The saving and storage of the HIC collection has now been completed. Under what can best be described as harsh and unhealthy conditions, of mainly myself working from early morning to night (up to 18 hours daily) with help periodically of seven others, who gave from a little to a lot of hours as well, we saved an important part of our history, I want to thank Ernie Potvin who came over on several days and did all he could for many hours to help in saving as much as we did. Jim Kepner also came over for a few hours to identify materials for saving.
The only members of HIC to do work were Tony Reyes and Don Schneider. Mr. Schneider helped considerably during the weekends when not at his work in both physical moving and providing boxes, purchasing file cabinets, and providing storage of the file cabinets in his offices.
Over the ten days we tossed out many tons of non-archival material, which first had to be reviewed before determining to dump. Two special trips were made by the City, to just pick up in large dump trucks, the extra papers. It took an additional two more weeks to remove the remaining garbage to all nearby dumpsters. Don Slater was a pack rat and never threw away any paper (including his daily advertising mail circulars!) Imagine a week of the L.A. Times, now multiply that by 52 weeks, and then multiply that by twenty years, and you begin to get an idea of what he had in his house basement and separate garage (all materials were unorganized and scattered about! He also kept many other papers (some of which I set aside for clipping.)
In addition to mounds of dust, rust and dirt in the damp basement and an unlighted garage, we also had to battle silver fish, book worms, all kinds of insects, mice, water damage, mildew, and mold. I sat for many hours with a mask on mainly to dust the ONE files and other rarities to box for saving. It was the worst conditions that I have experienced in many years, reminding me of the old IGLA storage areas on Lexington before I joined the board.
These were very labor-intensive and unhealthy work conditions and long exhaustive hours. There was further exacerbation and mental exhaustion on me, due to threats of the collection being thrown out by Don’s companion. He wanted to throw it all out – garbage and archival material — it all looked the same to him! He wanted to quickly sell the house and realtor buyers but with all the boxes and papers etc., one could not see the walls or the floors!
I also had to keep retrieving such material from the trash cans, that he kept tossing as well, over the next ten days (such as his own photos and costumes – one of the photos was a signed autograph to him from Judy Garland.) This all took a toll on my health and energies since I had just returned from a labor intensive trip to the South.
The result of this work in saving the HIC collection from being destroyed, I believe justify this labor and time. We saved close to 300 larger size boxes of materials and ten filled four drawer file cabinets. The HIC collection turned out to be even superior to the ONE Inc. collection in many ways, of both original primary source materials and rare books and periodicals. There were 120 boxes of books which I estimate at over 8,000 books (many were smaller paperbacks which one hundred can fit in a box.) There were many boxes of periodicals (many bound) including from Europe. Many newsletters of groups from around the world were also saved.
We also saved the original ONE Inc. organizational files and correspondence (hidden in the bottom of assorted boxes in no order, throughout the basement and garage). Don was always worried that someone would steal back these files and thus he hid them. No one had seen them since April 1965. These files contain original papers and many photographs on a Who’s Who of our Movement from 1952 to 1965.
In addition to all the original ONE Inc. materials and library, we obtained all the papers and books from the HIC that they had acquired since 1965. This included (ironically given the conditions at HIC’s archives) the collections of other groups and individuals, that were sent them for safe keeping.
There were a number of important legal cases that were in this archives [sic]. There was a large amount of personal correspondence from every part of this country and other countries that are of value to researchers. The photo collections retrieved are of immense historical value. There were some original art drawings and sculpture but not of great worth. I decided not to box the original ONE Inc. files and correspondence to be placed in storage with the rest of the HIC collection. It needed immediate attention and it was really not theirs. On Saturday March 29th Bill Kaiser and I placed them in alphabetical order in file cabinets. We will over the next couple of Saturdays, transfer these folders to better ones. We will then turn them over to be catalogued and filed under ONE Inc., at our Werle building location.
I believe that no one has known or seen what these files have contained, for over thirty years. The HIC board members never saw the materials (even Don who kept them in grocery boxes all these years never reviewed them!)
