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Local film lover’s collection includes thousands of movies

bySignal Tribune
May 2, 2014
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Photos by Scott Bosco Max Fraley holds his binder devoted to John Robert Wooden, the basketball player and coach who, as head coach at UCLA, won 10 NCAA national championships in a 12-year period— seven in a row, which was unprecedented. “The binder I'm holding is my John Wooden collection that includes memorabilia he gave me when a friend and I had the opportunity to have lunch and spend the afternoon with him in his apartment near UCLA,
Photos by Scott Bosco

Max Fraley holds his binder devoted to John Robert Wooden, the basketball player and coach who, as head coach at UCLA, won 10 NCAA national championships in a 12-year period— seven in a row, which was unprecedented. “The binder I’m holding is my John Wooden collection that includes memorabilia he gave me when a friend and I had the opportunity to have lunch and spend the afternoon with him in his apartment near UCLA,” Fraley said. “It was one of the best days of my life.”
Staff reports
Signal Tribune

Last week, the Signal Tribune published part one of an interview with Max Fraley, a local film expert who founded and led the Friday-night film forum at the Long Beach School for Adults, a weekly event that was open to the public from April of 1995 to December of 2012. (To read that portion of the interview, visit signaltribunenewspaper.com/?p=23464 .)
Below is the second part of the interview with Fraley.

Fraley explained that, when he was very little, perhaps even as young as 4 years old, his mother, just like other moms in Converse, Indiana, in the late 1930s/early 1940s, would take him and his cousin of the same age to the small town’s movie theater, drop them off and leave them for several hours, then return later after she’d completed her shopping errands.

Fraley points to his photo of film and Broadway director Rouben Mamoulian.
Fraley points to his photo of film and Broadway director Rouben Mamoulian.
Max Fraley: The first movie that left an indelible print upon my mind was that movie right over there, in the far corner of the wall— Gary Cooper, The Westerner (pointing to a movie poster in area in what he refers to as his “leisure room,” where he keeps the many photos and other memorabilia that relate to his life-long hobby of collecting). When I was 5 years old, my father took a job with the Bar Diamond Range Company, and we went to Texas. We rented a house in Abilene, Texas, and they had the premiere of this movie there because the lady that was the star of it was from that town. My dad took us down there. It was my first premiere. I mean, it just overwhelmed me. People out on the stage, talking. People I’d seen on the screen: the Walter Brennans, etcetera, etcetera. That hooked me for sure. [I thought,] “This is going to be with me my whole life. I’m either going to be in movies or else I’m just going to be watching movies. And I’ve watched a lot of movies.
Fraley flips through a book of photos that includes one of Zazu Pitts, whom he refers to as a “legendary comedic actress.
Fraley flips through a book of photos that includes one of Zazu Pitts, whom he refers to as a “legendary comedic actress.”
Fraley mentioned that he is an avid collector of movies, having started when the VHS format became widespread, and continuing with DVDs.

My collection goes to about probably 10,000 movies I have. And it’s not a question of watching them all the time, which I don’t. I just feel so secure knowing that I have movies like The Westerner in my library of films that I can go to anytime, pull that out, and watch it if I want to, whenever.

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