DeWitt Beall Collection
- LORD THING (DeWitt Beall, 1970)
Inclusive Dates
circa 1965 – 1977
Preservation Sponsor
Abstract
This collection of films was made by filmmaker DeWitt Beall in Chicago during the 1960s and early '70s. A large portion of the collection consists of elements and prints related to LORD THING, a film about a Chicago-based gang named the Conservative Vice Lords. The film was never released, but won an award at the Venice Film Festival in 1971. Various other educational films, documentaries and PSAs are in this collection, including the EARTHKEEPING television series which aired on WTTW in the early 1970s.
Series In this Collection
SERIES I: Lord Thing
1969 – 1970
SERIES II: Earthkeeping
1972 – 1973
Collection Items
![Lord Thing [Outtakes]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/6/7/97963_ca_object_representations_media_6733_large.jpg)
![Lord Thing [2014 Preservation Print]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/1/8/69476_ca_object_representations_media_1884_large.jpg)
To request more information about the items in this collection, please contact the archive at
info@chicagofilmarchives.org.
Items with Viewable Media
- Aid Association for Lutherans "Spirit of Fraternal Life"
- Baxter Travenol Laboratories “All of Us”
- DB At Beach
- Dewitt Beall Personal Reel
- Kelvinator “Measure of Quality”
- Making It
- Moratorium March on Washington 1969
- National Dairy Council “Food Your Choice”
- National Safety Council "A Question of Attitudes"
- National Safety Council “The Car Ahead”
- National Safety Council “The Crossroads Crash”
- National Safety Council “The Driving Edge”
- National Safety Council “The Extra Step”
- Place to Live, A
- Racquet Ball
- Sears, Roebuck and Company “Diamonds”
- Sears, Roebuck and Company "Diamonds" [Outs]
- Tru Test Truckload
- Western Electric “The Computer’s Telephone”
- Worthington "Stripples - Untitled Sears ad
- E.C.O. Master Check Print-Eskay
- E.C.O. Master Check Print-Eskay
- [Lord Thing]
- [Lord Thing]
- Lord Thing [2014 Preservation Print]
- Lord Thing [Outtakes]
- Lord Thing (Version 1)
- Lord Thing (Version 1 Part 1)
- Lord Thing (Version 1 Part 1)
- Lord Thing (Version 1 Part 2)
- Lord Thing (Version 1 Part 2)
- Lord Thing (Version 2 Part 1 )
- Lord Thing (Version 2 Part 1)
- Lord Thing (Version 2 Part 1)
- Lord Thing (Version 2 Part 1)
- Lord Thing (Version 2 Part 1)
- Lord Thing (Version 2 Part 1)
- Lord Thing (Version 2 Part 1)
- Lord Thing (Version 2 Part 2)
- Lord Thing (Version 2 Part 2 )
- Lord Thing (Version 2 Part 2)
- Lord Thing (Version 2 Part 2 )
- Lord Thing (Version 2 Part 2)
- Lord Thing (Version 2 Part 2)
- Lord Thing (Version 2 Part 2)
- Lord Thing (Version 2 Part 2)
- Lord Thing (Version 2 With Subtitles)
- Lord Thing (Version ? Part 1)
- Lord Thing (Version ? Part 1)
- Lord Thing (Version? Part 1 With Subtitles)
- Lord Thing (Version ? Part 2)
- Lord Thing (Version ? Part 2)
- Lord Thing (Version? Part 2 With Subtitles)
- Earthkeeping “City Life”
- Earthkeeping “Garbage”
- Earthkeeping “Greenbacks”
- Earthkeeping “Help Yourself”
- Earthkeeping “Little Big Land”
- Earthkeeping “Megapolis”
- Earthkeeping “Sodbusters”
- Earthkeeping “Sodbusters”
SERIES I: Lord Thing
SERIES II: Earthkeeping
Collection Identifier
C.2012-01
Extent of Collection
66 reels of 16mm film totaling approximately 52,000 feet.
Language Of Materials
English
Custodial History
These films were owned by DeWitt Beall, who shot most of them while he lived in Chicago. When he passed in 2006, his wife Elina Katsioula-Beall kept them at their home in California until donating the film materials to CFA in 2012.
Related Materials
THE CORNER by Robert Ford in CFA's Robert Ford Collection also documents the Conservative Vice Lords. CFA's Mort & Millie Goldsholl Collection also contains ad work affiliated with DeWitt Beall, including "National Safety Council 'The Extra Step.'"
Related Collections
Access Restrictions
This collection is open to on-site access. Appointments must be made with Chicago Film Archives. Due to the fragile nature of the films, only video copies will be provided for on-site viewing.
Use Restrictions
CFA has the rights to license film materials.
