Letter from Jack Kerouac to Marlon Brando

For Paul:
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/letter-from-jack-kerouac-to-marlon-brando/
Letter from Jack Kerouac to Marlon
Brando<http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/letter-from-jack-kerouac-to-marlon-brando/>
 * By Special Guest
Blogger<http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/author/guest/>
*

*Today’s guest blogger is Helen Hall, an expert in entertainment memorabilia
and the director of Dig Gallery <http://www.diggallery.com/> in London.*

<http://www.collectorsweekly.com/movies/overview>

In 2005, I moved to New York to head up the Entertainment Memorabilia
department at Christie’s, New York. One of my first assignments was to go to
Marlon Brando’s home on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles to select property
to include in an auction of his estate. What a job! I spent around 10 days
at the house. By my last trip out there, we had gone through the house with
a fine-tooth comb. We had discovered all his movie
memorabilia<http://www.collectorsweekly.com/movies/overview>in a
bunker in the garden, including his annotated “Godfather” script. I
really doubted that there was anything left at the house that would top
that.

The last room to check was Brando’s office. Along one wall was a bank of
filing cabinets. We started to pull drawers out, finding old insurance
documents, receipts for work done on his pool, that sort of thing. My heart
was heavy as we sifted through more of the same.

And then, tucked inside a file of unexciting correspondence, was a letter
that appeared to be much older than everything else. I pulled it out, trying
not to get excited, but there it was, a typed letter signed at the bottom in
bold blue ink, “Jack Kerouac.” I nearly fainted. As I read the letter, it
became clear that it must date from at least the late 1950s.

The letter was a gem. Here’s part of what Kerouac wrote: “*I’m praying that
you’ll buy ON THE ROAD and make a movie of it…. I visualize the beautiful
shots could be made with the camera on the front seat of the car showing the
road (day and night) unwinding into the windshield, as Sal and Dean yak….
You play Dean and I’ll play Sal.*” Brilliant! I had found a one-of-a-kind
letter between two of the 20th century’s most important and influential
icons. The letter ending up bringing $33,600 at the auction, but my memory
of finding it on that hot California day is priceless.


Johne Cook
| http://raygunrevival.com | http://authorculture.blogspot.com |

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