SAMUEL GOLDWYN - DOCUMENT SIGNED 08/19/1946 - HFSID 271158

SAMUEL GOLDWYN. Typed DS: "Sameul Goldwyn", 1p, 8½x13, stapled to 9x13¼ sheet. Los Angeles County, California, 1946 August 19. Headed: "Assignment of Copyright". Goldwyn transfers the copyright of a photoplay titled Potash & Perlmutter, which was originally copyrighted on September 19, 1923, to his wife, Frances Howard Goldwyn. Also signed by a Notary Public. Partly printed copyright notice, 5x3, with imprinted signature affixed at lower left margin. Goldwyn, who had first become acquainted with Montague Glass' "Potash and Perlmutter" stories while a glove salesman, decided to film the play, written by Glass with Charles Klein. Potash and Perlmutter, his first film as an independent producer, was released in 1923. The ethnic comedy starred Barney Bernard as Abe Potash and Alexander Carr as Morris Perlmutter. In 1946, the year he signed this document, Goldwyn produced The Kid from Brooklyn and The Best Years of Our Lives, which won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (William Wyler), Best Actor (Fredric March), Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell, who also won an Honorary Academy Award), Best Screenplay (Robert E. Sherwood) and Best Editing and was nominated for the Best Sound Oscar. SAMUEL GOLDWYN (1879-1974) organized Goldwyn Pictures (1917) and merged with Louis B. Mayer's Metro Pictures to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. He never made a "B" picture, striving for excellence on every film and producing movies such as Greed (in the silent era, 1924), Stella Dallas (1937), Pride of the Yankees (1942) and Guys and Dolls (1955). Goldwyn is one of the few winners of both the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial and Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Awards. Actress FRANCES HOWARD GOLDWYN (1903-1976), who was married to Goldwyn from April 23, 1925 until his death on January 31, 1974, was known for helping her husband curb his legendary temper. The couple had one son, SAMUEL GOLDWYN, JR. (born in 1926), who continued in his father's footsteps, making films such as Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Mystic Pizza (1988) and Master and Commander (2003). Several of his films, including as The Preacher's Wife (1996), have been remakes or tributes to films made by his father. Goldwyn, Jr. said of his father: "With every picture he made, my father raised the money, paid back the bank, and kept control of the negative." As evidenced by this document, he also maintained control of copyrights. Lightly creased with fold, not at signatures. Stapled at upper margin, which bears a stamped notation from the Library of Congress. Mounting sheet is lightly creased, minor rust stains (not evident head on) at lower portion from staples. Fine condition.