Martin Poll Papers: NYU Special Collections Finding Aids (original) (raw)

Poll, Martin

Martin Poll Productions

Martin Poll (1922-2012) was a New York-born film producer who opened a large movie studio in the Bronx in 1956. He sold the studio in 1961 and established his own production company, Martin Poll Productions, that went on to produce a number of well-known films, including the Oscar-winning The Lion in Winter in 1968. The collection contains documents pertaining to ten of his movies, including such materials as contracts, production reports, screenplay drafts, photographs, slides, sketches, call sheets, correspondence, and publicity materials.

Martin Poll was a film producer born in New York City on November 24, 1922. Graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1943 with a bachelor's degree in business, he served in the army before returning to work with his aunt Selma Tamber, a Broadway producer. Poll begun his film career in 1954 when he produced 39 episodes of the miniseries Flash Gordon in Europe. In 1956 Poll opened the Gold Medal Studios on East 175th Street in the Bronx, the former site of Biograph Studios, a silent movie studio. Gold Medal Studios become one of the largest movie studios outside of Hollywood, helping to revitalize film production in New York in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1959 Poll was made Commissioner of Motion Picture Arts of the City of New York and is credited with being a large influence in the creation of the New York City Film Commission. In 1961 Poll sold his studios and moved to Hollywood to engage in production full time. He went on to create his own production company, Martin Poll Productions, and continued to produce movies in California, New York, and internationally for the rest of his life. Poll produced a total around a dozen feature films, including the 1968 Oscar-winning drama The Lion in Winter, and a number of television productions, including the 1978 CBS miniseries The Dain Curse. Later in his career Poll served on the Tisch School of the Arts Advisory Council from 1978 to 1984. He died on April 14, 2012, at the age of 89.

The Martin Poll Papers are arranged chronologically in eleven series pertaining directly to specific productions. Series contain boxes that are arranged both in legal and letter sized folders and are arranged alphabetically. The basic arrangement scheme reflects the original arrangement of these records and in most places original order was maintained.

The series arrangement of the records is as follows:

  1. The Lion in Winter (1968)
  2. The Appointment (1969)
  3. The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
  4. Night Watch (1973)
  5. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace (1976)
  6. The Dain Curse (1978)
  7. Stunt Seven (1979)
  8. Nighthawks (1981)
  9. Arthur the King (1985)
  10. Gimme an F! (1984)
  11. Projects

The Martin Poll Papers contain documents and materials pertaining to the conception, production, and distribution of movies, TV movies and TV miniseries that his production company, Martin Poll Productions, produced from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s. These materials includes contracts, production reports, progress reports, screenplay drafts and revisions, distribution agreements, movie title registrations, press releases,, photographs, slides, sketches, correspondence, budgets, call sheets, press clippings, publicity materials, casting documents, insurance documents, breakdown sheets, reviews, permits, and schedules.

Organizations

Genres

People

Harvey, Laurence; Goldman, James; Lenya, Lotte; Harvey, Anthony, 1931-; Aimée, Anouk, 1932-; Legrand, Michel, 1932-; Hepburn, Katharine, 1907-2003; O'Toole, Peter, 1932-2013; Everett, Rupert; Bergen, Candice, 1946-; Donner, Clive, 1926-2010; Hammer, Jan; Reynolds, Burt; Cannon, Dyan; Merrow, Jane; Salter, James; Williams, Billy Dee; Neeson, Liam; Howard, Trevor, 1916-1988; Khambatta, Persis; Lloyd, Christopher, 1938-; Hauer, Rutger, 1944-; Stallone, Sylvester; Wagner, Lindsay; Durham, Marilyn; Kristofferson, Kris; Hopkins, Anthony, 1937-; Dalton, Timothy, 1944-; Straight, Beatrice; Coburn, James; Mishima, Yukio, 1925-1970; Hammett, Dashiell, 1894-1961

Loan agreements, insurance certificates, salary information and condition reports are permanently restricted. audio materials in the collection have not been digitized and are not accessible. Contact the University Archives for details.

Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from the:

New York University Archives Elmer Holmes Bobst Library 70 Washington Square South New York, NY 10012 Phone: (212) 998-2641 Fax: (212) 995-4225 E-mail: university-archives@nyu.edu

Published citations should take the following form:

Identification of item, date (if known); The Martin Poll Papers; MC 200; box number; folder number; New York University Archives, New York University Libraries.

This collection is stored off-site. Please contact the repository for access.

The Martin Poll Papers were donated to the George Amberg Memorial Film Study Center in The Tisch School for the Arts sometime following Poll's resignation from the TSOA Advisory Council. They were transferred to the NYU Archives in 2006.

Portfolio "Art Materpieces" Series I, released by the Book of the Month Club removed from the collection.

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 17:52:54 -0400.

Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Language: Description is written in: English, Latin script.

There is no box 4 in the collection.

New York University Archives