Call Number:

F0963

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

1 item (115 pages)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 0099, F0963, Lambert, Gavin, Such a gorgeous kid like me : screenplay, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

1968 november 1 (inclusive)

Creator:

Lambert, Gavin

Form:

Screenplays

Abstract:

British-born screenwriter Gavin Lambert (1924-2005) wrote Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me as a screen adaptation of Henry Farrell's 1967 novel of the same title.

Screenwriter Gavin Lambert (1924-2005), who was born on July 23, 1924, in East Grinstead, Sussex England, spent most of his life in Hollywood, California, where he was hired as a screenwriter in 1958. Naturalized as a United States citizen in 1964, Lambert was known not only as a screenwriter, but as an observer and biographer of the film industry.

Lambert wrote candidly in his novels and nonfiction of the difficulties of stardom and the destructive effects a movie career can have upon actors, for example, the mental collapse of the teen star in his best-known novel,

Inside Daisy Clover (1963). Natalie Wood, who played the title role in the film version of this novel, was later the subject of Lambert's biography, Natalie Wood: a Life (2004), which he based not only on his research but his experience of Wood as a personal friend.

Lambert wrote sixteen screenplays during his career, including adaptations of two of Tennessee Williams plays: first, in 1961, the film script for

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and in 1989, the television version of Sweet Bird of Youth.

Lambert also contributed articles to magazines, such as

New Statesman, Observer, Harper’s Bazaar; and was the founder of the magazine Sequence. In 1966, he received the Thomas R. Coward Memorial Award for his novel, Norman's Letter.

"Gavin Lambert." Contemporary Authors Online (reproduced in Gale Biography in Context). http:/galenet.galegroup.com (accessed April 29, 2014).

American novelist and screenwriter Henry Farrell (1920-2006) first gained notice when his 1960 novel,

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, was adapted as the horror film of the same title which starred Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.

Farrell was also the author of screenplays for television, including episodes of

Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), The House That Would Not Die (1970), and The Eyes of Charles Sand (1972).

"Henry Farrell." Contemporary Authors Online (reproduced in Gale Biography in Context). http:/galenet.galegroup.com (accessed April 29, 2014).

British-born screenwriter Gavin Lambert (1924-2005) wrote

Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me as a screen adaptation of Henry Farrell's 1967 novel of the same title.

This third draft of Lambert's screenplay is a mimeographed typescript, which is brad-bound in yellow wrappers. Dated November 1, 1968, on both the cover and the title page, the screenplay is numbered 8858 and bears the imprint of Martin Manulis Productions, Ltd. American producer Martin Manulis (1915-2007) is best known as the creator of

Playhouse 90, the first weekly live drama on television. Manulis also produced films, including the Academy award nominated Days of Wine and Roses (1962).

The only holograph notations on the entire screenplay are on the cover: the word "Construction" is inked in the upper right-hand cover and "Kid Like Me" is written in red marker on the bottom of the cover.