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Performing Arts
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[HANCOCK, Tony] STUCKEY, Hugh and WALE, Michael
[The] Tony Hancock Special: Director's Post-Production Script.
N.p. [Sydney]: N.p. [ATN-7], 1968
80 mimeographed pp. on white paper, housed in contemporary black springback binder with three labels to front cover ('HANCOCK'; 'TONY HANCOCK SPECIAL'; 'POST PRODUCTION MASTER SCRIPT E.D. JOFFE'). Profusely annotated, revised and corrected on every page, typed inserts tipped in in many places, and scene tags taped to leading edges.
DIRECTOR'S POST-PRODUCTION SCRIPT OF THE TONY HANCOCK SPECIAL, WITH HIS EXTENSIVE NOTES AND REWRITES.
n March 1968 Tony Hancock travelled to Australia to make a television series with the working title Hancock Down Under, a project he hoped would revive his career. He had recently been divorced, his alcoholism was out of control, and his prospects in the UK had sunk to nothing. But the Australian series had serious problems from the outset, quite apart from Hancock's own. The scripts were terrible: feebly structured, hopelessly unfunny, and with no understanding of what made Hancock Hancock. The star would have struggled to make anything of them even in his pomp. The series' fate was sealed by the producers' disastrous decision to shoot without a studio audience. Hancock's onscreen persona -- hapless, loveless, forever on the receiving end -- had always been kept afloat by the presence of supportive laughter provided by an audience willing their hero to dust himself down and try again. And Hancock himself, Hancock the brilliant but under-confident performer, had always been buoyed by the instant approval their presence provided. But here, in this final footage, Hancock seems to have been deserted by his audience just when he needed them most. He cuts a lonely, tragic and desperately unfunny figure. Unable to remember his lines, his eyes are constantly looking for his cue cards. He seems to be searching for his friends.
On 24 June 1968, with only three episodes of the showcompleted, Hancock committed suicide with an overdose of barbitu
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PHILLPOTTS, Eden and Adelaide
Yellow Sands
London: Duckworth, N.d. [1927]
8vo, pp. 128. Original patterned three-quarter boards, lettered in gilt on white hessian spine.
Commemorative edition, produced to celebrate the play's first anniversary, this copy... [more]
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[GIELGUD, Sir John]
War And Remembrance: Gielgud's Working Script
N.p. 1985 [The show was eventually transmitted in 1988-9].
Large 8vo, pp. 10, printed on rectos only, bound between yellow wrappers with a split pin.
Sir John... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
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KUREISHI, Hanif
Venus
London: Faber, 2006
8vo, pp. 111. Original illustrated card wrappers.
First edition, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR TO DAVID GOTHARD, in the usual mode of address between the two: 'To my wife with love, as Ever -- HK.' ... [more]
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[ed. CARTER, Graydon]
Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire:
New York: Rodale, 2009
Large 8vo, pp. 215. Original blue boards, lettered in blind on spine.
First edition, INSCRIBED BY OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND TO THE FILM DIRECTOR... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
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GROTOWSKI, Jerzy
Towards A Poor Theatre
Holstebro, Denmark: Odin Teatrets Forlag, 1968
8vo, pp. 262. Original printed stiff paper wrappers.
First edition, SIGNED BY GROTOWSKI ON TITLE PAGE. With a... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
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[TERRY-THOMAS]
Top Of The Town
London: N.p. [BBC], 1951
21 mimeographed pp. of 36, [pp. 2-7, 14-21, 31-36], secured with split pin to top left. Rewrite to p. 21 secured by pins top and bottom. Pencilled... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
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HASTINGS, Michael
Tom And Viv
London: Royal Court Theatre, 1984
8vo, pp. 41. Original illustrated stiff paper wrappers.
First edition, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS ACCOUNTANT ON FRONT FREE... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
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CUSHING, Peter
TLS to Leo McKern
Whitstable: N.p., 1993
1 p. TLS on Peter Cushing's personalised stationery. Unfolded.
TLS FAN LETTER FROM PETER CUSHING TO LEO McKERN DATED 16 SEPTEMBER 1993, LESS THAN A YEAR BEFORE CUSHING'S DEATH.
