I Love A Mystery

For years, it was nearly impossible to read the ILAM stories.  Only a few were in general circulation among collectors. SPERDVAC had several scripts in their collection for members to order and enjoy; STAIRWAY TO THE SUN and TEMPLE OF VAMPIRES.  A few other stories were kicking about; THE BLUE PHANTOM MURDERS and TROPICS DON'T CALL IT MURDER.  Morselco also briefly sold copies of MURDER ON FEBRUARY ISLAND, but these are now no longer in print.

A few non-circulating libraries were known to have many of Carlton E. Morse's ILAM scripts.  The Special Collection's Dept. of the Thousand Oaks Public Library had many, as did the Sound and Recording Division of the Library of Congress.  Alas, since neither place would allow photocopies of their materials, only persons willing to make the long trek (as I did in May 1999 to the Library of Congress) could review these materials.

However, there is new hope! I have tracked down not one, by TWO  university archives that are willing to photocopy Carlton E. Morse's long unavailable I LOVE A MYSTERY scripts for individuals to read and enjoy. No longer to you have to make the long trek to Washington DC or Thousand Oaks, California,  to read these classic shows.  You can order them yourselves to read in the pleasure of your own home!

The two archives are located at 1) Stanford University and 2) Duke University.

Stanford University:

The archive at Stanford University, donated by Morse himself (for tax reasons, I suspect), is the most accessible, consisting of large folios that can be photocopied for your personal use. The cost is not for the faint-hearted, 25 cents US/page; when you consider that the average number of pages per script episode is 15, and that the average number of episodes is 15, the price quickly mounts up; they also charge by the hour for photocopying and demand you sign a form stating you are obtaining these materials for personal and scholarly use. For further information about this archive, visit the web-page:

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/dynaweb/ead/stanford/m0362/

And follow the instructions on the page. They don't have all the ILAMs, alas, only most of the NBC and CBS ones. Also, another caveat is that one person cannot copy the entire collection, as I ruefully learned; you can only obtain about 8 or so scripts in total. Yet another caveat is that they take a very long time to process an order, about 3-5 months in my own experience (and please, don't mention you saw the link through this web-site or use my name; I'm afraid I'm
persona non grata at Stanford for all the trouble and correspondence I put them through!).

Duke University

The archive of ILAM scripts at Duke were donated not by Morse, but the original advertising agency behind Standard Brands (the original sponsor of the show) ILAM, the J. Walter Thompson Company. The advertising giant donated its collection of NBC ILAM scripts to Duke University's John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, & Marketing History in 1987 in the form of microfilm. Duke *will* copy these for you, for less than the  price charged by Stanford, $0.15 a page. For further information, visit the web-page:

http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/hartman/jwt/archives.html
 

Note: I've already obtained a number of previously "lost" or unavailable ILAM scripts, including THE ROXY GANG, THE PIRATE LOOT OF THE ISLAND OF SKULLS, THE TWENTY TRAITORS OF TIMBUCTU, TERROR OF FROZEN CORPSE LODGE, EIGHT KINDS OF MURDER, SECRET PASSAGE TO DEATH, etc.  My full ILAM script collection can be reviewed on my holding's page (see below). Many scripts are well worth reading, and the synopses, as good as they are, don't do justice to the very best stories. ::B::