View or download an informal listing of over 450 holdings in the Mayme A. Clayton Film Collection as a PDF or an Excel spreadsheet.
The Mayme A. Clayton Film Collection at UCLA consists of over 450 film holdings related to African American history and the portrayal of African Americans in film and television. Representations in the collection range from offensive Hollywood stereotypes to films produced, written and directed by Black filmmakers. The collection includes a significant number of 16mm prints of Blaxploitation films, educational films, TV movies and titles by key figures in film history, such as Oscar Micheaux and Spencer Williams. The collection also includes musical shorts and "Soundies" featuring prominent artists, such as Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Della Reese, Dinah Washington and Cab Calloway. Additionally, the collection includes submissions to the Black American Cinema Society's film festival, known as "Black Talkies on Parade," which began in 1978. Significant home movies in the collection include unique footage of Los Angeles-based entertainer and early Black aviator Marie Dickerson Coker, which was preserved by The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum with a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation. Many of these holdings can be made available for research by appointment via the Archive Research and Study Center on the UCLA campus.
The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum (MCLM) at California State University, Dominguez Hills, represents one of the most significant document and memorabilia collections of African American history and culture. Mayme A. Clayton, Ph.D., the organization's founder, began collecting documents in the early 1960s and continued until her death in 2006. MCLM continues to receive additions to its collection of over 3,500,000 objects. For more information, visit their website at claytonmuseum.org.
To arrange a research viewing appointment at UCLA Powell Library, please contact the Archive Research and Study Center.
