Beschreibung:

FITZGERALD, F. SCOTT. Two typed letter signed ("F. Scott Fitzgerald" and "Scott Fitz") to Lester Cowan, Encino and Hollywood ("1403 N. Laurel Ave."), 28 May and 14 June 1940. Together 2 pages, 4to (one full and one half page), single-spaced, mild fold creases. "THE EAR OF HOLLYWOOD IS NOTORIOUSLY HUNGRY" 28 May 1940 (written just after completing the first draft of the script): "...The picture was fun to write. The only snag was in the final Swiss Sequence. I found out that there is no trace of winter sport in Switzerland before the middle of December and the stockmarket crash occurred very definitely the last part of October so, instead of a routine based on bob-sleds such as we talked about, I had to resort to an older device. I think this sequence carries the emotion of the others but it is the one with least originality of treatment, and audiences are more and more responding to originality after five years of double-feature warm-overs..." Fitzgerald discusses possible casting for the movie, and ends: "...There are so many new things in our script that I thought it best to deliver it to Bob [Cowan's assistant] under seal. So many of the scenes are easily repeated in the most innocent way, and the ear of Hollywood is notoriously hungry. I think you will like the title [ Honoria , after the little girl in the story and script]. It is an unusual name with a peculiarly sonorous quality and so many of the more popular pieces -- Babbitt, Rebecca, David Copperfield -- have been only names...P.S. This of course, is the best and final version of the 1st draft..." 14 June 1940: "The enclosed picture tells its own story. The picture [movie] All This and Heaven Too [starring Charles Boyer and Bette Davis] is the old English tripe about the virtuous governess but it shows Virginia Wiedler well along in the awkard age with a face that now photographs exactly like an unripe pear..." The apparently enclosed photograph of Virginia Wiedler is not present. Letters , ed. M.J. Bruccoli & M.M. Duggan, pp. 599-600 (for the first letter, printed from a typed transcript or carbon copy at Princeton). (2)