The Kit Parker collection spans the years 1925-2007 (bulk 1940s-1950s) and encompasses 24.6 linear feet. The collection consists of production, television, subject, oversize files, and scrapbooks. The materials represent mostly “B-movie” feature films, short subjects, and serial titles from major studios and independent producers.

The production files contain contracts, correspondence, music cue sheets, press kits and scripts. Correspondence includes material pertaining to the three George Raft films, I’LL GET YOU (1953), LOAN SHARK (1952), and THE MAN FROM CAIRO (1953). Scripts include THE BARON OF ARIZONA (1950) and THE STEEL HELMET (1951), films directed by Samuel Fuller and produced by Robert L. Lippert. Also in the production files are copyright searches and clearances, and location and restoration information of master film elements.

The television files contain scripts for many series, including 24 of the 26 episodes of CRAIG KENNEDY, CRIMINOLOGIST.

The subject files contain information on business transactions Parker conducted with other film companies in the procurement and restoration of films.

The oversize files contain advertising material for some of the film titles represented in the production files, including QUICK, LET'S GET MARRIED (1965) and ESCAPE FROM SAHARA (1958).

Two scrapbooks present clippings for THE RIVER (1951), TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE (1933), FANTASIA (1940), and other titles.

There are materials from the film THE RIVER (1951) collected by producer Kenneth McEldowney (a friend of Kit Parker) that include scripts, clippings, advertising and publicity, material related to film festivals and screenings, distribution contracts, and copyright documents.

Kit Parker was born on February 6, 1948, in Westport, Connecticut. He began collecting and making 8mm and 16mm films in grade school. At Carmel High School in California he worked as a 16mm news cameraman for KSBW-TV in Salinas, California. Upon graduation he was promoted to film editor and later to technical director. Parker served in the U.S. Navy Reserve during the Vietnam War as a journalist and program director for WENT, the television and radio stations for the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.

Upon discharge from active duty in 1971, he founded Kit Parker Films in Monterey, California, to distribute 16mm non-theatrical films. In the 1980’s the company expanded into theatrical motion picture distribution by contracting with major studios and independent producers to distribute films in their classic libraries to theaters. In 2000, the film distribution arm of the company was phased out as the accessibility of DVDs superseded film distribution and he began a second career acquiring and licensing films. Parker acquired the family-owned film library of Weiss Global Enterprises, giving him rights to several hundred films, serials, and short subjects for worldwide theatrical, television, and home video distribution, as well as remake rights to these properties.