Title: John Patrick Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1944-1959

Creator:

• Patrick, John, 1907-

Call Number: U.S. Mss 9AN

Quantity: 0.8 c.f. (2 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society Archives / Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
Contact Information

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of a playwright and screenwriter, including drafts of plays, scripts, correspondence, some playbills, and copies of foreign editions of his work. Insights into the writer's craft are provided by numerous notes, insertions, and corrections in Patrick's hand on such plays as The Hasty Heart (1945) and The Story of Mary Surratt (1947), but for his Pulitzer Prize-winning work The Teahouse of the August Moon (1953), there are only brief notes on dialogue, playbills, photographs, and clippings. Included with the documentation of his career as a screenwriter are drafts, treatments, and extensive correspondence relating to location problems, censorship. and difficulties with actors' rights and perogatives encountered during the filming of The World of Suzie Wong (Para., 1960).

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0009an

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John Patrick was born in Louisville, Kentucky on May 17, 1906 and after finishing his education at Columbia and Harvard he turned to writing radio scripts, including an adaptation of Arrowsmith for Helen Hayes. His first ventures on Broadway, Hell Freezes Over in 1935, and The Willow and I in 1942 were unsuccessful. Like Hemingway and Faulkner in World War I, Patrick enlisted in the American Field Service in World War II. From his experiences as an ambulance driver in Africa, Asia, and Burma he devised the play, The Hasty Heart which he wrote on a transport taking him to the United States from Algiers in 1944. The play was produced by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse that same year and established Patrick as a playwright.

However, after this initial theatrical success, Patrick's next three plays were failures - The Story of Mary Surratt, which he also directed (1947); The Curious Savage and Lo, and Behold, both in 1950. It was not until 1953 when he adapted Vern Sneider's novel, The Teahouse of the August Moon, for the stage that he achieved his next, greatest, and so far, last theatrical success. The play opened at the Martin Beck Theater on October 15, 1953 with David Wayne and John Forsythe in the starring roles of Sakini and Captain Frisby. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize, the Antoinette Perry Award, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. It was translated into foreign languages and productions of it were staged in Mexico, England, France, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Italy, Yougslavia, Hungary, Israel, Australia, and Japan. Patrick's next two plays, Good as Gold (1956) and Juniper and the Pagans (1959), were unsuccessful.

Mr. Patrick has also written the motion picture scenarios for: The President's Lady, Three Coins in the Fountain, Mister Roberts, Some Came Running, and The World of Suzie Wong.

The John Patrick collection provides insights into the craft of the writer. This the reader can discern from the numerous insertions, notes, and corrections in the manuscripts, especially in the three plays contained in this collection - Good as Gold (1956); Juniper and the Pagans (1959); and the original typescript draft of The Hasty Heart (1944). Of further interest is the material dealing with the motion picture, The World of Suzie Wong for which Patrick wrote the screenplay. Included in the Wong folders is extensive correspondence on three aspects of the filming of this picture - location problems, star rights and prerogatives, and censorship questions.

This collection also contains, in published form, Patrick's 1947 play, The World of Mary Surratt, and Thomas Heggen and Joshua Logan's Mr. Roberts, with manuscript notes by Patrick who adapted the play for motion pictures. There are two pages of notes on dialogue of Patrick's most successful play, The Teahouse of the August Moon. Photographs of Patrick himself, the Broadway cast headed by David Wayne and John Forsythe, casts all over the world, and the stars of the motion picture version of the play, Glenn Ford and Marlon Brando, are also retained with these papers. Foreign language books of Patrick's works are included too: The Teahouse of the August Moon in Greek; and The Hasty Heart in Telugu, Arabic, and Japanese.

Acquisition Information

Presented by John Patrick, Suffern, New York, October 16, 1961.

	The Hasty Heart, 1944-1958
Box   1	Original first draft, 1944 Note: Written on a transport carrying Patrick from Algiers to the United States; includes the envelope the manuscript was brought to the U.S. in, and changes in the manuscript in Patrick's hand.
Box   1	Television Script, 1958 Dec. 18, for a Du Pont Show of The Month
Box   1	Foreign Language editions, 1959 (Telugu, Arabic, Japanese)
Box   1	Contract for the play in Australia, 1946 March
Box   1	Motion Picture Poster, in German
	The Story of Mary Surratt, 1947
Box   1	The play in published form
	The Teahouse of The August Moon, 1953-54
Box   1	Two pages of dialogue notes
Box   1	Playbills
Box   1	Greek language edition of the play
Box   1	Photographs of Patrick, various companies of the play throughout the world, stars in the motion picture version.
Box   1	Note on the New York Times May 4, 1954 article on the awarding of the Pulitzer Prize to the play for the 1953 season
	Good as Gold, 1956-57
Box   1	Typescript, original and carbon and a script marked “Patrick's personal copy,” all with many manuscript changes.
	Juniper and the Pagans, 1959
Box   1	Typescript, original and carbon and script marked “Patrick's revised copy,” all with manuscript changes.
	Mister Roberts, 1948
Box   2	Play in published form with notes by Patrick in his hand.
	Some Came Running, 1958, Jan. 27
Box   2	Temporary Complete motion picture script by Patrick.
	The World of Suzie Wong, 1958-59
Box   2	Three playscripts for the stage play by Paul Osborn sent to Joshua Logan.
Box   2	Correspondence on the motion picture, 1958 Sept. 26 - 1959, Dec. 8 Note: Deals with location problems, star rights and prerogatives, and censorship questions, with special reference to Hollywood Production Code's dictum that: “The methods and techniques of prostitution and white slavery shall never be presented in detail, nor shall the subjects be presented unless shown in contrast to right standards of behavior. Brothels in any clear identification as such may not be shown.”
Box   2	First Drafts and Treatment of Motion Picture Scenario by Patrick with some manuscript changes.