CLEMENCE (WINIFRED ASHTON) DANE - DOCUMENT SIGNED 08/13/1946 CO-SIGNED BY: ARMINA MARSHALL - HFSID 167776

CLEMENCE DANE and ARMINA MARSHALL
Writer Clemence Dane signed this document in 1946 to give the Theatre Guild license to broadcast her play A Bill of Divorcement on the U. S. Steel Corporation radio show. Also signed by Armina Marshall, co-administrator of the Theatre Guild.
Document signed "Clemence Dane" and "Armina Marshall" for the Theatre Guild, Inc. Black ink notations and corrections in unknown hand.2 pages, 8¼x11, single-sided sheets. Aug. 13, 1946. Addressed to the Theatre Guild, Inc., New York City. Clemence gave the Theatre Guild license to broadcast her play A Bill of Divorcement (here Bill of Divorcement) on the U. S. Steel Corporation radio show an unspecified number of times between Sept. 8, 1946 and June 15, 1947. The Theatre Guild paid her $750 for this license. CLEMENCE DANE was the pseudonym of British author and screenwright Winifred Ashton (1888-1965). She won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story for the 1945 movie Perfect Strangers, released in the U. S. as Vacation from Marriage. Dane, who wrote 25 novels between 1917 and 1964 - including the 1928 Sir John Samuarez mystery Enter Sir John, which was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock into 1930's Murder! - also wrote six plays, including the 1921-1922 Broadway hit A Bill of Divorcement, which was also adapted to film twice in 1922 and once in 1932, the last with Katharine Hepburn and John Barrymore. Not surprisingly, Dane also had numerous film and TV writing credits as well between 1922 and 1968, including a 1935 film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina starring Greta Garbo. MARSHALL (1894 or 1895-1991),born in the Cherokee Strip of the old Oklahoma Territory and who first appeared on the Broadway stage in 1924, became a prominent playwright and producer. She was also a co-administrator of the Theatre Guild, whichhasproduced 228 Broadway plays as of 2002. Marshall received a special Tony Award (1961) for organizing the first repertory group to tour the world for the U. S. State Department (at the behest of President John F. Kennedy). Lightly toned and creased. Staple holes and paper clip impressions in top left corner in unknown hand. Folded four times and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.