Beschreibung
Archive of Southern California Playwright Leo Bryan Pride, 1928-1930, undated 12 typed manuscripts, 1006 pp. total. Eleven are brad-bound, one is loose in a folder. Three have faux leather covers and five have paper covers. Some manuscripts with light edgewear, a bit of light dust-soiling and a few small stains. Very Good condition overall. This is a collection of manuscripts for plays by noted Southern California playwright Leo Bryan Pride. Pride was born in Marion, Illinois in 1897. He graduated from Yale in 1928 and was living in Los Angeles the following year when he was awarded top prize in a drama contest sponsored by the Graham-Paige motor car company. He wrote "The Shadow of the Mine and Other Plays of the Coal Fields," published in 1929. Per the publisher, Samuel French, the book contained "seven remarkable one-act plays dealing with the lives of miners in the Southern Illinois coal fields" and described Pride as a "young playwright with a genuine gift for character." Pride also wrote "The Haunted Coal Mine," a play in one act, which was published in "One-Act Plays for Stage and Study" (1933), and a massive work entitled "International Theatre Directory: A World Directory of the Theatre and Performing Arts" which he compiled and edited and was published in 1973. His colleagues on two of the manuscripts found here were prolific in their own right; Thomas J. Ahearn (1904-1985) penned the story for seven Hollywood motion pictures and Charles J. Wilson is credited as a writer for 55 silent movies. The typed manuscript for "South of the Tehachapi: A Drama of Old California" contains a page of handwritten notes aimed at Pride: "I made some corrections in the first five scenes, but the actions of the Padres became so impossible that I quit. I have no further comments to make. I advise you to study Mission history and the lives of these saintly men whom you malign in this play. They were remarkable, learned, good men, and not the asses you make them out to have been." Despite the disappointment of this manuscript's reviewer, the play was met with great accolades in the Southern California press. The Pasadena Post of August 18, 1930, raved that "We might believe that we had spent the evening in the Mission of San Juan Capistrano itself Saturday night at the Workshop, if it hadn't been that all plays must come to an end. A production extraordinary.comparing favorably with any other early California plays we have ever witnessed." A few days later the paper reported that the performance was to be repeated "in response to the enthusiastic demand to see this romance of the early days.Hailed as an artistic portrayal of the old mission days of 1812 in the setting of the mission of San Juan Capistrano, the first production of this play by a recognized Southern California writer has attracted widespread attention . . . [it] tells a story rivaling the famous 'Ramona' in romance and beauty." We learned from the "Motion Picture News Booking Guide" of 1929 that Pride had been a student of history, a soldier and a sailor before embarking on a career as a playwright. The breadth of themes found in the manuscripts on offer here reflect this; while most of the titles relate to mining, one covers the life of Revolutionary War soldier and spy Nathan Hale, and another is a three-act comedy surrounding a Naval Admiral and his family. A list of titles follows. Typed manuscript by Pride with Charles J. Wilson, "Madam Calico". Pp. 93 Two typed manuscripts by Pride with Thomas J. Ahearn, "The Train to Alcatraz" (Pp. 47; 48) Typed manuscript, "Children of Fortune" - "Story of the play." Pp. 35 Typed manuscript, "Children of Fortune" - typed carbon copy with original title page. Pp. 164 Typed manuscript, "South of the Tehachapi: A Drama of Old California," dated 1930 with numerous handwritten notes. Pp. 119 + 1 of handwritten notes following the last typed page. Typed manuscript, "The Transgressor: A Story of the American Merchant Marine." Pp. 27 Typed. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 503
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