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Lot 1057
A Leslie Howard custom-bound final shooting script of Gone With the Wind, gifted to him by David O. Selznick
10 December 2019, 14:00 PST
Los AngelesUS$30,000 - US$50,000
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A Leslie Howard custom-bound final shooting script of Gone With the Wind, gifted to him by David O. Selznick
MGM, 1939. Mimeographed manuscript, 256 pages, dated January 24, 1939, full gilt-stamped burgundy morocco with original yellow wrappers bound in, with "Gone With the Wind / Screen Play" to cover and spine and "Leslie Howard" to lower right corner of cover, with eight approximately 7.5 x 9.75 in. stills bound in. Inscribed and signed by Selznick to the front free endpaper: "For Leslie- / with the profound / (but probably futile) / hope that he'll / finally read it! / Xmas, 1939," housed in a custom clamshell box with "Gone With the Wind / Final Shooting Script" in gilt to cover and spine.
In 1938, neither Leslie Howard nor Clark Gable wanted their roles in David O. Selznick's Gone With the Wind (1939), but Gable was under contract to MGM and was eventually pressured into the film. Leslie Howard, however, wasn't under contract to any studio and was free to negotiate. In order to land Howard for the film, Selznick offered him the Associate Producer position on the 1939 classic Intermezzo with Howard starring and Ingrid Bergman making her American film debut. Howard accepted the deal. When Gone With the Wind finished filming, Selznick, for secrecy reasons, collected the shooting scripts and had them destroyed. Very few escaped. Then in December 1939, he personally inscribed and signed beautifully bound copies of the GWTW script and presented them to a certain number of cast, crew, and associates as gifts. His pithy and perfect inscriptions in many of the scripts add an exceptional dimension to these highly prized volumes. Leslie Howard's script carries the marvelously appropriate Selznick inscription reflecting the fact that Howard apparently never actually read the book or the full script. He only learned his part. These personalized copies of the script are among the most desirable of all Gone With the Wind memorabilia.
Provenance: the collection of Tom Heyes.
9.5 x 12.25 x 2.5
In 1938, neither Leslie Howard nor Clark Gable wanted their roles in David O. Selznick's Gone With the Wind (1939), but Gable was under contract to MGM and was eventually pressured into the film. Leslie Howard, however, wasn't under contract to any studio and was free to negotiate. In order to land Howard for the film, Selznick offered him the Associate Producer position on the 1939 classic Intermezzo with Howard starring and Ingrid Bergman making her American film debut. Howard accepted the deal. When Gone With the Wind finished filming, Selznick, for secrecy reasons, collected the shooting scripts and had them destroyed. Very few escaped. Then in December 1939, he personally inscribed and signed beautifully bound copies of the GWTW script and presented them to a certain number of cast, crew, and associates as gifts. His pithy and perfect inscriptions in many of the scripts add an exceptional dimension to these highly prized volumes. Leslie Howard's script carries the marvelously appropriate Selznick inscription reflecting the fact that Howard apparently never actually read the book or the full script. He only learned his part. These personalized copies of the script are among the most desirable of all Gone With the Wind memorabilia.
Provenance: the collection of Tom Heyes.
9.5 x 12.25 x 2.5