Newberry Library - Willie, Hugh, Ben Hecht incoming correspondence, n.d., 1953

User-Contributed Transcription [Letterhead of Beverly Hill Tennis Club]
Wednesday
Dear Ben-
The following springboard for a musical comedy has been submitted to us by a couple of pretty good songwriters here in Hollywood. Could you tell me a) whether, in your opinion, it's any good at all and b) if you think it is, would you work on it and under what conditions. Here's the notion-
The hero is a songwriter- a product of tin pan alley in New York- brash- young- shows promise. His agent sells his life story to a picture company- the picture to be made after he dies. So much down so much to his estate. The picture company is gambling that he'll come up with enough hits- his life will be worth doing. From this point on- our hero begins to live his life as he would like it to appear on the screen. Trying to conform to what he thinks posterity would expect of him- he screws up his whole life- "To thine own self be true theme- Is it anything at all?
Have been working at Paramont the last two months- Nothing interesting- just money- What have you been up to.

Transcription Status Completed

Transcription Note This document was transcribed by volunteers as part of the Newberry Transcribe crowdsourcing initiative.

Archival Collection Title Ben Hecht papers, Midwest Manuscript Collection, Society of Collectors

Link to Catalog View finding aid | View record

Call Number Midwest MS Hecht Box 63 Folder 1761

BibID 992595638805867

Rights Status Copyright Not Evaluated

Contributing Institution Newberry Library

Newberry Open Access Policy The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to these terms and conditions.

IIIF Resource Type Canvas

Size 3394px × 4366px 84.83 MB

File Created 03/25/2024

Filename 992595638805867_midwest_ms_hecht_box_00063_fl_01761_000005.tif

Unique Identifier NL128RTS

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