Philip Stevenson SURE FIRE EPISODES IN THE LIFE OF BILLY THE KID SURE #158335

Description

Sure Fire: Episodes in the Life of Billy the Kid [Sure Fire] (Original script for the 1931 play)
Author:
Philip Stevenson (playwright); Billy the Kid [Henry McCarty] (subject); Margery Wilson (director); George Gormly, Dave Steele, John K.C. Andrews, John W. Brown (starring)
Title:
Sure Fire: Episodes in the Life of Billy the Kid [Sure Fire] (Original script for the 1931 play)
Publication:
N.p. N.p., Circa 1931
Description:
Draft script for the 1931 play, copy likely belonging to Joseph Stevenson, the actor credited with playing the character Bell, with annotations in holograph pencil on the 15 pages the character appears, circling the character's name and amending the character's dialogue. The play premiered at the Santa Fe Fiesta in 1931 performed by The Santa Fe Players, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Billy the Kid, and was directed by actor, writer, and silent film director Margery Wilson, best known for her role as Brown Eyes in D.W. Griffith's 1916 epic, "Intolerance." Play incomplete, lacking last page(s) of Act Four, ending on page IV-8. Housed in a paper chemise and outer card folder with cloth binding, with a Xerographic duplicated handbill credit page affixed to the front cover. Likely unique.
Novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and editor, Philip Stevenson, was an outspoken author on social justice and labor, and was an integral part of the Santa Fe art colony of the 1930s. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenwriting as one of the screenwriters for the 1945 film "Story of G.I. Joe," directed by William A. Wellman, and starring Robert Mitchum. In 1951 he was blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Committtee (HUAC), and continued to write under the pseudonyms Lars Lawrence and Henry Arndt.
Long remembered, and well received at the 1931 Santa Fe Fiesta, "Sure Fire" presented an authentic depiction of the outlaw Billy the Kid, and was a basis for the 1954 film "The Law vs. Billy the Kid," directed by William Castle, and starring Scott Brady, which Stevenson co-wrote with his wife Janet Stevenson and fellow black-listed screenwriter Bernard Gordon. Notes and rough drafts for "Sure Fire" are in the Philip E. Stevenson collection at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. According to Jeff Dykes' 1952 book "Billy the Kid: The Bibliography of a Legend," "not a single copy of the mimeographed script has been located."
Lacking front wrapper and title page. 56 leaves, with last page of text numbered IV-8. Mimeograph duplication, rectos only. Pages Very Good, with toning throughout and chipping to the first and last leaves, bound with four gold brads.
Seller ID:
158335
Subject:
1930s Cinema, Hollywood Blacklist, Play Scripts, Theatre, Western
Royal Books
Baltimore, MD
Royal Books is located in the midtown area of Baltimore, Maryland. Since 1996, we have specialized in rare books and paper relating to twentieth century literature, genre fiction, the arts, and popular culture, with a particular emphasis on cinema.
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