Tape Number: I, Side One (November 17, 1976)
Birth in Pomona, California--Upbringing by grandparents--Family background--Art lessons and schooling--Meeting Theodore Modra at the Los Angeles County Fair--Meeting Clarence Hinkle--High school art and other studies--Church, Boy Scouts, and YMCA--Decision to attend Chouinard Art Institute--Mrs. Nelbert Chouinard--Chouinard: curriculum--Students--Faculty--Los Angeles as an art center: museums and galleries--Earl Stendahl.
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Tape Number: I, Side Two (November 17, 1976)
Cowie Gallery--Initial contact with Dalzell Hatfield--First exhibition--Edgar B. Davis Prize--Other prizes--Setting up a studio with Phil Dike--Cutting classes to paint a Gypsy encampment--Trip with Bill Veale to Central and South America--Meeting with Cass Gilbert in New York--Traveling in Europe with friend from Chouinard--European museums--Acceptance at Autumn Salon in Paris--Experiences in Paris lithography workshop--Return: exhibition at Hatfield's.
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Tape Number: II, Side One ( November 30, 1976)
Teaching: at the University of Hawaii, the University of California--At Stickney Art Institute, Pasadena--At Chouinard--Sources of watercolor painting--Techniques of painting a watercolor--Importance of drawing as a discipline--Using models in teaching--Devising new drawing assignments--Qualities of a painter--Exposing students to a variety of materials.
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Tape Number: II, Side Two (November 30, 1976)
Need of artists for exposure to media and materials--Artists and the future--Articulating a philosophy of art education--Chouinard in the twenties and thirties--Mrs. Chouinard--Later Disney support of the institute--Scripps College: mural commission--Acting professorship--Building a house in Claremont--Hartley Alexander--Tuesday nights at the Alexander home—Alexander's essay on van Gogh--Humanities program at Scripps.
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Tape Number: III, Side One (December 4, 1976)
Scripps: need for studio facilities--President Ernst Jaqua proposes a Fine Arts Foundation--Mrs. Florence Lang: visits and subsequent gifts of buildings--Fine Arts Foundation--National ceramics shows--Background of Mrs. Lang--Art faculty at Scripps--The graduate program--Summer sessions--Prominent graduates--Jack Zajac--Tom Van Sant--Educating the artist.
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Tape Number: III, Side Two (December 4, 1976)
Hiring professionals as faculty--Faculty unity--Contribution of Albert Stewart--Innovativeness and individuality of style--Teaching the fundamentals--Opposition to present art teaching methodology--Teacher, administrator, artist--Lecture tours for Association of American Colleges--Visiting Grant Wood in Iowa--Lecturing at black colleges--Martinez mural at Scripps--Orozco mural at Pomona College.
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Tape Number: IV, Side One (December 4, 1976)
Orozco mural at Pomona [cont'd]--Lebrun mural at Pomona--Siqueiros in Los Angeles--Foreign influences--Building a home in Padua Hills.
[Second Part] (December 10, 1976) Commission to design an air school--Artistic and structural details--Decision to build other schools--Later FBI investigation of contracting procedures--Experimentation with rammed earth--Invitation from War Department to become combat artist--Cancellation of war artists program.
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Tape Number: IV, Side Two (December 10, 1976)
Hired by Life as war correspondent--To India from Los Angeles by ship--Gunnery practice and serving watches--Building furniture in spare time--Sea stories--Painting a mural for crew's gallery--More sea stories--Arrival in Hobart, Tasmania, harbor--Encounter with drunken captain--Arrival in Madras, India--Running aground--First sight of India: floating bodies in the river.
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Tape Number: V, Side One (December 10, 1976)
Calcutta: overcrowding and famine--New Delhi: meeting the viceroy of India--Friendship with viceroy's aide--Lord and Lady Wavell--Exhibition of war artists--Meeting Lord Mountbatten--Taken to the Arakan front--Chittagong--British fliers--Battle of Bamboo Hill--Tony Beauchamp--Premature bombing attack--Brushes with death--Lucien Labaudt embarks (in Sheet's place) for China.
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Tape Number: V, Side Two (December 10, 1976)
Labaudt killed en route--Tragedies of correspondents--Accompanying longest flight mission of war--Desire to contest demotion of General Stilwell--Decision to return to New York--Departure from New Delhi--The long way home: tour of Middle East--Ups and downs of return flights--Rendezvous with wife--New York: meeting with Life staff--Return to Southern California--Breaking Stilwell story against White House orders--Resignation from Life.
