Item #019664 TYPED LETTER SIGNED (TLS). Darryl F. ZANUCK.

TYPED LETTER SIGNED (TLS)

Beverly Hills: 9 September 1941. Letter. A letter on Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation stationery to Franklin D. Roosevelt's son, Captain James Roosevelt, in his capacity as secretary to his father in the White House, SIGNED "Darryl." Zanuck writes about the Congressional investigation of the Hollywood film industry's role in trying to bring the United States into World War II by inserting pro-British and pro-interventionist messages in its films, an investigation that had begun the very day of this letter. Much to the surprise of many, Wendell Willkie, who had lost to Roosevelt in the last presidential election, was hired by Hollywood as special counsel to defend against the isolationists before the subcommittee, headed by Senator D. Worth Clark. Zanuck would testify at great length but not for a couple of weeks after writing this letter. The hearings were postponed indefinitely on October 9 due to the absence of several members for various reasons and would ultimately be inconclusive once Japan attacked the United States on December 7, but they played an important role in establishing a congressional distrust of the film industry that would culminate in 1947 when the House Un-American Activities Committee prompted the blacklisting targeting its members. In this letter, Zanuck tells Roosevelt: "If there was ever a time when any two people faced opposition, we certainly faced it -- and now we have certainly been completely vindicated." He bases this optimistic view on a letter by Willkie published, as Zanuck states, "on the front page of practically every important paper in America." An original copy of Willkie's nine-page letter, signed in type, is included with Zanuck's letter as is a letter to Roosevelt, also on Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation stationery, from Jason S. Joy, Director of Public Relations. A fascinating archive depicting the beginnings of the friction between Hollywood and Washington. Rust stain from a paperclip in the upper left corner not affecting any text. Near Fine. Item #019664

Price: $850.00

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