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Proposed "Joan Crawford Show": Various Docs (1960 - 1961)

(full eBay description of archives at bottom)

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Below text from eBay listing January 2024:

Archive of materials regarding an unproduced television series starring Joan Crawford, including a pilot episode script written by Gene Roddenberry, 1960-1961

Author: Joan Crawford (starring); Gene Roddenberry (screenwriter)
Title: Archive of materials regarding an unproduced television series starring Joan Crawford, including a pilot episode script written by Gene Roddenberry, 1960-1961
Publication: N.p. N.p., 1960-1961

Description: Archive of materials regarding an unproduced television series starring Joan Crawford, including a script for a pilot episode written by Gene Roddenberry, 1960-1961. Included in the archive are: two copies of an eight page prospectus, a 47-page Third Draft script for a pilot episode written by Roddenberry ("The Joan Crawford Show (Pilot): A Man's World," including a four page prologue), two contracts, 21 letters, 9 telegrams, and a telegram sending blank from Crawford, as well as thermofax copies of one of the contracts and a contractual letter, and a Xerographically duplicated copy of two letters found in the archive. Five of the documents in the archive are SIGNED by Crawford. Detailed inventory available upon request.

The archive documents the attempted development of a half hour television series starring Crawford as a successful, self-empowered, middle-aged female attorney, from the project's inception in late 1960, with format and concept revisions through early 1961, various writers, directors, and producers associated with the project (including screenwriters Roddenberry, Jack Laird, and Dwight Taylor, director David Miller, and producer Aaron Spelling, among others), attempted deals with ABC and NBC, through to the ultimate abandonment of the project in June, 1961. Revealed in warm and convivial letters and telegrams to Crawford, with most of the communiqués from William Dozier, then Vice President in Charge of West Coast Activities for Screen Gems Inc., a television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, as well as communiqués from Joseph T. Naar of Screen Gems, Leo Jaffe, First Vice President of Columbia Pictures, legal communiqués from Crawford's counsel Seligson, Morris and Neuburger, and contracts with, and a letter to, Crawford's talent agency, the William Morris Agency.

The prospective series was envisioned as a half hour television series, referred to in the documents in the archive under varying titles including, "The Joan Crawford Show" (Roddenberry's script, prospectus, and letters), "The Silver Fox" (letters), and "Ellen Fox: Attorney at Law" (prospectus and letters), and is found on IMDB as an unproduced NBC television series, "The Foxes." Crawford's character is usually found in the documents under the working character name of Ellen Fox but in the early Roddenberry's script is Valerie Downes.

Gene Roddenberry's Script: "The Joan Crawford Show (Pilot): A Man's World":

Front wrapper integral with title page, dated May 26, 1961, noted as THIRD DRAFT, with credits for screenwriter Gene Roddenberry. 47 leaves, with last page of text numbered 41. Carbon typescript copy, rectos only. Pages Very Good plus, bound with a single paper clip to the top left corner.

Prospectus, 8.5 x 11 inches, eight leaves. Two Copies, both Near Fine, one unbound, one bound with a single staple to the top left corner.

21 Letters, 17 ribbon typescript signed, 2 carbon typescript signed, two carbon typescript unsigned. 7.25 x 10.5 to 8.5 x 11 inches. Near Fine overall.

Nine Telegrams, 8.5 x 5.5 to 8.5 x 11 inches, and one Telegram Sending Blank, 6.5 x 4.5 inches. Near Fine.

One three page contract on blue leaves, verso and recto, 8.5 x 11 inches, and one single page contract, 8.5 x 14 inches. Very Good plus, with faint vertical creases from folding.

Thermofax contract, 13 pages, 11) 8.5 x 11 and 2) 8.5 x 14 inches. Very Good plus, with two large sheets detatched, with some creasing and folding at the bottom of the larger sheets.

Contractual letter copies, 8.5 x 11 inches, 16 pages. Near Fine.

Two Xerographically duplicated letters on one sheet, 8.5 x 11 inches. Near Fine.

 

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