An Undelivered Letter to Darryl F. Zanuck from Charles Feldman Regarding Marilyn Monroe

An Undelivered Letter to Darryl F. Zanuck from Charles Feldman Regarding Marilyn Monroe Typed Letter Unsigned, 2 pp recto, 4to, Beverly Hills, October 27, 1954, to Darryl F. Zanuck from Charles Feldman, on 'Chas. K. Feldman Group Productions' monogrammed letterhead, with 2-hole punches at top of each page and light annotations in pencil. Charles Feldman wore many hats in Hollywood; as one of the top agents in show business, his talent roster included the biggest star of them all, Marilyn Monroe. By 1955, he had been her agent for 4 years while she was under contract to media mogul Darryl F. Zanuck at Twentieth Century-Fox, and Feldman was the producer of her upcoming film, The Seven Year Itch. At the date of this letter, the film had commenced shooting under the direction of Billy Wilder. Feldman, as producer, begins the letter by questioning the film's budget, which seems high to him compared to that of his previous production, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) (in which the cast was paid much more). Feldman stresses both Wilder's and Monroe's work ethic in their efforts to create a cost-efficient atmosphere: 'I have never in my life known anyone to work harder than Billy Wilder, and very frankly, Darryl, I have never seen anyone work harder than Marilyn has worked in the last two and one-half weeks.' Interestingly, Feldman refers to Marilyn as 'the girl' in several passages (and though her character in the film is known only as 'The Girl,' he does not seem to be referring to her character). Feldman reminds Zanuck of the low salaries of the cast while asking him to approve several retakes (which would, no doubt, add more to the budget). Feldman seems intent on reminding Zanuck (who was never a big fan of Monroe's, despite her being the studio's biggest moneymaker) of Monroe's hard work when he writes, 'The girl [Monroe] went from picture to picture with no rest of any kind and without any rehearsal whatever.' With the mountains of words written about Monroe's work ethic (or lack thereof) in the decades since her death, this revelation about her industriousness is indeed a novelty. Unfortunately, Zanuck never read this particular letter, as someone has written in green ink to the bottom of the first page, 'Never sent.' 7.5 x 10.5 in. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing