring authenticity to motion pictures.

Early Career

Lillian Michelson began her career at Samuel Goldwyn Studios in West Hollywood, California in 1961 as a volunteer movie research assistant to library owner Lelia Alexander. It was a connection she made through her husband Harold Michelson's work as a studio storyboard artist.

Owner of the Michelson Library

Movie studio research libraries were responsible for collecting and archiving every manner of visual reference material required by their productions. The Michelson Library began as the research library for the Pickford-Fairbanks Studio, then United Artists, and finally Samuel Goldwyn Studios. With $20,000 from an insurance policy, Lillian Michelson purchased the reference library from Lelia Alexander in 1969. The owners of the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, responding to the break-up of the old studio system, gave the library notice to find a new home. The Lillian Michelson Research Library moved to the American Film Institute. Running out of room, she moved to Paramount Studios. A call came in from Zoetrope Studio, and Lillian moved there to support the work of Francis Ford Coppola and others. When Zoetrope went out of business she moved her library to the American Film Institute, where she would meet her future documentarian, director Daniel Raim while he was a student there. She received an offer via Jeffrey Katzenberg to move the Michelson Library to the newly opened DreamWorks Animation, where it remained until Lillian's retirement due to health reasons 19 years later.

Currently in storage, unavailable to the public and looking for a new home, the Library’s inventory consists of 1,594 boxes, stored on 45 pallets: Books: 5,000 apx. (Out of print, earliest editions date back to the early 1800s) Periodicals: 5,000 apx. (All historic and rare dating to the early 20th century) Photographs: 30,000 apx. (Architectural, set dec., prop, graphic subjects & motion picture set stills) Visual Clipping File Folders: 3,000 apx. (All indexed by subject) Memorabilia: 5,000 pieces apx. (Production notebooks, graphics, sketches, set drafting and production ephemera).

Body of Work

Given screen credit for seven films on the IMDB filmography, she is also associated (1999) One Man's Hero (research librarian) (1995) Three Wishes (researcher) (1987) Full Metal Jacket (researcher - uncredited) (1983) Scarface (researcher - uncredited) (1983) The Right Stuff (researcher - uncredited) (1983) Rumble Fish (researcher) (1982) Hammett (additional researcher) (1981) Reds (additional researcher) (1981) History of the World: Part I (researcher) (1979) 1941 (researcher - as Lillian Michaelson) (1971)Fiddler on the Roof (researcher - uncredited) (1968) Rosemary's Baby (researcher - uncredited) (1964) Fail Safe (researcher - uncredited) (1963) The Birds (researcher - uncredited)

Retirement

Lillian has been retired since 2010 at the Motion Picture Television Fund home in Southern California for health reasons.

Bio-Documentary: Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story

This bio-documentary covering the personal and professional relationship of husband and wife Harold and Lillian Michelson was executive produced by actor and director Danny DeVito, written and directed by Daniel Raims, distributed by Zeitgeist Films and was screened in 68 U.S. cities.

It features interviews of a few filmmakers that worked with both Harold and Lillian, including Mel Brooks, Francis Ford Coppola and Danny DeVito, as well as vintage interviews with Harold and Lillian, new interviews with her, as well as Harold's artwork and storyboards and scenes from the films they worked on. Husband Harold Michelson built a reputation for himself as a storyboard artist who had an uncanny ability to turn the written word into innovative shot designs such as Moses parting the Red Sea in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 “The Ten Commandments” or Mrs. Robinson’s raised leg in the foreground with Benjamin in the background in 1967’s “The Graduate.”.

"Their bottom line devotion always to one another, Harold demonstrates that however high up the professional ladder one goes, a good marriage is worth fighting for; Lillian meanwhile demonstrates a kind of loving-wife feminism that defies today’s narrower understanding the term."

The documentary was selected as a New York Times Critics Pick and a Los Angeles Times Critic Pick in 2017

'Save The Michelson Library Now' Initiative

The ADG Archives conducted a general inventory for purposes of decontamination, re-boxing, and appraisal in 2014. Through that process it was determined that none of the Library’s unique and historic materials could be found online. The original collection was curated and indexed by subject in a manner that was unique and typical of the studio’s practices and production methods. Offers of donation of the library was declined by AMPAS, USC, UCLA, AFI, Loyola Marymount, Chapman College, PHI Stoa, The Ransom Center, Zoetrope, and Lucas Film LTD. Fundraising goals include ongoing storage space, a user survey and feasibility study for use of the materials, a strategic plan, securing of equity partnerships, and a digital information technology provider.

Personal Life

Family

Lillian Michelson was born in Florida in 1928. She was raised in several orphanages outside of Miami due to what she described as an abusive home. She viewed reading books as her best escape. She won a state spelling championship in grade school.

Her husband, Harold Michelson, was her best friend's older brother. After being a navigator for bombarding missions in World War II, he came home and began a courtship of Lillian, despite her initial reluctance and his family's resistance because she lacked 'prospects' as an orphan. She encouraged his interest in art as a career. The two married when she was 19 and he was 28. They had three sons: Alan (retired computer programmer), Richard and Dennis (production designer). Their marriage lasted for 60 years until Harold's death due at age 87.

When Harold was no longer able to work due to advanced dementia, Lillian brought him with her to work at DreamWorks where he could continue to talk with movie people. Harold and Lillian were the models for DreamWorks animators as Fiona's parents, King Harold and Queen Lillian, in Shrek 2.

Early Feminism

In the bio-documentary Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story, Lillian frequently mentions her frustration with society's limited expectations of women in her time. "Daniel Raim told me that [his wife and documentary film editor] Jennifer [Raim] brought "a sensitivity and sensibility toward Lillian's very personal feminist struggles." This became crucial in presenting Lillian to an audience who would be primed to receive her message of perseverance and hope."

"One of the things that surprised Raim about the release of Harold and Lillian...was how much of a rock star Lillian would be. In fact Lillian Michelson has had a profound effect on many people who have watched the film, myself included. She is the feminist hero many of us women look to for guidance and inspiration."

Autism

Lillian discussed the challenges of raising their autistic son in an era when autism was not yet diagnosed and Freudian psychology blamed mothers for the condition as 'refrigerator mothers'. She walked out of a support group for mothers of autistic children after years of attendance, realizing the damage it was doing to her family. “We were saddled with the term ‘refrigerator mothers’; they said we gave our children no love, no attention,” Lillian says. After she left, four of the other five mothers left as well the next day.

"We were very lucky with Alan," she said. "He's such a gentle soul. Never, never angry. He would sit and rock and have all the classic symptoms, but he had the soul of an angel."