Behind the Screenplay - The Adventures of Mark Twain

219 Pages·2016·2.24 MB·English

by  Raevouri Saskia (Editor)

Behind the Screenplay
“The Adventures of Mark Twain”
Correspondence Compiled and Edited by Saskia Raevouri
BEHIND THE SCREENPLAY
Compiled and Edited by Saskia Raevouri
Correspondence Related to the Writing of the Screenplay of
“The Adventures of Mark Twain” (1944)
Produced by Jesse L. Lasky for Warner Bros. Pictures
Screenplay by Alan LeMay
Adaptation by Alan LeMay and Harold M. Sherman
Addition Dialogue: Harry Chandlee
All biographical material based on works owned or con-
trolled by the Mark Twain Company, and the play,
“Mark Twain”, by Harold M. Sherman.
eBook Edition Copyright ©2010 Saskia Raevouri.
All Rights Reserved
This correspondence is based on letters and documents stored in
Harold Sherman’s archives in the Special Collections at the
Torreyson Library, University of Central Arkansas at Conway. I
hereby thank the staff, especially Jimmy Bryant and Betty
Osborne, who have always cheerfully helped me to find
what I was looking for during my many visits. I also wish
to express my gratitude to Mary Kobiella and Marcia Lynch,
daughters of Harold Sherman, and to Betty Lasky, daughter of
Jesse L. Lasky. All three of these women have unfailingly cooper-
ated with me in my efforts to preserve their parents’ legacies, and
in the process have become treasured friends.
ISBN# 978-0-9768896-3-2
Produced by Square Circles Publishing
www.SquareCircles.com
Version 11-22-2010
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Publisher’s Page 2
Table of Contents 3
Introduction 4
Cast of Characters 5
1. Sherman and Twain 3
2. Waiting 15
3. Hollywood 51
4. New York Interlude 90
5. Working 98
6. Let Go 105
7. Rehired 123
8. Chicago 135
9. Clara Files Suit 149
10. The Credits 157
11. Planning for Trial 176
12. Previews and Reviews 182
13. Friendship 187
A 436-page PDF file,
Behind The Screenplay: Original Source Documents,
can be viewed at
Jesse-L-Lasky.com and HaroldSherman.com
3
INTRODUCTION
This book documents what went on behind the scenes in the
writing of the 1944 Warner Bros. feature film, “The Adventures of
Mark Twain,” starring Frederic March. The central figures are play-
wright and aspiring screenwriter Harold M. Sherman, legendary
Hollywood producer Jesse L. Lasky, and Mark Twain’s daughter,
Clara Clemens Gabrilowitsch.
* * *
In the mid-1930s, Harold Sherman (1898-1987), who went on to
write bestselling books on subjects ranging from self-help to ESP
and life after death, wrote a stage play, “Mark Twain.” He submitted
it to the Mark Twain Estate which, in 1936, granted him exclusive
dramatic rights for stage, screen and radio, for a limited period. The
play was quickly sold to a successful Broadway producer, Harry
Moses, but Moses’s terminal illness forced the play to revert back to
Sherman, whose rights were extended.
Clara Clemens Gabrilowitsch (1874-1962) wrote Sherman that
she enjoyed reading his play “enormously,” and after she and Sher-
man exchanged a few letters about the work, they, together with
Sherman’s wife, Martha, discovered a shared interest in spiritual
matters. A close friendship developed among the three. From 1936
to 1939, as their correspondence shows, Sherman continued to try to
get his play produced on Broadway first, but with times being hard
finally agreed on a sale to Hollywood.
Jesse L. Lasky (1880-1958) was a Hollywood pioneer and founder
of Paramount Studios. By 1939 he had become an independent pro-
ducer whose main interest was biographies of great Americans. The
life of Mark Twain was a natural, and Lasky negotiated a purchase
for the movie rights, the percentages divided between the Twain Es-
tate and Sherman, as Lasky was obliged to include Sherman’s play in
the deal. In addition, Lasky hired Sherman to write the preliminary
movie treatment for shopping the film around to major studios.
This book shows how Jesse Lasky worked with the ambitious
but inexperienced Sherman; how Sherman had to swallow his pride
when Lasky replaced him with big-name Hollywood writers; how
the Sherman-Gabrilowitsch friendship disintegrated as Clara’s dis-
satisfaction with the contracts and the final script led her to file suit
against the trustees of her own estate; and how the Laskys and the
Shermans grew to be personal friends while maintaining a profes-
sional distance. It is a small piece of “behind the scenes” Hollywood
history.
