Studio contracts for New Yord auction
Published December 22nd, 2006
More than 200 documents from the 20th Century Fox archives are on the auction block next month in New York, including a memo saying Norma Jean Dougherty was changing her name to Marilyn Monroe.
Many of the studio contracts for such stars as Cary Grant, Clark Gable and Rita Hayworth are signed by the stars and should fetch big bucks at the Jan. 25 auction to benefit the nonprofit Motion Picture & Television Fund.
Also offered are Humphrey Bogart’s first studio contract in 1930 when he was paid $400 a week and assigned the film “Up the River” and Judy Garland’s contract to star in the 1967 film “Valley of the Dolls” as well as a termination letter drafted after she showed up for work inebriated.
“Fox’s heritage reflects Hollywood itself and our well-maintained document archives are a Tut’s Tomb of movie history,” Fox chairman Tom Rothman said.
“These papers are so cool that, as a fan of that history, I will have to restrain myself from bidding,” he said.
The Documents From the Golden Age of Hollywood auction takes place Jan. 25 at the Swann Galleries in New York City.
www.swanngalleries.com
