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Folio and smaller. An interesting set of material related to both the film and television adaptations of Kenneth Roberts' popular 1937 historical novel, Northwest Passage. The first is an autograph letter from Roberts, in Kennebunk Beach, ME, to fellow author, Frank Condon in Easthampton, NY, dated August 31, 1937, in which he complains about his dealings with both movie and television executives. Employing country-style argot and spelling, he begins, "If it ain't one megrim, it's another. …Looks like the Metro [Metro Goldwyn Mayer] deal ain't going through, on acc't they want to hog all the rights in sight, & not guarantee the author nothing not even production, let alone integrity (what would they know about integrity?); & when it comes to television, they set up a thing screaming at the mere suggestion of not having everything in sight. This gimme a kind of a pain, & my guess is hte whole proposition will just dry up & blow away." He continues: "I don't like those movie fellers much: can't get over the feeling that they ain't nice people. If you got any sujjestions, leave us have 'em. I don't seem to be equipped to say anything except "Balls!" to anyone that disgusts me, & of course that ain't conducive to protracted discussions, especially if the fellers to whom "Balls!" is said ain't accustomed to hearing anything but "Yes." Roberts closes on a different topic, that of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, which he had just finished reading at Condon's suggestion; he states, "Looks like he's got something; but I never been able to understand why authors who put in lots of 'bastards' and 'sons-of-bitches' should shy away from 'shit' in such a slinking manner. Somep'n wrong somewhere." For all his dislike of Hollywood types, Roberts did end up selling the film rights to Northwest Passage to Metro Goldwyn Mayer three weeks later, and on March 15, 1938, they contracted with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert E. Sherwood to write the screenplay for the movie. Sherwood's brief March 22, 1938, typed letter to Loew's Incorporated MGM's corporate parent notes the date of that agreement, and authorizes Loew's to send all payments to his agents, Brandt & Brandt. However, while the film originally was allocated a lavish budget, and was set to star two of MGM's biggest stars Spencer Tracy (who had just won his second Academy Award), and Wallace Beery, the studio's highest paid actor continued management upheaval resulting from the 1936 death of MGM producer Irving Thalberg, location difficulties, and problems with the Technicolor process caused the production to be temporarily shelved. The project would be resurrected a year later with an altered cast (Tracy, Robert Young, and Walter Brennan); new screenwriters (Laurence Stallings and Talbot Jennings), whose script only covered the first half of the book; and the celebrated director King Vidor, who had just joined MGM. Even though the movie's action takes place in New England, filming actually occurred in Idaho, which is where the premiere of the movie took place on February 20, 1940, at the Pinney Theatre in Boise. The lavish, 8-page folio-sized brochure for that event, featuring an illustration of Tracy, Young, and Brennan on the cover, production and cast credits, and a highly detailed account of how the film came to be, has been signed twice here by Vidor: one on the cover, dated May 12, 1981, and additionally on page 4, next to his printed name. (Vidor died the following year.) Roberts himself apparently disliked the film so much that he vowed never again to sell another of his works to Hollywood. The last item is a heavily emended 29-page typewritten dialogue script (plus cover) for the late 1950s television adaptation of Northwest Passage. Dated January 1957 which is nearly two years prior to the show's original release on September 14, 1958 the typescript contains only the actors' spoken lines, with additional notes, changes, and directions in autograph pencil thro.
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