Saskia Raevouri
November 22, 2010
4
CAST OF CHARACTERS
MAIN CORRESPONDENTS [in alphabetical order]
CLARA CLEMENS GABRILOWITSCH, daughter of Mark Twain
JESSE L. LASKY, Hollywood producer
HAROLD M. SHERMAN, author/playwright/screenwriter
OTHER CORRESPONDENTS
ABRAHAM L. BERMAN, attorney for Howard Kyle
WALTER BRENNAN, actor hoping to play Twain
WALTER L. BRUINGTON, Lasky’s attorney
MERCEDES DE ACOSTA, playwright, friend Sherman & Lasky
JULIUS EVANS, Lasky’s associate producer
MONROE GOLDSTEIN, Hollywood agent
HOWARD KOCH, Hollywood screenwriter
HOWARD KYLE, stage actor hoping to play Twain on Broadway
JERVIS LANGDON, nephew of Mark Twain
CHARLES T. LARK, attorney for the Mark Twain Estate
BESSIE LASKY, wife of Jesse Lasky
ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE, Mark Twain’s official biographer
WINFIELD SHEEHAN, 20th-Century-Fox production head
RUBY SKELLY, Hollywood studio secretary, Sherman friend
HELEN L. STARR, secretary to Charles T. Lark
JACK WARNER, Warner Bros. studio head
PROMINENTLY MENTIONED
MR. & MRS. ARTHUR BERG, composer & wife
DAVE DIAMOND, Hollywood agent
ANN FROELICH, Hollywood screenwriter
WILLIAM HURLBUT, Hollywood screenwriter
LUCY MAY KOCH, estranged wife of Howard Koch
GEORGE JR. & HELEN LARK, son & daughter-in-law of Lark
BETTY LASKY, daughter of Jesse & Bessie Lasky
BILLY LASKY, son
JESSE LASKY JR., son
MRS. LASKY, mother of Jesse Lasky
ALAN LeMAY, screenwriter hired to work with Sherman
BOB LONGENECKER, agent
MR. & MRS. LOOMIS, Mark Twain’s niece and her husband
HARRY LOOSE, friend of the Shermans, living in Los Angeles
FREDERIC MARCH, actor playing Mark Twain in the film
WILLIAM MORRIS, agent
EDDIE RICKENBACKER, WWI fighter ace
MARTHA SHERMAN, wife of Harold Sherman
MARY & MARCIA SHERMAN, daughters of Harold & Martha
MOTHER SHERMAN, mother of Harold Sherman
ELLIS ST. JOSEPH, Hollywood screenwriter
FRED STONE, actor suggested for role of Mark Twain on stage
HAL WALLIS, production head at Warners
CHARLES WHITMORE, friend who underwrote Sherman in 1930s
SIR HUBERT WILKINS, Arctic explorer, mutual Lasky friend
LOUIS ZARA, novelist Sherman recommended to Lasky as writer
5
1.
Sherman and Twain
HOW I BECAME INVOLVED WITH MARK TWAIN
by Harold Sherman
In the middle 1930’s, the idea came to me that I might drama-
tize, for radio, stage and screen, the life of America’s great humorist,
Mark Twain. Inquiry revealed that the rights to do this would have
to be secured through the Mark Twain Estate, which had been es-
tablished following Twain’s death for the purpose of handling the
sale and other business relative to his many literary properties.
I found that this Estate was managed by an attorney, Charles T.
Lark, with office on Fifth Avenue [in New York City]; that he was
one of the trustees, and that he had been the lawyer who had drawn
up Twain’s will and acted as his executor. The Estate was being op-
erated for Mark Twain’s only surviving daughter, at that time Mrs.
Ossip Gabrilowitsch of Detroit.
I realized that my ambition to dramatize Mark Twain’s life could
not be achieved unless I was willing to invest my time and talent
in preparation of a full and complete synopsis which might be pre-
sented to Mr. Lark in proof of my ability. It was evident that many
writers of far greater reputation than mine had sought and were
seeking the granting of these same valuable rights. I reasoned that
these busy writers would perhaps not be willing nor have the time
to prepare any material on speculation but would request these
rights of the Estate based upon their established reputations. I
therefore decided it was worth the gamble for me to devote all the
spare time possible in a study of all writings on, about and by Mark
Twain, to saturate my consciousness with his life activities and
character, and then to prepare a detailed dramatic outline to show
the Estate just how I would propose to handle this subject for the
stage.
