y the time Boston University got serious about collecting the personal papers of historic literary and political luminaries, most already had been taken. So the university turned its attention to the living: stars of stage and screen, 20th century journalists and authors, screenwriters, producers, directors and comic strip artists. Today, BU’s Gottlieb Archival Research Center has one of the world’s largest collection of Hollywood memorabilia, including Fred Astaire’s dancing shoes, the laurel wreath Claude Rains wore in Caesar and Cleopatra, Rex Harrison’s Tony Award for My Fair Lady, Gene Kelley’s Oscar for An American in Paris, and all the original drawings of “Little Orphan Annie,” “Dennis the Menace,” and “Li’l Abner.” You can check out many of the most interesting items in a little-known exhibit room on the first floor of the university library. Marcus