In 1960, Cal Watson produced a 30 minute film titled “The Great Russian” about Russian author Leo Tolstoy in observance of the 50th anniversary of Tolstoy's 1910 death. During the creation of this film, Watson interviewed Tolstoy’s daughter, Alexandra Tolstaya. The film was scripted and narrated by WSU News Bulletin editor Henry Grosshans. It first aired in November of 1960.
Cal Watson had begun working with KWSC radio in 1950, and then with KWSC-TV in various capacities from the 1962-1963 school year forward. He was Director of KWSU-TV when he left WSU in 1969.
A very small amount of further information on the film can be found in the late November / early December 1960 issues of the WSU News Bulletin (WSU 115).
The collection consists of ten reels of film apparently used to produce “The Great Russian,” including the interview with Tolstoy’s daughter (on two reels). Though the original negative of the film is present, there appears to be full no playable positive. The titling of each reel within the collection is recorded here as it was given when it was transferred to MASC.
The collection is arranged solely for ease of storage and preservation, save that multi-part items have been placed together sequentially.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright applies.
[Item Description] “The Great Russian” Production Films, 1960 (Archives 325)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
This collection was received at the Washington State University Libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC) from Lee Fruits of the Instructional Media Center on June 26, 1989 and accessioned as UA1989-18.
This collection was processed in 2012 by Susan Vetter, Mark O'English, and Katrina Burch.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.