In preparing this work, which required about six months, I con-
stantly pictured in my mind its acceptance by Mr. Lark and all
concerned, when submitted. My conscious mind tried to suggest, at
6
Sherman and Twain 7
times, that I didn’t have the ghost of a chance in competition with
big name authors, that I was wasting my time, and that I was let-
ting myself in for a major disappointment.
Intuitively, however, I felt that this project could succeed because
I had a profound feeling of kinship for Mark Twain who, in his day,
had recognizably used these same powers of Extra Sensory Percep-
tion [ESP]. I hoped that Mr. Lark and Clara Clemens Gabrilowitsch
and Albert Bigelow Paine, Twain’s official biographer, who was
then still living, would sense in the reading of my outline that my
interest in Twain was not motivated by opportunism but by a deep
conviction that my background and understanding could bring
Twain to life in dramatic form.
When the outline was finally finished, I had it professionally
typed and bound and, with that, I was now ready to make contact
with Charles T. Lark for the first time. I phoned his office and made
an appointment through his secretary. The night before keeping this
appointment, in my period of meditation, I had what you might call
an imaginary interview with Mr. Lark. I saw myself meeting and
informing him of the purpose of my visit. I heard Mr. Lark explain
politely to me that the Estate placed a high value upon the dramatic
rights to Mark Twain’s life and had turned down many offers and
requests from authors. This information was not intuitive, it had
been public knowledge. But, as I visualized my interview with Mr.
Lark, I felt that the least he could say or do in appreciation of the
time and labor I had put upon the script, would be to say that he
would read it. If I could get him to agree to this much, in my first
contact, I felt that this would be all that I could possibly expect.
During this meditation, a definite feeling came to me that Mr.
Lark would agree to read the outline and, the instant I had this im-
pression, I relaxed and went to sleep in the faith that all would go
well with my appointment.
Everything did turn out exactly as visualized. Mr. Lark was
much impressed by the enormous amount of work I had done on
speculation, realizing, as I pointed out to him that, if he did not find
my work acceptable, all he had to do was to drop the manuscript in
the waste basket since I did not possess the rights and could go no
further without legal sanction of the Estate.
The copyright laws [were] such that, while much of an author’s
writing and life may be in the public domain after his death, and
following the expiration of his copyrights, as long as any living
8 Behind the Screenplay
relatives remain who require dramatization as a part of any story,
permission must be obtained from them or their Estate, for inclu-
sion. In this case, Clara Clemens Gabrilowitsch, as one of Twain’s
daughters, was to appear in several scenes.
Mr. Lark said frankly that he could give me no assurance what-
soever that all this work I had done would find favor with the
Estate. He showed me a file of letters and telegrams from famous
authors and producers, seeking these same rights. He said that Mrs.
Gabrilowitsch wanted to make sure that her father’s life would be
tastefully and sympathetically dramatized and she did not wish to
enter into any contract for such dramatization until she knew ex-
actly how the playwright proposed to treat this subject. I left Mr.
Lark’s office with a light heart and a growing conviction that ac-
ceptance of my outline would be only a matter of time.
The waiting periods on any project are the hardest to endure. . . .
In about ten days, Mr. Lark’s secretary phoned and asked me to
mail to the office a copy of my bibliography. I knew from this that
my outline was receiving serious consideration. Two weeks later,
Mr. Lark himself called and invited me to lunch. He then reported
that he had read the outline and had liked it so much he had mailed
it on to the other trustees and Albert Bigelow Paine,* and when
he had received favorable replies from them, had sent the script to
Mrs. Gabrilowitsch. She, too, had written, expressing her liking for
the overall treatment. “And I suppose now,” concluded Mr. Lark,
“what you want is the go-ahead?”
I told him it certainly was, that I desired to work in close associa-
tion with the Estate in the dramatization and, after some discussion,
the contract was agreed upon, granting me the exclusive rights in all
dramatic forms.
[From Know Your Own Mind (New York: C. & R. Anthony, Inc.,
1953)]
* * *
On March 14, 1936, the contract was signed between the trustees
of the estate of Samuel L. Clemens, the Mark Twain Company, and
Harold M. Sherman, giving Sherman the rights to produce a bio-
graphical play based on the life and works of Mark Twain on the
legitimate stage, as well as the “motion picture, television, radio and
marionette rights.” On March 21, 1936, an agreement was signed
between Albert Bigelow Paine and Sherman granting Sherman the
Sherman and Twain 9
right to use extracts or quotations, or otherwise symbolize incidents
of the life and sayings of Mark Twain based on Paine’s work, sub-
ject to the approval of Paine.
