Lawrence Weschler, assistant editor, Oral History Program, UCLA. B.A., Philosophy and Cultural History, UCSC.
Mrs. Neutra's home in Silver Lake.
April 10, July 10, 14, 18, 21, August 2, 3, 9, 14, 18, September 1 (video), and 27, 1978.
Sessions began at eleven o'clock in the morning and lasted on average one and a half hours. Fourteen hours of conversation were recorded.
Mrs. Neutra and Weschler. Bernard Galm and Rebecca Andrade were present during the video session.
The Program had already recorded the reminiscences of several Central European émigrés--Gustave Arlt, Marta Feuchtwanger, William Melnitz, Lily Toch (the interviewer's grandmother) --so that when the name of Dione (Mrs. Richard) Neutra was proposed, the idea seemed a likely one. UCLA had the Neutra archive (housed just a few steps from the Program's Powell Library door), and Thomas S. Hines, professor in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, was already embarked on his book about Neutra.
Hines gave some direction to Weschler's research. In return for his generous assistance, he was permitted to make use of the interview transcripts before they were fully processed.
In their initial interview sessions, Mrs. Neutra read from notes she had prepared. Weschler felt that this was not the kind of response he had hoped for and persuaded her to extemporize. There was material that seemed to be cause for concern; as Weschler felt that it was making the interviewee nervous, he suggested that one session be set aside for the airing of material that could be restricted for a long period. The video session was one of the first "on location" videos recorded by the Program.
Editing was done by the interviewer. He checked the verbatim transcript of the interview against the original tape recordings and edited for punctuation and paragraphing and the verification and spelling of person and place names. Words and phrases inserted by the editor for clarity have been bracketed.
Mrs. Neutra reviewed and approved the edited transcripts, answering the editor's queries. At this time and on several subsequent occasions, she sought to reassure herself that the material that was to be sealed had been handled in accordance with her wishes. All of Tape VIII and the first side of Tape IX are sealed as are brief passages elsewhere throughout the manuscript. All passages thus sealed are clearly marked and are separately indexed. When the period of restriction has elapsed. Tapes VIII and IX (Side One) will be bound with a table of contents and the index of all sealed material. (There is no Tape IV, Side One, or Tape VII, Side Two.)
Mitch Tuchman, principal editor, reviewed the transcript before final typing and prepared the front matter and index, Hines wrote the introduction.
The original tape recordings and edited transcript of the interview are in the University Archives and are available (with the exception of the sealed portions of the transcript and tapes on which any sealed material whatsoever was recorded) under the regulations governing the use of permanent noncurrent records of the University, Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Oral History Program.
Readers are encouraged to make use of the Neutra archive in the UCLA Library and to take note of Hines's Richard Neutra and the Search for Modern Architecture (New York; Oxford University Press, 1982). Neutra himself was the author of more than a dozen books.