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Lot 76
Maureen O'Hara's annotated screenplay of The Long Gray Line and her bound presentation copy of the screenplay
29 November 2016, 12:00 EST
New YorkUS$2,500 - US$3,000
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Maureen O'Hara's annotated screenplay of The Long Gray Line and her bound presentation copy of the screenplay
Columbia, 1955. Mimeographed manuscript, Final Draft screenplay by Edward Hope, 181 pp, dated December 14, 1953 to front wrapper, December 11, 1953 to front page, bound in brads in green Columbia wrappers, "Columbia Story No. 2450" printed to front cover, with yellow revision pages dated February 12, 1954, signed ("Maureen O'Hara") in pencil to front wrapper, many annotations in pencil in O'Hara's hand, pencil drawing of a bathroom to title page, many pages with a pencil line across them, with a magazine clipping of a dress pressed in.
WITH: mimeographed manuscript, Final Draft screenplay by Edward Hope, dated December 11, 1953 on title page, bound in green leather with "The Long Gray Line" and "Maureen O'Hara" stamped in gilt to front cover and "The Long Gray Line" stamped in gilt to spine, with yellow revision pages dated February 12, 1954 and blue revision pages dated March 27, 1954, with 4 size 8 x 10 inch black and white stills of O'Hara and Tyrone Power laid in, with a typed letter signed ("Jerry") from producer Jerry Wald, which originally accompanied the presentation copy, dated October 19, 1954; a letter from agent George Chasin, dated October 21, 1954, congratulating O'Hara on the film; and a note from Brandt Bros. Theatres.
Set at West Point Military Academy, John Ford's The Long Gray Line followed Irish immigrant Martin "Marty" Maher (Tyrone Power) from his arrival as a waiter through his half-century career at the school, first as a cadet, then as instructor. O'Hara portrayed Maher's wife, Mary O'Donnell.
In her autobiography, O'Hara described how Ford singled her out for intense verbal abuse and humiliation during filming. O'Hara's deep anger at Ford seems to come across in a note she wrote in pencil on this script's final page: "God forgive me for humbling my body to you - / Better that I was an ass to an apple man - / or the mother of a gentleman bastard." On page 74 of her script, O'Hara scratched out a Gaelic prayer her character recites and wrote alternate lines in Gaelic in pencil in the page's lower half. The script runs 181 pages—approximately three hours of screen-time—but the finished film runs only 138 minutes, indicating that a sizable amount of material was dropped.
WITH: mimeographed manuscript, Final Draft screenplay by Edward Hope, dated December 11, 1953 on title page, bound in green leather with "The Long Gray Line" and "Maureen O'Hara" stamped in gilt to front cover and "The Long Gray Line" stamped in gilt to spine, with yellow revision pages dated February 12, 1954 and blue revision pages dated March 27, 1954, with 4 size 8 x 10 inch black and white stills of O'Hara and Tyrone Power laid in, with a typed letter signed ("Jerry") from producer Jerry Wald, which originally accompanied the presentation copy, dated October 19, 1954; a letter from agent George Chasin, dated October 21, 1954, congratulating O'Hara on the film; and a note from Brandt Bros. Theatres.
Set at West Point Military Academy, John Ford's The Long Gray Line followed Irish immigrant Martin "Marty" Maher (Tyrone Power) from his arrival as a waiter through his half-century career at the school, first as a cadet, then as instructor. O'Hara portrayed Maher's wife, Mary O'Donnell.
In her autobiography, O'Hara described how Ford singled her out for intense verbal abuse and humiliation during filming. O'Hara's deep anger at Ford seems to come across in a note she wrote in pencil on this script's final page: "God forgive me for humbling my body to you - / Better that I was an ass to an apple man - / or the mother of a gentleman bastard." On page 74 of her script, O'Hara scratched out a Gaelic prayer her character recites and wrote alternate lines in Gaelic in pencil in the page's lower half. The script runs 181 pages—approximately three hours of screen-time—but the finished film runs only 138 minutes, indicating that a sizable amount of material was dropped.