Film Ephemera from UT Austin comes to Dallas

by John P. Meyer

There are three players involved in this movie-themed news story-with-a-happy-ending: Neiman Marcus, AFI Dallas and the University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransom Center, proud holder of (among other things) a copy of the Gutenberg Bible (42-line edition).

While the Gutenberg won't be coming to town (nor will Santa Claus), a selection of treasured historical film ephemera will be making the journey north up the I-35 corridor to be put on display at the downtown Dallas flagship Neiman's store starting on March 27 - which coincides nicely with the opening of the 2nd annual AFI Dallas International Film Festival.

Included among the 200 some-odd items on public display will be glamour photographs of iconic Hollywood stars, such as Greta Garbo and Cary Grant; storyboards and costumes from “Gone with the Wind,” including Scarlett’s curtain dress; Gloria Swanson’s annotated script for “Sunset Boulevard”; dream sequence storyboards from director Alfred Hitchcock’s “Spellbound;” drafts of screenwriter Ernest Lehman’s “North by Northwest”; and costumes worn by actor/director/producer Robert De Niro in such films as “Goodfellas” and “Casino.”

The exhibit runs through April 12 - a week longer in duration than the AFI fest itself - so even you hard-core film-fanciers who're spending all your time (along with me) madly screening movies during the festival will have the opportunity to take it in.

All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.