Stage actor Howard Kyle, who had originally interested Sherman
with the subject matter and who had introduced him to Charles
T. Lark, attorney for the estate, signed a binding agreement with
Sherman on April 16, 1936, giving Kyle 5% of royalties on the stage
production of “Mark Twain.” It was also stipulated in the contract
that Sherman would urge producers to select Kyle as the actor most
qualified to portray Twain on the stage.
On July 11, 1936, Sherman, writing to wife Martha spending
the summer with daughters in Michigan, says, “Today I sold a two
weeks’ option on ‘Mark Twain’ to Harry Moses, producer of ‘Grand
Hotel.’ Technically, I sold it to Mrs. Moses, who is the power behind
his productions, the woman who really selects all his plays. . . . My
option calls for a total payment of $1500 advance, $1250 more when
deal is closed inside two weeks.” Moses himself was in Mt. Sinai
Hospital for exploratory surgery, and Mrs. Moses was “tying the
play up so she can go to work on it and try to line up cast and make
other arrangements pending her ability to perfect final details with
Mr. Moses.” A Dramatist’s Guild contract between Harry Moses &
Elsa Moses and Harold M. Sherman for the production of “Mark
Twain” was signed on July 15, 1936.
DETROIT NEWS
“HAROLD SHERMAN WRITES PLAY ON MARK TWAIN”
NEW YORK, July 18.—Under a contract signed today, “Mark
Twain,” a play by Harold Sherman, formerly of Detroit, will be
produced this fall by Harry Moses, producer of the prize-winning
play “The Old Maid” and the outstanding hit, “Grand Hotel.”
The production of the play by Sherman . . . is to be even
more elaborate than “Grand Hotel,” the estimated cost being
$75,000. This places it in a class far beyond any strictly dramatic
production yet planned for the coming season.
It is to be 13 scenes with a cast of more than 60 persons.
Rehearsals will begin between the middle of September and Oc-
tober 1 with a Broadway opening early in November. The star
for the name part has not yet been selected.
The story, told in episode form, deals with Twain’s life from
the age of 35 until his death and in addition to the humor and
drama of his history stresses strongly the romance between him
and Olivia Lewis Langdon, whom he married, with sidelights on
the lives of Clara Clemens Gabrilowitsch and other members of
the family.
Sherman was selected by the Twain estate to write the
stage, screen and radio versions of Twain’s life. . . .
10 Behind the Screenplay
On August 18, 1936, Paine wrote to Sherman, “I received a tele-
gram this morning from Mrs. Gabrilowitsch asking me to say to
you that she must see a copy of the play immediately. . . . I hope you
have a revise ready to send, for she seems to be impatient. . . . I still
retain pleasant impressions of the script, and hope all may go well
with it. . . .”
Sherman wrote to Mrs. Gabrilowitsch immediately, advising her
that he had sent her a script “finally revised through a careful going
over by Albert Bigelow Paine.” He added that Walter Huston and
Fred Stone were being considered for the lead role, that he will be
appreciative of any suggestions and looks forward to the privilege
of meeting her and her husband, noted pianist and orchestra con-
ductor Ossip Gabrilowitsch.
Three days later Gabrilowitsch sent Sherman a telegram: “En-
joyed your play enormously. Am writing about it tomorrow . . . I
request you on no account to engage Fred Stone for the imperson-
ation of Mark Twain . . . it would be fine if you could secure Mr.
Huston.”
In a letter dated August 24, 1936, Gabrilowitsch told Sherman, “I
have had tremendous pleasure in reading your play which certainly
has been written with great care and sensitive understanding of the
different members of my family. . . . I want to say that there are,
nevertheless, some suggestions I would like to make of an important
nature . . . difficult to express in a letter, and so I am going to ask you
if you could not manage to come on to Detroit at your very earliest
convenience and have a conference with me,” mentioning that her
husband was ill and that she could not leave his side. She continues,
“It is too bad that I did not know anything about the play until by
accident I saw a statement regarding it in the newspaper a couple of
weeks ago. . .” She adds, “It is easy to see that you have approached
the subject with warm sympathy and appreciation of the serious
side of my father’s character . . . most people regard him only from
the humorous angle.”
Sherman’s response has not been found, but on August 27, 1936,
Gabrilowitsch comments on it, saying that she is “more than will-
ing to give Fred Stone the benefit of the doubt since Huston cannot
be secured.” Apparently Sherman told her that he could not come
to Detroit right away, in which case Gabrilowitsch feared that “the
play opening may need to be postponed as my trustees have assured
me that the contract with Sherman reserves the rights of the estate
to approve the script, ‘estate’ meaning my personal approval.”