GILBERT, WILLIE. 1916-1980.
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. 3 typescript drafts, and a production copy of the script with cast list, including:
1. Typescript draft with autograph cover page, 116 pp, numerous autograph annotations and corrections. Bound with clips and staples, and partially out of sequence, contained in a manila envelope annotated by Gilbert: "The Very First Draft of 'Succeed' on yellow second sheets." Pages yellowed, fragile and heavily chipped, staples and paper clips corroding.
2. Typescript, inserted typed title/informational sheet, 98 pp, with autograph annotations and corrections in pencil. Orange card stock covers with typed paper label marked "Original Musical Book version ... 1960." Minimal wear.
3. Typescript, inserted typed title/informational sheet, 104 pp, with autograph annotations in pencil. Blue and black card covers marked "Original copy of first draft of musical book (pre-Loesser) plus incomplete outline, summer 1960," address label of William Gilbert to inside cover. Worn exterior, minor creasing and thumbing to interior.
4. Production script with cast lists (including addresses and phone numbers) and lyric sheets, 148 pp, dated 10/6/61 on final page (but various dates on other pages). Black leatherette binder with hard covers, Gilbert's address label on paste-down, Willie Gilbert inked in block letters on title page. Rubbed, some page edges chipped and creased.
WITH: Playbill for the 46th Street Theater original production, September 30, 1963. Printed wrappers. Rubbed, browning.
Provenance: Willie Gilbert; by descent.
THE ORIGINAL WORKING DRAFTS OF THE BOOK FOR THE SMASH BROADWAY PLAY. In 1952 Shepheard Mead published a slim volume, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying... a satire of modern office life. Comedian Willie Gilbert and his writing partner adapted the book into a play about a young man who joins the mailroom of a large company and two weeks later finds himself Chairman of the Board. Abe Burroughs was brought on to give the script polish, and Frank Loesser wrote the music. The show won 8 Tony Awards, a Pulitzer for Best Drama, and was adapted for film in 1967 with Robert Morse and Rudy Vallee. These drafts are write Willie Gilbert's working copies, and reveal the evolution of the show from idea to stage.