Stephen C. Shadegg Papers

Series I: Personal. Original folder headings were retained. This series includes family and financial correspondence and documents as well as the files Shadegg created as an adjunct lecturer at Arizona State University (1981-1984). The 1930s General Correspondence file documents Shadegg's association with KOY Phoenix Radio Station and his free-lance submissions to various mystery and detective magazines, including sensational crimes and murders like the Winnie Ruth Judd case. Subsequent files contain correspondence with his various publishers including letters showing the Harcourt-Brace-Jovanovich lawsuit about Barry Goldwater's memoir With No Apologies. Correspondence with various officials of the Episcopal Church includes discussions of the role of religion and churches in national politics. In 1979, Shadegg visited South Africa and subsequently became a supporter, apologist, and host of South African government officials. This series documents that relationship and includes extensive background reports, pamphlets, and brochures from South African government agencies and organizations (1970-1986).

Series II: Boards and Memberships. Shadegg engaged in a wide range of civic, cultural, religious, and philanthropic activities. He was a trained actor from the Pasadena Playhouse and was instrumental in building a new theater for the Phoenix Little Theatre. He held many offices and duties in the Episcopal Church, participated in programming for Arizona Town Hall meetings, served on the Board of Directors of the Barry Goldwater Institute for Public Policy, and contributed his expertise on the Arizona Select Law Enforcement Review Commission.

Series III: Business. Shadegg was widely regarded as an authority on water issues in Arizona from the 1940s to his death. In addition to his public relations work for the Salt River Project and the Phelps Dodge Corporation, Shadegg maintained a number of other business interests. He served as the director of the Arizona Institute of Forensic Medicine. These files include polygraph examinations of criminal suspects in Arizona (1948-1960). He was the owner of the S-K Research Laboratory (pharmaceuticals industry) in Phoenix. He was also involved in public relations, insurance, investment, and real estate ventures.

Series IV: Politics. Files are arranged alphabetically by client or topic. Significant files include Arizona political campaigns for Barry Goldwater, Paul Fannin, Eldon Rudd, and Jack Williams as well as Shadegg's own unsuccessful run for the U. S. Senate in 1962. The research and background files on Democratic opponents to Republican candidates make this series a rich source for documenting Arizona politics from an insider's perspective (1950s-1980s). The state-by-state Republican Party files compiled while Shadegg was on the Republican National Committee (1960-1962) document the grassroots genesis of the 1964 Presidential Campaign. The files showing the recall effort by the United Farm Workers led by Cesar Chavez against Governor Jack Williams in 1972 are also extensive.

Series V: Publications is arranged chronologically by publication date. Publications include social and political tracts, Arizona, Episcopal Church, and religious articles, digests of news stories in the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette (1977 clipping service), and aviation maps of the U. S. West. These items reflect the political, social, and religious interests that shaped Shadegg's thinking as well as various Arizona subjects that he conducted research on. Many of the obscure and polemical pamphlets as well as newsletters documenting conservative and rightist ideology are believed to be rare.

Series VI: Writings is arranged by genre and divided into seven sub-series: Sub-Series A: Books, Sub-Series B: Magazine Articles, Sub-Series C: Newspaper Columns, Sub-Series D: Radio Programs, Sub-Series E: Radio and Film Scripts, Sub-Series F: Short Stories, and Sub-Series G: Speeches.

Sub-Series A: Books contains unpublished drafts, background material, notes, interviews, research correspondence, correspondence with publishers, and reviews. Frequently, the files contain information not included in the final published versions. For example, the extensive interviews and recorded telephone conversations of Republican Party officials involved with the 1964 Presidential Campaign for the book What Happened to Goldwater contain first-person accounts contemporary with the campaign. A select few have been digitized onto compact discs. The files regarding the Clare Boothe Luce book have extensive interviews and background information about Luce. The files for Miss Lulu's Legacy contain documentation of the history of hospitals and medical care in Phoenix. Shadegg's two unpublished memoirs reveal a candid perspective of Arizona people and politics.

Some of the books in this subseries were either proposals to publishers or completed manuscripts that were never published. The 1980-1981 book proposal Knaves, Fools or Naïve Idealists was a foreign policy book proposal made with Senator Barry Goldwater. Shadegg did not shy away from taking stands and writing on controversial social and political subjects. For example, The Sword or the Knife advocates compulsory sterilization for the poor to lower the birth rate.

Sub-Series E: Radio and Film Scripts includes a 1941 screenplay titled Valley of the Sun, a Western portraying Phoenix founders Jack Swilling and Darrel Duppa. It was first conceived and sketched by Shadegg and later developed into a compete screenplay by RKO writer Bartlett Cormack. This subseries also includes a film script titled For Freedom's Sake featuring a courtroom dialog between Senator Barry Goldwater and Joseph Stalin.

