Last draft May 1993 [Santa Monica: Miramax], 1993. Self-wrappers, quarto, vintage original film script, quarto, brad bound, 159 pp. Script presumably belonged to a crew member, with pink, blue, and green revision pages dated up through 10/5/93, and occasional holograph notations in black ink throughout. Fine in near fine wrappers. PULP[…]
by David Ehrenstein Now that gay actors like Nathan Lane, Jim Parsons, Victor Garber, Jonathan Groff, and Neil Patrick Harris are “out of the closet” and on the rise, it’s hard to imagine just how different things were in the relatively recent past. Not only was the notion of being openly[…]
Jules Verne (source) S.J. Perelman, James Poe, John Farrow (screenwriters) Vintage original film script, USA/UK. New York & London: Michael Todd Co., Inc., 18 November 1955. [1],158,[4] leaves. Quarto, mimeographed typescript, brad bound in stencil-printed production company wrappers. Ink note on upper wrapper, a few smudges and curled corners, NEAR[…]
F. Scott Fitzgerald (subject), Tennessee Williams (playwright). [Washington, D.C.]: Elliot Martin, Donald Cecil and Columbia Pictures, Jan. 28-Feb. 23, [1980]. Vintage original 22 x 14″ (56 x 36 cm) theatre poster, USA. Fine.
“A play about the relationship between novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda. A critical and commercial failure, it was Williams’ last play to debut on Broadway during his lifetime. The play takes place over a one-day visit Scott pays the institutionalized Zelda at Highland Mental Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, with a series of flashbacks to their marriage in the twenties. Williams began work in 1976 on what he envisioned as a ‘long play’ about the Fitzgeralds (he eventually cut it down), and had Geraldine Page in mind to play Zelda from the start.
“Williams biographer Donald Spoto has argued that Scott’s visit to Zelda was a ‘clear’ representation of the playwright’s frequent visits to his mentally incapacitated sister, Rose, in mental hospitals. Williams himself admitted a close identification with Fitzgerald, saying, ‘At one point I went through a deep depression and heavy drinking. And I, too, have gone through a period of eclipse in public favor… [The Fitzgeralds] embody concerns of my own, the tortures of the creative artist in a materialist society… They were so close to the edge. I understood the schizophrenia and the thwarted ambition.'” (Wikipedia)
As with so many of Williams’ later works, this play was poorly received at the time of its Broadway debut, which occurred shortly after the Washington tryouts for which this poster was created, but there is now active interest in these fascinating works.
Vintage original 10 x 8” (25 x 20 cm.) photo, USA. Very slight bumping at extreme margins, JUST ABOUT FINE. Daniel Haynes, dir: King Vidor: MGM.
A fascinating visual document from one of the first two Black cast talking films, and an important landmark in African American film history. Much of Vidor’s HALLELUJAH was shot on location in rural areas of Tennessee and Arkansas. This photo of a screen test is of unusual interest because, next to Haynes is Honey Brown, who was originally slated to play the film’s other lead, of Chickie. For some reason, before shooting commenced, she was replaced by Nina Mae McKinney, and this is the only image to date which I have ever seen of Brown in this role. Photo # MGMP-8325.
Vintage original 30 x 40″ (75 x 100 cm.) quad poster, UK. Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Judith Anderson, Madeleine Sherwood, dir: Richard Brooks; MGM.
The highly adult filming of Tennessee Williams’ work was paramount in the loosening of the strict censorship code in film making, as were all films of Williams’ work during this period. It was an actor’s film, with each star perfectly cast to their role. If there were any question of it, Elizabeth Taylor was now grown up and a fine actress in her mature roles. It is difficult to think of anyone else as Maggie the Cat.
Here she is in a provocative pose with the famous gold iron bed which was used in a number of MGM films and touted at their 1971 auction. In the UK the film received what was then an “X” certificate — for adults only. Poster is on linen with only minor touch-up to the folds and smoothing of a few inter creases. NEAR FINE.
Set of four (4) vintage original double weight photos, USA (three (3) 10 x 13″ [25 x 33 cm.] glossy photos, one 11 x 14″ [28 x 36 cm.] matte finish photo). Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, dir: Sidney Lumet. Near fine.
Four portraits of the tempestuous Anna Magnani — and one is of her with Joanne Woodward.
For this film, Tennessee Williams adapted his play Orpheus Descending, and he wrote the adapted screenplay with Meade Roberts. One photo has the stamp on verso of the production company with credit: “Still photo by Muky”.