The SMU collection of Ronald L. Davis oral histories on the performing arts span the years 1974-1991 and encompass 23.8 linear feet. The collection includes more than 500 volumes of largely biographical interviews with actors, directors, producers, and writers. Other performing arts figures represented include composers, singers, stage actors and directors, costume designers, journalists, and a film publicist. The interviews average 45-50 pages; earlier volumes are indexed. Substantial interviews (more than 100 pages) were conducted with Edward Dmytryk, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Celeste Holm, Daniel Mann, and Gregory Peck. In addition, there are some grouped interviews with friends and working associates of Linda Darnell, John Ford, and John Wayne. The interviews were largely conducted by Davis, although some were done by other professionally trained historians. Among those interviewees also represented by material in the Margaret Herrick Library's Special Collections are Sammy Cahn, George Cukor, Stanley Donen, Julius J. Epstein, Edith Head, Charlton Heston, Howard W. Koch, Ring Lardner Jr., Arthur Lubin, Daniel Mann, Lewis Milestone, Vincente Minnelli, Gregory Peck, Martin Ritt, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Andrew Stone, Hal B. Wallis, Elmo Williams, William Wyler, and Adolph Zukor.

The SMU Oral History Program was started by Davis in 1972. The original tape recordings and interview transcripts are housed in the Special Collections Department at Southern Methodist University's DeGolyer Library, where research copies of both the tapes and the transcripts are available to qualified researchers. Some early interviews were microfilmed through an agreement with the "New York Times" Oral History Program and are available from the Library of Congress. A detailed catalog to the collection, published by Southern Methodist University in 1988 and updated in 1993, is available at the Reference Desk.

The oral history transcripts are being made available for research use only and may not be photocopied. For permission to quote from the transcripts, please contact the Head of Manuscripts, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, 333 University Drive, Dallas TX 99293.

Ronald L. Davis (b. 1933) is a retired professor of history at Southern Methodist University (SMU). He has served as director of the university's DeGolyer Institute for American Studies and the Oral History Program, which is part of the Institute. Davis received a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1961. He has written six books on Hollywood, including "The Glamour Factory," which made extensive use of many of his oral history interviews.