The Argentina Brunetti papers span the years 1983-1994 (bulk 1990-1994) and encompass 2 linear feet. The collection only contains material from her career as a journalist and consists of production, television, and subject series. The production series is comprised of files containing copyrighted press conference transcripts by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association featuring various actors (and sometimes directors) promoting recently released feature films. The television series consists of similar files containing copyrighted press conference transcripts by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association featuring actors from contemporary episodic television programs and movies made for television. The transcripts of the question-and-answer sessions were made by the HFPA and distributed to its members. The subject series is arranged alphabetically by personal name and consists of similar transcripts of press conferences not related to a specific film or television production.

Argentina Brunetti (1907-2005) was born Argentina Ferrau in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She began her professional career at the age of three with a walk-on role in the Italian production of the opera “Cavalleria Rusticana.” She had an active career as a supporting player in Europe and South America before emigrating to the United States in 1937, where she was put under contract by MGM to dub the voices of such stars as Norma Shearer and Jeanette MacDonald for the Italian prints of their films. In 1946 she became a narrator for the “Voice of America,” interviewing American movie stars for broadcast in Italy. She made her U.S. feature film debut with a small part in GILDA (1946) and later that same year was given her first speaking role in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946). In the mid-1950s she began working in television. She became a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1965 and wrote a weekly column for Italian-language journals in Canada and Italy. She appeared in over 140 feature films and television shows over the course of her career.