[Rarebooks] FS: Important Darryl Zanuck Letter to the Roosevelt White House

[Charles Agvent]

ZANUCK, Darryl F. TYPED LETTER SIGNED (TLS). Beverly Hills, 9 September 
1941. 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. (#019664)     $850.00

https://www.charlesagvent.com/pages/books/019664/darryl-f-zanuck/typed-letter-signed-tls

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