Sub-Series F: Short Stories houses the crime, mystery, and detective stories that Shadegg wrote from 1938 through the 1940s. These pieces include both fictionalized accounts and those based on real cases. Many of these stories were published in pulp magazines like Sensation, Crime Confessions, True Police Cases, Detective, Master Detective, National Detective, Crime Detective, Real Detective, Headquarters Detective, Inside Detective, Startling Detective, and True Detective under a variety of pen names including Lance Christopher, Henry Knapp, H. Henry Messenkopf, Honey O'Bear, Mark Stevens, Charles Proctor, John Victor, J. Victor Bale, and others. There may be additional Shadegg stories with unknown pen names in the pulp magazines filed by title at the end of this subseries. This series also contains a few non-detective stories, including They Can Have All The Glory about the bombing attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941 and I Sold Sex To Soldiers. Magazine fiction is filed alphabetically by title. Shadegg maintained a card index file between 1938 and 1951 of his short story submissions to magazines. Each card, filed alphabetically by title, includes the pen name used, the name and date of the crime it was based upon, submissions to and responses from various editors, and date and sale price if the story was sold.

Sub-Series G: Speeches reflects Shadegg's career delivering various civic, political and religious speeches. In the 1950s and 1960s he gave frequent speeches before regional and national Episcopal Church groups on the subject of morality. At the end of the series are speeches he wrote for hire in conjunction with his public relations business.

Series VII: Media, Oversize, Artifacts is arranged by format and divided into nine subseries: Sub-Series A: Photographs, Sub-Series B: Film, Sub-Series C: Video Tapes, Sub-Series D: Audio Tapes, Sub-Series E: Edison Voicewriter Dictation Discs, Sub-Series F: Wire Recordings, Sub-Series G: Phonograph Recordings, Sub-Series H: Scrapbooks, Posters, and Sub-Series I: Oversize and Artifacts.

Sub-Series A: Photographs is arranged alphabetically. Significant sections are family photographs; photographs used by Shadegg in his magazine and book publications, including crime photographs; Clare Boothe Luce; Miss Lulu's Legacy; water-related photographs under Central Arizona Project and Century One, and African American soldiers training at Fort Huachuca, Arizona in 1943.

Shadegg collected crime photographs of murders, kidnappings, and other sensational crimes in Arizona, California, and Nevada to illustrate his fictional and non-fictional crime stores. He filed positive copies alphabetically loosely under the name he assigned to a case. Some cases are listed under the victim, while others are listed by the perpetrator. Sometimes he included both names in a case heading. Some of his files contain more than one case and numerous loose photos are unidentified by case. From 1942 to 1950 he filed his crime photograph negatives chronologically by year. His card index in Series VI: Writings can be used to identify and link these negative and positive photographs to his manuscripts and published articles.

Slides are arranged alphabetically in small boxes by Shadegg's assigned categories. They include images of his family, business interests, and political clients.

Sub-Series B: Film is arranged alphabetically by Shadegg's assigned categories. The majority of these reels relate to his political clients. Only a few are commercially produced.

Sub-Series C: Video Tapes is arranged alphabetically by Shadegg's assigned categories within each format, including Quad, U-matic, and VHS. Sub-Series D: Audio Tapes (reel-to-reel and cassette) is arranged alphabetically within each format. Descriptions are derived from outside labels. No attempt was made to confirm the accuracy of the labels or to determine their physical condition.

Sub-Series E: Edison Voicewriter Dictation Discs is arranged alphabetically. Shadegg recorded a variety of telephone conversations, meetings, conferences, manuscript drafts, and personal notes. The format is a floppy disc that is roughly equivalent to a 45 RPM phonograph recording. Many of the existing labels are abbreviated and cryptic.

Sub-Series F: Wire Recordings (1947-1955) is arranged chronologically and primarily documents events relating to Shadegg's children and family.

Sub-Series G: Phonograph Recordings houses commercial and non-commercial phonograph records. Locally produced and World Broadcasting System phonograph recordings of readings of classic children's books were broadcast by the KOY Radio Station for their Children's Story Hour (1947-1948). Shadegg narrated some of these titles. The series was sponsored by the Junior League of America and commercially produced by Western Electric Company. The records play at 33.3 RPM. The discs were not cleaned or conserved during processing. Some are in poor condition.

Goldwater Senate and Presidential Campaign phonograph recordings were produced for radio broadcast in two sizes, 12 inch and 15.5 inch. Both formats play at 33.3 RPM. The discs were not cleaned or conserved during processing. Some are in poor condition.

Sub-Series I: Oversize and Artifacts contains large format material collected from all the series.