A warm, effusive fan letter from cinema's greatest vampire-slayer, it reads:
'Dear Leo McKern,
It's that fan again! Some years ago I wrote to you about your superb 'Rumpole' series, and received a most charming letter of thanks.
My admiration for your work goes back to the play (and subsequent film) 'A Man For All Seasons', and you have never failed to captivate me. Having seen you recently in 'Travelling North', and again the other evening in 'A Foreign Field' I just had to write once more.There is a 'je-ne-sais-quoi' quality about your performances which touches the heartstrings, and if you don't receive some public recognition eventually, there's no justice in this world!
Thank you, dear fellow, for such pleasure. It makes me very proud to remember we worked together in 1956 in 'Time Without Pity', with Michael Redgrave and Ann Todd. (Long ago and far away!)
With kindest wishes, and may God's blessing be with you always.
As ever,
(sgd) Peter Cushing O.B.E. Whitstable, Kent'
(The 'public recognition' Cushing refers to is of course not audience approval, but the possible future conferring of honours on McKern: Cushing himself was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1989).
A touching salute to a fellow actor from one of the most distinctive and distinguished figures of British cinema.
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BROMLEY, Nick
Theatre Lore
London: LNP Books, 2012
8vo, pp. 248. Original stiff paper wrappers.
First edition, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR ON HALF-TITLE. Foreword by Simon Callow.
The subtitle ... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
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[HANCOCK, Tony] STUCKEY, Hugh and WALE, Michael
The Tony Hancock Show: Episode Four: The Tape-Recorder
N.p. [Melbourne]: N.p. [ATN 7], 1968
31 mimeographed yellow pp., originally stapled at top left corner, now disbound, pp. 17-18 present in facsimile. 'FINAL SCRIPT' to top... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
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[POWELL, Michael] GIBBON, Monk
The Tales Of Hoffmann
London: Saturn Press, 1951
4to, pp. 96. Original blue boards, lettered in gilt on spine. Cockerel device in gilt to front panel.
First edition, INSCRIBED BY... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
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SHAFFER, Peter
The Royal Hunt Of The Sun
London: Hamish Hamilton, 1964
8vo, pp. 84. Original brown boards, lettered in silver to spine. Photographic dustwrapper.
First edition.
Shaffer's first... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
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BAILEY, Pearl
The Raw Pearl
New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1968
8vo, pp. 206. Original orange boards, lettered in black on front panel and spine.
First edition, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR ON TITLE PAGE: 'To Cole -- Who loves deeply -- Pearl'.
Published in 1968, the year Bailey won a Tony for her performance in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly!<
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[SECOMBE, Harry] PEDRICK, Gale
The Laughtermakers: No. 8: Harry Secombe
London: N.p. [BBC], 1956
23 mimeographed pp., secured with split pin to top left.
First edition. HARRY SECOMBE'S COPY, ANNOTATED BY HIM, AND WITH SEVERAL DOODLES,... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
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[intro. SITWELL, Sacheverell] BEAUMONT, Cyril W.
The History Of Harlequin
London: C. W. Beaumont, 1926
Large 8vo, pp. 156. Original illustrated boards, vellum spine lettered in gilt. Pages uncut.
First edition, no. 25 of 325 copies published by the author. With a preface by Sacheverell Sitwell to whom, with his brother Osbert, the book is dedicated.,
Cyril Beaumont was one of the pre-em
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O'NEILL, Eugene
The Hairy Ape
New York: Horace Liveright, 1929
4to, pp. 114. Original patterned three-quarter boards, lettered in gilt on black spine. Labelled slipcase. Edges uncut.
Special... [please click on the image or book title for more details]
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MILLIGAN, Spike
The Goon Show: Series Six Number Twelve: The Terrible Revenge Of Fred Fu Manchu (announced as Fred Fu Manchu And His Bamboo Saxophone)
London: N.p. [BBC], 1955
23 mimeographed pp., secured with split pin to top left.
First edition. Series Six, Number Twelve, first broadcast on 6 December 1955.
