DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS JR. - CONTRACT SIGNED 11/19/1945 - HFSID 77433

DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR.
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. signed this contract in 1945 as a commander in the United States Naval Reserves to appear in RKO Radio Pictures' swashbuckler Sinbad the Sailor for $100,000.
Contract signed twice "Douglas Fairbanks Jr Comdr USNR" and "Douglas Fairbanks Jr" and by an assistant secretary at RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. Also initialed once by both. Red and blue pencil marks in unknown hand. 35 pages including front cover, 8½x12¾, bound with three staples. Nov. 11, 1945. Fairbanks was a reserve officer in the United States Navy during World War II. Fairbanks was to appear as Sinbad in a movie tentatively titled The Strange Adventures of Sinbad with Maureen O'Hara and Walter Slezak.Filming was to start in early February of 1946 and continue for 10 weeks. During this time, Fairbanks would receive a weekly salary of $10,000. This film was released Sinbad the Sailor (1947), an exotic swashbuckler set in mysterious Arabia that could best be described as "Fairbanksesque". Fairbanks (1909-2000, born Douglas Elton Ullman Fairbanks Jr. in New York City)had been raised by his mother after his parents' divorce. At the age of 13, he starred in Lasky's Stephen Steps Out, an unsuccessful attempt to exploit the Fairbanks name. Douglas Fairbanks Sr. took little interest in his son's career. The two did not become close friends until the early 1930s. In 1939, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. died in his sleep from a heart attack at the age of 56; his son was then 30 years old. Fairbanks often replicated his father's swashbuckling in such films as The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) and Sinbad the Sailor (1947). But he was an accomplished actor who proved himself on stage and film, including a starring role in the now-classic Gunga Din (1939). Fairbanks also appeared in a number of made-for-TV movies and hosted the anthology series, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Presents (1952-1955). Lightly toned, soiled and creased. Fairbanks' signature is lightly smeared and spotted but legible. Two file holes at top edge. Ink transference from signatures and initials with light show-through. Lightly nicked at bottom edge. Otherwise in fine condition.