In The Stables Of Hollywood: Frank Capra's Treatment For Mgm's Soviet (1932)

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Notes 1 Brian D. Harvey, Soviet–American ‘Cinematic Diplomacy’ in the 1930s: Could the Russians Really Have Infiltrated Hollywood?, Screen 46(4), Winter 2005, pp. 487–498. 2 Alva Johnston, Capra Shoots as He Pleases, The Saturday Evening Post 210, no. 46 (May 14, 1938); full text also available at http://xroads.virginia.edu/∼ma97/halnon/capra/post.html. 3 Editorial Reviews: From Publishers Weekly, www.amazon.com/Frank-Capra-Catastrophe-Joseph-McBride/dp/0312263244. 4 Joseph Freeman Collection, Hoover Archives, contains the original of Pil’niak's MGM contract. In addition, in Freeman's papers is the draft typescript of his translation of Pil’niak's treatment. Pil’niak's son, Boris Borisovich Andronikashvili, shared the original of his father's work at MGM, a photocopy of which can be found in Brian Harvey Papers, Bakhmeteff Archives, Columbia University, where in the Charles Malamuth Papers one can also consult the original Russian typescript by Pil’niak that Malamuth used to undertake the translation of The Volga Flows Into the Caspian Sea. 5 Inventory of Soviet materials, Legal Department, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Culver City. 6 Trade with Russia by Hugh L. Cooper, President, American-Russian Chamber of Commerce, Col. Hugh L. Cooper Collection, Correspondence 1931–1934, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. 7 Address delivered by Colonel Hugh L. Cooper before the New York Section of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, New York City, 30 October, 1931, typescript, Cooper Collection. See also A. C. Sutton, Western Technology, 1917 to 1930, 202–203; Hugh L. Cooper, Shall We Help or Hinder Soviet Russia in its Experiment with Communism, Steel 28, August 1930, pp. 35–36; Ibid., Russia, Engineers and Engineering 48(4), April 1931, pp. 76–86; Ibid., Russia Offers Large Opportunity for American Industry, Electrical World (26 December, 1931), pp. 1133–1155; American Methods Win Fight to Control Russian River, Engineering News-Record, June 23, 1932, pp. 876–883; C. C. Whelchel, The Dnieper River Development, General Electric Review 36(11), November 1933, pp. 473–477; and Russia Completes Hydro on the Dnieper River, Electrical World, 27 August, 1932, p. 257. 8 Ekonomicheskie zhizn’, no. 215, 15 September, 1928. 9 See my article on the political climate surrounding Pil’niak's visit to the USA: Brian D. Harvey, Whose artists in uniform?: Boris Pil’njak and American writers in the early 1930s, Russian Literature, 62(3) (October 2007), 294–322. 10 Boris Pilnyak, The Russian Story, Script Department no. 34384, MGM Studios, May 20, 1931. 11 H. J. Freyn, American Engineer Looks at the Five-Year Plan, New Republic, May 6, 1931, p. 317. 12 Unpublished letter, 25 August, 1931, from Sinclair to Pil’niak; copy sent to Freeman on same date, Freeman Collection, Hoover Institution Archives. 13 Unpublished letter, in Russian (1931), from Pil’niak to Sinclair, Upton Sinclair Papers, Manuscripts Department, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. 14 Joseph McBride, Frank Capra: the catastrophe of success (New York, Simon & Schuster, 1992), 282–284. 15 Kendall E. Bailes, The American connection: ideology and the transfer of American technology to the Soviet Union, Comparative Studies in Society and Industry, 23 (1981), 421–448. 16 Joseph Freeman, The Soviet Worker: an account of the economics, social and cultural status of labor in the USSR (London, Martin Lawrence, 1932), 89. 17 Bailes, The American connection, 441. 18 Freeman, The Soviet Worker, 88–89. 19 McBride, Catastrophe, 284. Surprisingly enough, the recent biography of Mayer does not mention the Soviet project at MGM: Scott Eyman, Lion of Hollywood: the life and legend of Louis B. Mayer (New York, Simon & Schuster, 2005). 20 MPAA File (Hayes Office), 3 February, 1933, Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library, American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 2. 21 Jules Furthman Collection, Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Box 9. The materials on Soviet include Frank Capra, Soviet, Treatment, 13 December, 1932, MGM Script Department No.3855; and five incomplete versions of the script by Jules Furthman with dates ranging from 19 January, 1933 to 26 June, 1933. I would like to thank Professor Harlow Robinson of Northeastern University for bringing these documents to my attention. The only materials on Soviet in the Frank Capra Collection, Wesleyan University, include short news clippings announcing staff changes, for instance, the introduction of Jules Furthman to write the screenplay for Capra. 22 Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title: an autobiography (New York, Da Capo Press, 1997), 161. 23 McBride, Catastrophe, 282. 24 Ibid., 367. 25 Capra, The Name Above the Title, 205–213. 26 McBride, Catastrophe, 542. 27 Ibid., 618.