From scripts to storyboards, Garry Marshall's cinematic legacy finds home at Northwestern

EVANSTON, Ill. - Some very special Hollywood history lives on in Evanston where one of Northwestern's most well-known alumni has left his archives to the school.

In a FOX 32 special report, Jake Hamilton shares details on how visitors can check out some very cool items from the memorable career of writer, director, producer and actor Garry Marshall.

Before he directed some of the most iconic movies to ever grace the silver screen. Before he created some of the most legendary series ever broadcast on television. And before he was a writer for some of the most iconic talents in pop culture history, Marshall was a kid walking the campus of Northwestern.

Marshall is one of the most beloved and cherished names in both Hollywood and right on the Northwestern campus.

Before he became one of the most successful storytellers in Hollywood, Marshall wrote sports columns for The Daily Northwestern. He graduated with a degree in journalism in 1956.

All the more reason why university historian Kevin Leonard worked tirelessly to convince Marshall to gift his personal collection of everything from scripts, wardrobe and various Tinseltown treasures to Northwestern.

"Mr. Marshall was a person I had hoped to get into the collection," Leonard said. "You never know whether you will or not when you talk to someone. But it was a real thrill when he said ‘yes’ and a real privilege to go and meet with him and the family and to gather the documents."

"He was very good at saving, creating records of his life, creating scrapbooks that documented almost a day-to-day type of existence. So it is a large collection and it is a detailed collection and you can pretty much write the biography of Garry Marshall from this material," Leonard added.

Two school bus-lengths worth of documents, a cinematic sanctuary of priceless Hollywood artifacts that cover his career from writing for The Tonight Show, The Lucy Show and The Odd Couple, to creating iconic series like Happy Days, Mork and Mindy, and Laverne and Shirley, and directing Hollywood favorites like Beaches, Pretty Woman, Hocus Pocus, Never Been Kissed, The Princess Diaries and A League of Their Own.

"Well, he’s a favorite son of Northwestern, so he is a beloved character at this institution and generations of people have been involved with the Marshalls or the children or the grandchildren," Leonard said.

"So it’s almost a personal level tie to the family so it’s great to have that. But it’s also great in a research library like ours to have material that very clearly documents how television programs get made."

From scripts and scrapbooks to storyboards and photos - many with handwritten notes in the margins – Marshall’s genius as a comedian and storyteller is recognizable in an instant. It’s Hollywood history in Evanston.

"One of the prized items in here is a set of storyboard drawings. A set of original pencil storyboard drawings that lay out how the scenes for the famous film pretty woman would be shot," Leonard said.

Marshall passed away in 2016 at the age of 81 but his legacy continues.

"I’ve been really lucky - it makes me emotional - I've had a number of people who have taken an interest in me and supported me. I could name them all, but I'm just going to go with some of the bolder-named ones. Garry Marshall was a big one for me," actress Anne Hathaway said.

Even if you weren’t lucky enough to meet him, his collection and his legacy will continue to live on at Northwestern for anyone who wants a glimpse of pure genius and just where it came from.

"I also hope that it serves as a magnet to other people who have been in fields similar to Mr. Marshall’s that they will see what Northwestern can do with these collections," Leonard said.

"That we can make them available for study and research and hopefully make the world a little bit smarter whenever people use these things and consider northwestern for their own archival material."