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Rare final shooting script of the most celebrated film in Hollywood history, a remarkable presentation copy inscribed by producer David O. Selznick to his special effects chief Jack Cosgrove in the year of the film's release. Quarto, bound for Selznick in contemporary custom red half morocco for presentation, with Cosgrove's name stamped in gilt on the front board and the spine with five raised bands lettered in gilt, original yellow wrappers bound in titled "Gone With the Wind, from the novel by Margaret Mitchell. Screen Play by Sidney Howard. Produced by David O. Selznick. Directed by Victor Fleming. Final Shooting Script January 24, 1939," with six black-and-white movie stills inserted throughout - among them the burning of Atlanta, the sequence that crowned Cosgrove's achievement. Presentation copy, inscribed by Selznick on the first blank, "For Jack, who was always willing to try the impossible-and who always achieved it! With gratitude for a great job. DOS Xmas 1939." The recipient, Jack Cosgrove, was the leading special effects artist of Hollywood's golden age, nominated for five Academy Awards over the course of his career, for Gone With the Wind, Rebecca, The Pride of the Yankees, Since You Went Away, and Spellbound. Working day and night through the summer of 1939, Cosgrove and the assistants he supervised at Selznick International produced hundreds of the matte paintings - rendered on large glass panels and known on the lot as "Cosgrove shots" - that were combined with the live footage to create most of the film's panoramas of the antebellum South. It was his brush that conjured the great house at Tara, the sweep of Twelve Oaks, and the burning of Atlanta, supplying the visual grandeur on which the film's epic scale depends. From the collection of Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award-winning composer Charles Strouse and his wife, choreographer Barbara Siman. Over his 50-year career, Charles Strouse wrote the music for such iconic musical theater hits as Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, and Annie, as well as the theme song for the classic sitcom All in the Family ("Those Were the Days"). His partnership with Martin Charnin on Annie produced one of Broadway's most successful scores ever, with "Tomorrow" and other songs from the production becoming enduring American musical standards admired by generations. His reach knew no genre or generation - from a number-one Billboard hit in 1958 to Jay-Z's Grammy-winning sampling of "It's the Hard-Knock Life" four decades later - and his honors include three Tony Awards and induction into both the Songwriters and Theater Halls of Fame. In near fine condition, rebacked. An extraordinary association copy, uniting the producer of Gone With the Wind with the artist who painted its most unforgettable images. David O. Selznick?s production of Gone With the Wind, directed by Victor Fleming from Sidney Howard?s screenplay of Margaret Mitchell?s Pulitzer Prize?winning novel, premiered in Atlanta in December 1939 and went on to win eight Academy Awards plus two honorary awards ? including a posthumous Oscar for Howard?s screenplay, the first ever awarded posthumously ? and remains, adjusted for inflation, the highest-grossing film ever made. The final shooting script of January 24, 1939 represents the text from which this monument of American cinema was filmed. Selznick had a small number of copies specially bound for presentation to key members of the cast and crew at Christmas 1939, each with the recipient?s name stamped in gilt and stills selected with the recipient in mind; they are today among the most coveted artifacts of Hollywood?s golden age.
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