INTRODUCTION TO THE ONLINE EXHIBITION

he play Zoot Suit, written by Luis Valdez in 1978, is based on a notorious trial that took place in Los Angeles in 1942, popularly known as the Sleepy Lagoon case. Valdez's research on the people and events surrounding the Sleepy Lagoon case led him to the UCLA Library. The Department of Special Collections houses, preserves and provides access to the research collections and personal papers of Carey McWilliams, who served as chair of the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee , Alice Greenfield McGrath , its executive secretary, and author Guy Endore, also a member of the committee who contributed published works on its behalf. UCLA oral history interviews with McWilliams, McGrath and Endore provide further insight into the Sleepy Lagoon case. In addition, the Department serves as the repository for the Los Angeles Times (ca. 1918-1990) and Los Angeles Daily News (1923-1954), providing historic images of the events published in the press.

Drawing in part from these materials, Valdez created a dramatic and musical interpretation of the events that lead to the trial, developing the play's characters and their personal struggles within the social and political climate of the time. (Alice McGrath inspired one of those characters, Alice Bloomfield.) In tandem with the symposium, The Sleepy Lagoon Case, Constitutional Rights, and the Struggle for Democracy, some of these research materials will be presented in an exhibit in the Department of Special Collections from May through August 2005, and will remain available via this online site.

Recollections of Alice Greenfield McGrath and Carey McWilliams provide a
chronological framework for this online exhibit, and underscore the salient issues and events associated with the Sleepy Lagoon case. Images of primary source documents and photographs from the collections mentioned above serve to illustrate this account.

FINDING AIDS

S. GUY ENDORE PAPERS

ALICE GREENFIELD MCGRATH PAPERS

CAREY MCWILLIAMS PAPERS

SLEEPY LAGOON DEFENSE COMMITTEE RECORDS

LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS PHOTOGRAPHS

LOS ANGELES TIMES PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVES


TRANSCRIPTS OF UCLA ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM INTERVIEWS

CAREY MCWILLIAMS
(transcript available online)

S. GUY ENDORE
(transcript of catalog record)

ALICE GREENFIELD MCGRATH
(transcript of catalog record)