TRUMBO DALTON: (1905-1976) American screenwriter of Roman Holiday (1953) and other Hollywood movies, Academy Award winner. Trumbo was one of the Hollywood Ten and refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 during their investigation of alleged Communist influences in the motion picture industry. D.S., Peter Flint, a nom-de-plume used by Trumbo, three pages, folio, n.p., 1^st May 1959. The typed document is a contract made between Flint [Trumbo] and Carlyle-Alpina S.A., stating that Flint is the sole author of the screenplay entitled The Other Side of the Coin, based upon a novel of the same name by Pierre Boule, and that he agrees to transfer all the rights to the purchaser for the sum of $60,000, to be paid in six equal instalments, the first being 'upon the date hereof or upon the delivery to the Purchaser of the complete screenplay suitable in all respects for production as a first-class motion picture based upon the aforesaid novel The Other Side of the Coin'. Signed at the conclusion and countersigned by a representative of Carlyle-Alpina S.A. Stapled within a blue paper folder and with two file holes to the head of the pages. Together with a second D.S., Dalton Trumbo, one page, 4to, n.p., 28^th November 1958 (although presumably actually 1959). The document takes the form of a letter to Mr. I. H. Prinzmetal and states, in full, 'This is to confirm that Peter Flint is a nom de plume of mine and that I signed the agreement dated May 1, 1959 with Carlyle-Alpina, S.A., relating to the sale of a screenplay based upon the novel entitled “The Other Side of the Coin” by Pierre Boule'. Two file holes to the upper edge. Also including a T.L.S. by Pierre Boulle, one page, 4to, Paris, 2^nd May 1960, to Wheel Productions Ltd. Boulle refers to the contract he made with his correspondents on 16^th June 1958 in which he transferred the motion picture rights of his novel Les Voies du Salut ('The Other Side of the Coin') to them, and continues to agree to an amendment in one of the clauses, adding 'In consideration of my agreement, you hereby agree that I may license Professor Danilo Svara to do an opera based on the novel in Yugoslavia'. Countersigned at the foot by a representative of Wheel Productions Ltd. Two files to the upper edge. An interesting group of documents. Some light age wear and minor creasing, generally VG, 3

 

Pierre Boulle (1912-1994) French novelist who is remembered for two works, The Bridge over the River Kwai (1952) and Planet of the Apes (1963), both of which were made into award winning films.

 

Trumbo, one of the members of the Hollywood Ten (the first systematic Hollywood blacklist instituted on 25^th November 1947, the day after ten writers and directors were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee), continued to work clandestinely on major films, writing under pseudonyms and with his work being uncredited.

 

The Other Side of the Coin was due to have been made into a film under the direction of Otto Preminger, but the project was not completed, in part due to Trumbo's prior commitment to the writing of Spartacus (1960) for which (along with Exodus in the same year) he was given public screen credit, thereby marking the beginning of the end of the Hollywood blacklist for Trumbo and other affected screenwriters.