The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War: Audiotapes
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Abstract
The Good Fight, a feature-length documentary film released in 1983, pays homage to American volunteers who served with the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War: Audiotapes (1937-1988) includes audio recordings of interviews, events, narration, radio broadcasts, and other audio used in the production of the film.
Historical Note
The Good Fight, a feature-length documentary film released in 1983, pays homage to American volunteers who served with the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. The film is an exploration of the political motives that compelled the volunteers to travel to Spain in the 1930s, their weathering of anti-communist sentiment during the 1940s and 50s, and their political engagement in later life. The film makes extensive use of archival footage from the war, stills, primary documents, radio broadcasts, newsreels, and interviews. With the help of an NEH grant, filmmakers Noel Buchner, Mary Dore and Sam Sills interviewed more than 125 combat and medical veterans in the course of researching and editing the film. The final documentary, which is narrated by Studs Terkel, features eleven veterans including Bill Bailey, Steve Nelson, Milt Wolff, Edward Balchowsky, Salaria Kee (a.k.a. Salaria Kea) O'Reilly and Evelyn Hutchins.
Arrangement
This collection is organized into three series:
Series I. Interviews
Series II. Event Recordings
Series III. Source Audio
Scope and Contents
The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War: Audiotapes (1937-1988) includes audio recordings of "pre-interviews" with volunteers, most of whom were later interviewed on film; event recordings, including Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade National Conferences, group meetings, and memorials; and other audio recordings used in the production of the film, such as Studs Terkel's narration, radio broadcasts, musical recordings, speeches, and sound samples.
This collection includes interviews across multiple audio formats for some interviewees; it is unclear whether these are separate interviews or duplicative content.
Subjects
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War: Audiotapes; ALBA AUDIO 216; box number; folder number or item identifier; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Good Fight: the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War: Production Materials was donated to Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives in 1983 by filmmakers Noel Buchner, Mary Dore and Sam Sills. This collection came to New York University in January 2001 as part of the original acquisition of ALBA collections, formerly housed at Brandeis University.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Access to some audiovisual materials in this collection is available through digitized access copies. Researchers may view an item's original container, but the media themselves are not available for playback because of preservation concerns. Materials that have already been digitized are noted in the collection's finding aid and can be requested in our reading room.
Audiovisual materials that have not been preserved may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact Tamiment Library and Wagner Labor Archives, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596, with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
About this Guide
Processing Information
In 2022, a student worker created an inventory, listing individual oral history interviews recorded on audiocassette tapes (stored in approximately 4.5 boxes).
In August 2024 the rest of the collection was inventoried, including open reel audio reels and access CDs, and the collection was arranged into series.