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Tape Number: VI, Side One (December 13, 1976)
The Los Angeles County Fair: assisting Theodore Modra--Invitation to direct the art program--Purpose of the art show--Juries and prizes--Postwar change of format--"One World of Art" exhibition--Guided tour for Governor Warren--Arthur Millier's assistance--"5,000 Years of Art in Clay" exhibition--"Western Living" exhibition--Collaboration among artists, architects, and decorators--The finance of collecting--Calculating an artist's fee.
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Tape Number: VI, Side Two (December 13, 1976)
Need for mass art education--Developing interest through collecting--Art education today--"Painting in the United States" exhibition: showing abstract painters--The County Museum and the county fair--Dr. William R. Valentiner--Grace Nicholson and the Pasadena museum--Gifts to museums--The Huntington Art Gallery--Growing problems with the county fair--Conflict over photography show--Subsequent development of art at the fair--"California Design" exhibitions at Pasadena museum--Sam Maloof, furniture designer--Serving on national exhibition juries--Incident at the Metropolitan.
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TAPE NUMBER: VII, Side One (January 6, 1977)
Scottish Rite Masonic Temple: subjects and designs--Mosaic mural--Sculpture on the south facade--Interior spaces and decoration--Masons' funds and philanthropic activities--Designing the Masonic temple in San Francisco--Other activities: involvement in motion pictures--Design for academic gowns for Scripps College--Official seal for Los Angeles County--Work for air force in Formosa--Lectures for State Department in Turkey--Travels in Turkey.
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Tape Number: VII, Side Two ( January 6, 1977)
Diego Rivera--Public Works Administration projects in Southern California--PWA committee membership--Activities--Los Angeles art community in the Depression- -PWA artists--Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg--Initial involvement with Home Savings--Meeting Howard Ahmanson--Ahmanson's office--Invitation to design a building--Ahmanson's instructions--Submitting an art budget--Ahmanson inspects the building--Ahmanson: "Where do we go next?"--Public response.
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TAPE NUMBER: VIII, Side One (January 11, 1977)
Criteria for Home Savings designs--Developing a formula--Desire for flexibility--Importance of function--Problems of construction--Obstacles: city planners, bureaucrats--Role of subordinates--Art and landscaping--Costs--Use of stained glass--Use of ceramic tiles--Favorite Home Savings building: Hollywood--Mosaics--Choosing a design--Preparatory research--Other Home Savings buildings.
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TAPE NUMBER: VIII, Side Two (January 11, 1977)
Durability of buildings--Self-criticism of Home Savings designs--Payment for designs--Other work for Ahmanson--Commission for mosaic mural at Detroit Public Library--Commission for mural at Notre Dame University Library--Use of granite--Building the mural, in Minnesota--Matching colors and granite--Attaching the granite: using pins--Seeking an overview.
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TAPE NUMBER: IX, Side One (January 13, 1977)
Examining the design from atop a water tower--Checking the details--Moving the cut pieces from Minnesota to Indiana--Dedication ceremonies--Personal satisfaction and public response--Cost and university fund raising--Details and colors--Mural for dome of National Shrine, Washington, D.C.--Design problems--Computerized cartoons--Mural for a side chapel--Other artists working in mosaics--Ravenna Mosaic Company--Costs and fees.
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TAPE NUMBER: IX, Side Two (January 13, 1977)
Costs and fees [cont'd]--Cost increases--Social responsibility--Developing a master plan for the Claremont Colleges--Designing the Garrison Theatre--Executing tile mural for Honolulu Hilton Hotel--Adoption of mural design as Hilton logo--Mural for Los Angeles City Hall East--Techniques of glazing--Sources of design--Consulting for Scottish Rite cathedral, Los Angeles.
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TAPE NUMBER: X, Side One (January 16, 1977)
Scottish Rite Masonic Temple: subjects and designs--Mosaic mural--Sculpture on the south facade--Interior spaces and decoration--Masons' funds and philanthropic activities--Designing the Masonic temple in San Francisco--Other activities: involvement in motion pictures--Design for academic gowns for Scripps College--Official seal for Los Angeles County--Work for air force in Formosa--Lectures for State Department in Turkey--Travels in Turkey.
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TAPE NUMBER: X, Side Two (January 16, 1977)
Appointment as director of Otis Art Institute--New building activity--New faculty--Divisions on board--MFA degree--Individual projects--Ceramics: Peter Voulkos--Gifts from the private sector--The Chandler family--Otis Institute today--Relationship with county government--California Institute of the Arts--Walt Disney's plan--the effect of Disney's death--Resignation from the Cal Arts board--The Art Center School--Teaching imagination in art--Mural painting: first exposure--Early commissions--Frescoes for South Pasadena Junior High School--Murals for the Golden Gate Exposition.
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Oral History Collection