RICHARD CONTE - CONTRACT SIGNED 11/28/1949 - HFSID 281380

RICHARD CONTE
He signs a 1949 agreement with the Theatre Guild governing his appearance in "Street Scene," a play to be performed for radio's US Steel Hour.
Document signed: "Richard Conte", 2 pages, 8½x11, front and verso. New York, N.Y., 1949 November 28. Also signed "Armina Marshall" on behalf of the Theatre Guild. Conte agrees to perform in a 1-hour radio broadcast of the US Steel Hour, titled "Street Scene." Fox built up the intense, brooding RICHARD CONTE (1914-1975) as the "New John Garfield" upon signing him to a contract in 1943. His best parts during his Fox years included the wrongly imprisoned man who is exonerated by crusading reporter James Stewart in Call Northside 777 (1947) and the lead role as a wildcat trucker in Thieves' Highway (1949). Among Conte's many TV assignments was a co-starring stint with Dan Dailey, Jack Hawkins and Vittorio De Sica on the 1959 syndicated series The Four Just Men. Appearing primarily in European films in his last years, he directed the Yugoslavian-filmed Operation Cross Eagles. Conte's most important Hollywood role in the 1970s was as rival Mafia Don Barzini in the Oscar-winning The Godfather (1972). ARMINA MARSHALL, who first appeared on the Broadway stage in 1924, became a prominent playwright and producer. The Theatre Guild, which she and husband Lawrence Langer founded in 1919, still flourishes, having produced 228 Broadway plays as of 2002. Marshall and Langer received a Tony for the stage version of Sunrise at Campobello in 1958 and a special Tony (1961) for organizing the first repertory group to tour the world for the U.S. State Department, at President Kennedy's behest. Horizontal fold creases. Right edge lightly chipped. Separate piece stapled at left edge (8½x1½). Otherwise, fine condition.