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Amazing archives of 22 letters written about Distinguished Hungarian-born American film director Michael Curtiz (1886-1962) who helmed such all-time classics as Casablanca, Angels with Dirty Faces, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and White Christmas. This is an archive of letters and interesting stories told by some of his closest friends and famous actors to his daughter Candice Curtiz who was working on putting together a book on her famous father.
The collection has letters written form such luminaries in stage and screen , like John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Ingrid Bergman. Olivia De Havilland, Bing Crosby, Michael Wilding, Rosalind Russell, Walter Matthau, Hall Wallis, Nany Fabray, Howard Koch, Robert Buckner, Lou Greenspan, Rudy Valle, John Gavin, Carolyn Jones, and more.
Here are a few examples of snippets of the stories told in the collection.
Ingrid Bergman writes an ALS on February 5, 1975 and says:"I belong to the people who loved your father. He was extremely nice to me during the shooting of “Casablanca”. He was under such stress because the script was written day by day. All his actors were nervous not knowing what was going to happen, all of them asking for their dialogue. He sat mostly by himself in deep thoughts while the lights were being changed. He was very impatient and couldn’t stand the people that work slowly. How wonderful, if he had known he was making a masterpiece, a classic that would be loved by generations! I never metYour father outside of work, so I really only know him from the set. I think Hal Wallace the producer and still here in Hollywood, could help you. They fight over the story every lunch hour! I wish you best of luck, Ingrid Bergman"
John Wayne TLS August 25th , 1975
“I am one of the fellows who had a great affection for your father, although I didn’t get to work with him, as you know, until his last picture. He was a man in every sense of the word, and I had a deep respect for his abilities.
Ronald Reagan 3 page TLS November 12, 1974 as Governor of California.
He states in the letter “I have often said you can number the directors in Hollywood on two hands who could get a better performance form and actor than the actor had originally intended to put out. Your father would have been in that small number.” “The stories about your father are legion. Through out the letter Reagan goes into detail how Michael “could have been a very great painter, at least judging by his ability to frame a picture.” He also talks about the movie he was doing “Santa Fe Trail” and that the movie was based on a book called God’s Angry Man. Guess what your father was named before the picture was finished?”.
Olivia De Havilland TLS 2 pages August 23 1975
De Havilland goes on to write about here first experience with Michael. As I know you understand, working with your father could be very fifficult matter, for on the set, he was exigent, emotional, and even harsh. I first worked for him on Captain Blood”, which he began filmiong, as I recall it, just before my 19th birthday; and although I had already experienced William Dieterle, which should have prepared me, I was still quite intimidated by Michael Curtiz”.
Bing Crosby TLS November 18th , 1975
In this letter Bing talks about how he believed he got brought to the US by Jack Warner wo saw some of his work. He believe that his first movie was called ‘Little Cesar” and was actually a gangster movie. He goes on to working with Mike in a picture called” White Christmas” and that he had a marvelous time. He goes on to say” I never seen a man who really had t6he enthusiasm he had for everything he undertook”.
Lauren Bacall ALS on her stationary 29th august (75)
I was in two films directed by your father. “He was a character in deed, and a genius with the camera. ..He was a true character and a marvelous movie maker”
Kirk Douglas TLS on his stationary November 14, 1974
“I remember your father well. We did Young Man With A Horn. He was a man of tremendous vitality—too much for most of the cast because he never wanted to stop for lunch…. He always amazed me; how many of the movies were typically American films done by someone who was not born here.”
Walter Matthau writes in February 10, 1975
“I remember your father calling me “Walty” and Elvis Presley was “Elvy”.He told me he was on the stage as a young man and that he tended to overact too.”
With One Of A Kind Collectibles COA.