Collection inventory

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Fredda Weiss Collection

A inventory of her collection at the Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: Cara A. Howe
Date: 2011

Biography

Born and raised in New York City, Fredda Weiss graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor with degrees in Art History and Theater. Moving back to New York, she became an advertising Account Executive for major fashion manufacturers and then Advertising and Publicity Director for the largest division of Jonathan Logan manufacturing. In 1969 she began a fifteen-year career as a freelance costume designer for commercials, TV series, and feature films in New York and Los Angeles. This segued into feature film and television production in1984. When her friends, Peter and Aphrodite Tsairis, lost their daughter Alexia in the Terrorist attack on Pan Am 103, Fredda became involved in producing a film based on what the families experienced after the crash. During the following three years, she developed the project for NBC with the well-known scriptwriter and suspense novelist, Robert Crais. As the film was about to go into pre- production, the NBC Executive Group in charge of Television Movies was replaced, and the new group canceled the Pan Am 103 production in favor of more “action-oriented” projects. Fredda has donated the entire research archive for the film to Syracuse University. She hopes that a documentary will someday tell the stories of The Pan Am 103 families – their struggles and their victories – after that horrendous event. In addition to remaining a production and script consultant, Ms. Weiss sits on the Board and the Executive Committee of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (housed at the Tamiment Library of NYU), The Board of the American Committee for Weizmann Institute of Science, and the UCLA Hospital Ethics Committee.

Scope and Content Note

The Fredda Weiss Collection contains four series: Articles, Audiovisual, Correspondence and Subject Files. The articles included are of general interest to Pan Am 103, but have also been separated by family if they apply to a specific victim. The audiovisual materials are interviews conducted by Fredda with various family members and others involved with Pan Am 103. These interviews are all restricted and require the permission of the interviewee for viewing. Correspondence is divided by correspondent while subject files contain such information as a list of those families involved with the production, the script for the production, and transcripts from some of the interviews Weiss conducted. Please note that these transcripts, like any recorded interviews, are restriced unless permission is obtained from the interviewee. There is also a subseries for Subject Files: Families, that contain materials relevant to particular victims and their relatives.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

Please note that interviews are restricted at donor's request. Permission to view must be obtained from the interviewee.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from the Pan Am Flight 103 Archives and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Related Material

Selected VHS tapes were removed from this collection along with some audio cassette tapes, for inclusion in the Pan Am 103 Audiovisual Collection.

The Pan Am Flight 103 Archives contains additional materials and information related to the Fredda Weiss Collection. Related collections include:

The Adam L. Wilkenfeld Collection

Victim and Family Collections

Selected Search Terms

Names

Weiss, Fredda.
NBC.
Syracuse University -- History.
Syracuse University.

Subjects

Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing Incident, 1988.
Terrorism -- Government Policy -- United States -- Case Studies.
Terrorism -- Government Policy -- United States -- History.
Terrorism -- Government Policy -- United States.
Terrorism -- History -- 20th Century.
Lockerbie (Scotland)

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Fredda Weiss Collection,
Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

The Fredda Weiss Collection was donated by Fredda Weiss in 2006.

Processing Information

The Fredda Weiss Collection is processed.

Arrangement

The Fredda Weiss Collection has been arranged alphabetically by series, except for the Audiovisual materials, which has been ordered by database number, but are presented alphabetically in the finding aid.

Table of Contents

Articles

Audiovisual

Correspondence

Photographs

Subject Files

Subject Files: Families

Inventory