Vicki Baum correspondence and film typescript, 1943-1946

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Summary

Creators:
Baum, Vicki, 1888-1960
Abstract:
The Vicki Baum correspondence and film typescript consists of four typed letters signed "Vicki" on "Vicki Baum" letterhead, along with an unpublished draft for a film titled "Conspiracy (Working Title for Sands O' Life)." The correspondence is addressed to Baum's publisher Malcolm Johnsohn and his wife Mathilde Whitridge Johnson. Baum wrote the first three letters in 1943 and the fourth letter in 1946. The draft of the script for "Conspiracy (Working Title for Sands O' Life)"--authored by Baum--is dated November 15, 1946. Baum wrote the script in short story format without dialogue (and is thus a "treatment" in script parlance). Cary Grant and Dorothy McGuire were sought for the lead roles in this script. David 0. Selznick's Vanguard Films, Inc. purchased the script in 1946 and assigned the production of the film to Dore Schary, but the film was never actually made.
Extent:
0.02 Linear Feet 1 pamphlet binder
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

[Box/folder no. or item name], Vicki Baum correspondence and film typescript, Collection no. 6267, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Background

Scope and content:

The Vicki Baum correspondence and film typescript consists of four typed letters signed "Vicki" on "Vicki Baum" letterhead, along with an unpublished draft for a film titled "Conspiracy (Working Title for Sands O' Life)." The correspondence is addressed to Baum's publisher Malcolm Johnsohn and his wife Mathilde Whitridge Johnson. Baum wrote the first three letters in 1943 and the fourth letter in 1946. The draft of the script for "Conspiracy (Working Title for Sands O' Life)"--authored by Baum--is dated November 15, 1946. Baum wrote the script in short story format without dialogue (and is thus a "treatment" in script parlance). Cary Grant and Dorothy McGuire were sought for the lead roles in this script. David 0. Selznick's Vanguard Films, Inc. purchased the script in 1946 and assigned the production of the film to Dore Schary, but the film was never actually made.

Biographical / historical:

Vicki Baum (1888-1960) was one of the world's first best-selling woman authors, a screen writer, and a boxer. She was born in Vienna to a Jewish family and emigrated to the United States in the early 1930s to escape the rise of the National Socialists. Her literary works were denigrated in Germany and Austria as sensationalist and amoral and banned in the Third Reich as of 1935.

Baum wrote the famous novel Menschen im Hotel [People in the Hotel] published in 1929, which was made into an Academy Award-winning film, Grand Hotel (1932), starring John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, and Greta Garbo. Other notable works include Die Anderen Tage [The Other Days] (1922), Liebe und Tod auf Bali [Love and Death in Bali] (1937), and Es War Alles Ganz Anders [It Was All Quite Different] (1962) -- her memoir, which was published posthumously. The internet movie database imdb.com credits Baum with 37 works.

Baum is also known as a boxer. She trained with Turkish prizefighter Sabri Mahir at his studio in Berlin. In her memoir she wrote, "I don't know how the feminine element sneaked into those masculine realms [of boxing], but in any case, only three or four of us were tough enough to go through with it." She credited her hard work to the skills instilled in Mahir's boxing studio.

Acquisition information:
Purchased from Mark Funke Bookseller, May 25, 2022.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Advance notice required for access.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special Collections at specol@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder no. or item name], Vicki Baum correspondence and film typescript, Collection no. 6267, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Location of this collection:
Special Collections
Doheny Memorial Library, Room 209
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189, US
Contact:
(213) 740-5900
specol@usc.edu
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