The Name and Topical series (approximately 4 linear ft.) contains material not directly related to a particular film, theater, TV, or other project. The series is arranged alphabetically by the name of a person, place, event, or subject. The Name and topical series is primarily made up of correspondence, though other materials, including posters, flyers, writings, financial and legal documents, and clippings can also be found here.
The Name and topical series includes letters from filmmakers such as Franco Zeffirelli and Steven Spielberg, actors and actresses such as Barbra Streisand and Jimmy Stewart, universities and other organizations asking Welles to visit or perform, close friends such as Roger Hill and Peter Bogdanovich, and fans of Welles's work. The fan mail includes a large group of letters written in response to an appearance Welles made on the Merv Griffith Show in which expressed a desire to see a history of the Jewish people filmed or a recorded reading of the Hebrew Bible made.
Posters, programs, and other materials related to film festivals and tributes also make up a portion of the Name and topical file. A notable example of this material is a carbon draft of Welles's acceptance speech of the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. Material from the Chicago International Film Festival includes a copy of letter from President Jimmy Carter expressing the nation's pride in Welles.
Multiple sets of transcripts of director, actor, and writer Peter Bogdanovich's interviews with Orson Welles that would become the basis of the 1992 book This is Orson Welles are included in the Name and topical series. Some of these transcripts have manuscript annotations and edits by Welles.
Another group of material of note in this series is the Arnold Weissberger materials, which primarily date from 1973-1976. Weissberger was Orson Welles's lawyer. During this time period, Weissberger also received, filtered, and often responded to Welles's mail on his behalf. Weissberger would send reports of correspondence and foward interesting project proposals to Welles. The Weissberger correspondence therefore contains many offers of acting and directing work for Welles. Letters in the Weissberger files, show, for example, that Welles was asked to direct Warren Beatty in Dick Tracy in 1975 and that he was offered the role of the Nazi in Marathon Man . Because the Weissberger materials came to the archive already grouped together and because many letters address more than one project, this correspondence has been kept together in its original order rather than being dispersed by project. Many other Weissberger letters which were either loose or filed with projects can be found in various theater, film, TV, and other projects series.