Creators
Beall, DeWitt
(was created by)
DeWitt Beall was a Chicago-based filmmaker primarily active in the 1960s and '70s.
Originally born in Sherman Oaks, CA, DeWitt moved to Chicago after graduating from Dartmouth College in 1962. He came to Chicago to work in advertising, finding success as a filmmaker at Reach, McClinton & Co. His filmography illustrates a balance between ‘filmmaker-for-hire’ works (commercial work for Sears, educational films for the National Safety Council and National Dairy Council) and the projects closer related to his interests. One of Beall's earlier films, Making It (1966), was made for the American Can Corporation, and looks at the obstacles Black Americans face when building a career. After his experience shooting the film, Beall spearheaded Dartmouth’s Foundation Years Project – a scholarship program that enrolled young adults from Chicago's North Lawndale at Dartmouth from 1967 to 1973. Two of the interviewees in Making It were participants in this program (read more about this Dartmouth-North Lawndale connection over at Chicago Magazine).
Two years after Making It, Beall made A Place to Live (1968) for the City of Chicago’s Department of Urban Renewal. In 1970, he made Lord Thing, an independent documentary about the formation of the Conservative Vice Lords. The film won the Silver Medal in the Venice Film Festival in 1971, but never went into distribution.
From 1972 to 1973, Beall wrote, directed and produced the Earthkeeping series for WTTW, Chicago's PBS affiliate. The short-lived show attempted to address environmental, ecological, and sociological issues of modern urban life through the kind of creative approach that characterized many public TV programs in the early 1970s. In addition to interviews with ecologists and urban planners, economists and activists, it used skits featuring Second City members including John Belushi and Harold Ramis. Earthkeeping was produced only three years after the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, during a period of rapid urban growth and industrialization. The series is less documentary and more a call to action; the content of Earthkeeping greatly reflects the personal ideology of the filmmaker. In an email correspondence, Elina Katsioula-Beall (DeWitt’s second wife) pointed out how important the issues of the series were to DeWitt’s personal life: “It is certainly safe to say that DeWitt was very interested in all sociological and ecological issues. He had a respect for earth and for all life, long before this was fashionable.”
DeWitt Beall moved to southern California in the late '70s, where he thought he would continue in the film business. Instead, he went into the kitchen design business, co-owning DeWitt Designer Kitchens in Studio City, CA with his second wife Elina Katsiola-Beall. Beall passed away in 2006.
Originally born in Sherman Oaks, CA, DeWitt moved to Chicago after graduating from Dartmouth College in 1962. He came to Chicago to work in advertising, finding success as a filmmaker at Reach, McClinton & Co. His filmography illustrates a balance between ‘filmmaker-for-hire’ works (commercial work for Sears, educational films for the National Safety Council and National Dairy Council) and the projects closer related to his interests. One of Beall's earlier films, Making It (1966), was made for the American Can Corporation, and looks at the obstacles Black Americans face when building a career. After his experience shooting the film, Beall spearheaded Dartmouth’s Foundation Years Project – a scholarship program that enrolled young adults from Chicago's North Lawndale at Dartmouth from 1967 to 1973. Two of the interviewees in Making It were participants in this program (read more about this Dartmouth-North Lawndale connection over at Chicago Magazine).
Two years after Making It, Beall made A Place to Live (1968) for the City of Chicago’s Department of Urban Renewal. In 1970, he made Lord Thing, an independent documentary about the formation of the Conservative Vice Lords. The film won the Silver Medal in the Venice Film Festival in 1971, but never went into distribution.
From 1972 to 1973, Beall wrote, directed and produced the Earthkeeping series for WTTW, Chicago's PBS affiliate. The short-lived show attempted to address environmental, ecological, and sociological issues of modern urban life through the kind of creative approach that characterized many public TV programs in the early 1970s. In addition to interviews with ecologists and urban planners, economists and activists, it used skits featuring Second City members including John Belushi and Harold Ramis. Earthkeeping was produced only three years after the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, during a period of rapid urban growth and industrialization. The series is less documentary and more a call to action; the content of Earthkeeping greatly reflects the personal ideology of the filmmaker. In an email correspondence, Elina Katsioula-Beall (DeWitt’s second wife) pointed out how important the issues of the series were to DeWitt’s personal life: “It is certainly safe to say that DeWitt was very interested in all sociological and ecological issues. He had a respect for earth and for all life, long before this was fashionable.”
DeWitt Beall moved to southern California in the late '70s, where he thought he would continue in the film business. Instead, he went into the kitchen design business, co-owning DeWitt Designer Kitchens in Studio City, CA with his second wife Elina Katsiola-Beall. Beall passed away in 2006.