JERRY WALD - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 10/26/1953 - HFSID 31756

JERRY WALD
Jerry Wald types a letter about movie stars on Broadway and the Actor's Company.
Superb Typed Letter Signed: "Jerry", 3p, 7¼x10½. Columbia Pictures, Hollywood, California, 1953 October 26. To writer Louis Sobol, New York Journal, New York City. In part: "News has been seeping through about the invasion of Hollywoodites to Broadway. From all reports I hear that Norman's play with Martin and Boyer is a top flight attraction, Deb Kerr is re-convincing everybody that she is a two-handed hitter - - great in films and on the stage, Roz Russell is continuing to knock them over in WONDERFUL TOWN. About three years ago, Greg Peck, Mel Ferrer, Dorothy McGuire and I got together and formed a group that was called the Actor's Company. The purpose of the group was to make it possible for top flight movie people to do some acting on the stage. Other members of the company were Deb Kerr, Charles Boyer, Roz Russell, Gene Kelly and Johnny Garfield...Well, there we were, a happy group. We met once a week, discussed plays to be produced, ways to raise money for our theatre project, etc...Dorothy McGuire got tired of talking and took SUMMER AND SMOKE out on the road for us. She did very well too...The meetings of the Actor's Company became tougher and tougher to hold. Greg Peck had to go to Europe, Charles Boyer went on the road with his wonderful DON JUAN IN HELL, Gene Kelly was sent to Europe by M.G.M., John Garfield passed away...Week after week, Mel Ferrer, Fanchon and Roz Russell and I would continue to hang on desperately to what we began to realize was a lost cause. Then I became involved with the handling of the production problems at Columbia with Harry Cohn, so I guess my interest began to wane too...all of us that were connected with the Actor's Company have lived to see the day that our dreams have become actualities; that is, with the exception of Johnny Garfield...The play that Norman told us about is now being done by Charles Boyer and Mary Martin. And as I said earlier in this note, Deb and Roz are really proving that we were all on the right track with the aims and desires we had for the Actor's Company. And one of these nights, Greg Peck will return to the New York theatre, as will the talented Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer...It's too bad that the Actor's Company isn't presenting these shows, because you see, we dissolved the entire project a year ago...." Jerry Wald (1911-1962) was the archetypical "boy wonder" of Hollywood. He was hired by Warner Bros. as a screenwriter in 1933. Among his many Warner producing assignments were the Bogart pictures All Through the Night (1942), Action in the North Atlantic (1943) and Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1947) and the Joan Crawford films Mildred Pierce (1945) and Humoresque (1946). In 1948, Wald received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. He left Warner Bros. for RKO in 1951-1952, then, from 1953 through 1956, he was Vice President in charge of production at Columbia Pictures. In 1956, Wald set up his own production unit with 20th Century-Fox. His Peyton Place was nominated for the 1957 Academy Award for Best Picture and Sons and Lovers was nominated in 1960. Wald died in 1962 just two months short of his 50th birthday. Lightly creased at bottom right blank corners. Folds, light horizontal fold touches the "Jer" in signature. Receipt stamp ("October 28, 1953") and staple at upper left corner. Pencil mark on 6 lines of type on first page, pencil note (unknown hand) at top margin of second page. Lightly creased. Overall, fine condition.