These files contain the best of ONE’s history. There was also material on earlier groups that people sent. There are some ironies that this collection showed, which after the material are in our new building; we need to eventually share with our readers. You can learn a lot from history, if you are observant, when saving and finding collections!
First, the basement, where the materials were mainly kept (that weren’t in the garage), was sufficiently cold to help a great deal with preserving and saving, as much as we did. This was not an organized plan, but a fortunate by product of his old house and location.
Second, Don was obsessed with the ONE collection being taken back by ONE but Dorr Legg never cared that much about the library or materials. I learned that Dorr said he even had a key to the old HIC Cahuenga offices in Hollywood! (where the materials were originally taken to in 1965.) I believe this story because of the court case and Dorr’s history.
Third, while Don kept the ONE material “hidden” to prevent it being taken back, he cared little about its preservation. He kept it in the worst of conditions, as a mental reflection of his bitterness at ONE and the famous split. The early HIC files replaced the ONE files in the cabinets and the ONE material was dumped in grocery boxes and shifted around. This was also true of all the ONE library books. ONE member files (apparently the hostile ones to Don’s seizure) were totally removed from the folders. These folders were reused for HIC business. I hope to find these original missing papers when we sort and organize with HIC their collections.
Fourth, he moved the boxes containing the ONE books and files in his house around, to try and hide them even more (including placing additional ones in his garage from the house): I know this from the newer dated material that was kept to hide these boxes. This was after I originally approached him two years ago, asking to work out how we could access the materials for our records or arrange for HIC to become affiliated with our archives after the merger of the IGLA and ONE Inc. libraries. He realized I was seriously committed to saving and preserving this material. He became fearful of our retrieving this collection, which was obvious, by how he kept and then moved the collection after our discussions. He only kept it as a trophy after the famous ONE 1965 split. He became embittered about ONE and the Gay/Lesbian Movement in general, and had no intention to ever really try and work with us or save this valuable collection.
The 1965 split eclipsed the prominence and work of ONE which at that time was “the group in the U.S.”. Both groups hobbled along for the next thirty years living mainly on their past important accomplishments. This feud was based upon the stubborn individual control exerted by Dorr Legg, that cost our Movement many activists and their lost energies. Most people fled this bitter battle for control of ONE which wound up in the U.S. courts. Only shells of previous activism, vibrancy and creativity were left with both camps being suspicious (and jealous for control) of new people and energy.
In addition to the historical significance of this collection being understood by all our board members, the reason for my lengthy section on HIC, is for every board member to understand and appreciate what it took to get this collection saved. I believe the HIC collection (and some of the best of ONE Inc.) would all have been lost, except for a combination of sophisticated political maneuvers, dedicated physical effort (that impressed Tony R. to not throw it out!), knowledge of the materials, the correct handling and care of the materials, and showing personal caring to Anthonyand developing personal relations with others in HIC. I can not overstate that this collection would have otherwise been lost in the city dumps or to long term insect damage.
This new relationship with HIC brings closure to an historic split and increases the stature and historic value of our archives, which future generations will benefit from. There are three smaller collections which I am currently at various stages of retrieving, to finally bring back and complete the entire holdings of the first three U.S. pre-Stonewall archives in Los Angeles. I have now begun discussions with Dale Jennings (one of the Mattachine founders and HIC board members) and hope to soon contact Monica Erickson on her holdings of materials, that were stolen from ONE Inc. at the Country Club estate.
The task of processing the HIC Collection may take up to two years of intensive work. There will also be costs, in addition to staff, for preservation materials and some needed restoration. I will be setting up a meeting with the HIC board at the end of this month to proceed with these problems. I hope to soon identify labor and financial resources for help in this work. I will be spending some time on arranging the Slater Memorial at USC. This is all part of our setting up a positive working relationship with HIC members and the easy transfer of their materials to the new USC building. I hope to have a written agreement of the understanding between HIC and ourselves signed at the end of this month. Once the building is finished the HIC collection will be transferred to this building and for processing.
