Scarce Letters of Movie Pioneer Georges Méliès, Hero of Scorsese's "Hugo," Surface

by Stephen J. Gertz

[MÉLIÈs, Georges] BESSY, Maurice and Lo Duca.
Georges Méliès: Mage et "Mes Mémoires" par Méliès.
Paris: Prisma, 1945. First French Edition, never translated into English.
One of 2000 numbered copies, this being No. 956.
With Melies' business card from 1909 laid in.

Between 1928 and 1932, when pioneering film director, Georges Méliès, was running a toy shop in Montparnesse Station in Paris - the period in his life covered by Martin Scorsese's splendid homage to Méliès and movie magic, Hugo - Méliès wrote a series of  letters of enormous interest to film lovers and historians. The content of the letters is quite broad and uniformly fascinating throughout.

This trove has just come into the marketplace, offered by Royal Books in Baltimore. Surviving ephemeral material representing Méliès' work is excessively rare; letters in his hand are virtually non-existent. OCLC indicates that there is no institution with autograph material, and auction records show no appearance of any letters since 1975. Virtually all known surviving material is held by the Cinémathèque Française in Paris.

From: A Trip To The Moon - Earth Rise.

An archive consisting  of six extraordinary signed autograph letters, five in French and one in English, by Méliès, generally considered to be one of the inventors of narrative cinema,  it reveals a great deal about his little-discussed but profoundly important origins in the Robert-Houdin Theatre in Paris, as well as his work as a magician and ultimately a film director. 

Equally interesting in these letters are various revelations regarding his character, great love for artists, magicians, and all performers whose work came under the umbrella of "illusion." His spirit, so finely captured by Scorsese on film, is animated on these pages.

Méliès began his career in theater at the Theatre Robert-Houdin, doing extremely creative work in an area that could be described as an intersection of live theater, pantomime, magic, and vaudeville. After seeing an 1895 demonstration by the Lumiere Brothers, he became very interested in cinema, and betweem 1896 and 1914 made over 500 short films. 

His film work utilized many of the elements from his live performance as a basis for content, and the portion of his work that has survived reveals a storytelling style that revels in Jules Verne-esque fantastical adventure fiction. The films ranged from 1 to 40 minutes in length, and many were completely abstract, with his intense interest in the effect of "illusion" on an audience that ultimately led to him becoming the inventor of "special effects." Importantly, the "effects" he invented on celluloid were not just a component of his cinema, they were the essence of it.

Equally important, Méliès made the first cinematic foray into science fiction and horror, and was a pioneer in the making of fantastical adventure films. Le Manoir du diable (The House of the Devil,"1896) and Le Caverna maudite ("The Cave of the Unholy One," 1898) are generally considered to be the first horror films ever made. A print of the former was acquired upon its release by Thomas Edison, who duplicated and distributed it with great financial success in the United States. Though Edison paid no royalties to Méliès, as a result the director's name became well-known to film-goers all over the Western world.

Six years later, Méliès produced what is today his most famous short feature, Le voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon, 1902), the first known science fiction film, and the first to depict space travel. The film was based very loosely on two popular novels of the time, by Jules Verne in From the Earth to the Moon, and The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells.

From: A Trip To The Moon - A Rocket In The Eye.

Méliès was forced into bankruptcy in 1913 by large French and American studios. Because the concept of film preservation was still nearly 20 years away, most of his films were ultimately melted down for boot heels during World War I or recycled to make new film.

The archive is divided into four  groups:

(a) A brief but extraordinary 1932 letter in English about his days as a filmmaker.

(b) A group of three letters from 1928 regarding his earliest days at Robert-Houdin Theatre, details regarding a series of short pieces he is writing about his life (for a magazine or newspaper), and a proposal to gather the pieces for publication in book form.

(c) A letter from 1929 regarding the proofs of caricatures that Méliès has drawn for the purpose of publication as postcards to be sold to fans of his work.

(d) A brief but significant letter from 1931 regarding the annual "magician's gala," mentioning several of the magicians who performed, a gathering of artists that was clearly at the heart of what preserved Méliès spirit during the years after his film company collapsed.

In the first letter, Melies writes candidly of his days as a filmmaker, and the collapse of his career: "You will find me every day, even Sundays, in the hall of Montparnasse station, from 10 o'clock A.M. to 10 P.M. I keep there a shop of toys and sweets, since I have unfortunately, lost 3 millions of francs during the war, which I had gained as a producer of motion pictures and pioneer of cinematography."

The next three letters represent the heart of the this archive, regarding Méliès' earliest days working as a magician in the Robert-Houdin Theatre. These letters deal in some detail with an ongoing memoir being written by Méliès, ending with a letter responding to a proposal for the memoirs to be expanded and published as a book.

From: A Trip To The Moon - Dream Sequence.

In the first letter, Méliès writes: "I think by now you must have received the first two articles... I   believe that information on the subject of the Robert-Houdin Theatre will interest your readers, so I won't hesitate to send more details... Today I constructed the exact floor plans of the stage and back stage from memory and I am enclosing them here. Your are right if you think that nothing that that happened in my little old theater has escaped my memory. With an average of 750 performances per year, that makes 27,000 performances! When I think about it, that is simply staggering."

He goes on to discuss the irony of his current situation: " [This is] written in great haste (and on my knees, above the market)...from my little store atelier where there is no space for me and I am crowded by, or should I say, drowned in merchandise. I, at 67, a merchant! I who was always an artist first and who always detested business? What is there to do!? Life has reversals like this, and the war has made me lose the result of 47 years of work [One must] resign oneself, and that is what I have done. That doesn't mean that I do not miss the good old days and I am never as happy as when I am together with colleagues, comedians, cinematographers, or magicians, when I am in my own element."

In another letter, Méliès refers to plans to produce an edition of his memoirs, which, though never published during his lifetime, is the probable foundation for the 1945 publication of Méliès' memoirs edited by Maurice Bessy. The letter goes on in great detail about all aspects of production, including how the linotype should be set up for the book, the importance of illustrations, etc.

The last letter, from 1932, is an enthusiastic review of Robert Evans' A Master of Modern Magic, a biography of Eugene Robert-Houdin (NY: Macoy 1932). The book is "very well written and as exact as possible concerning the dates," and that it "contains very few mistakes. It is certainly more near the truth than the book written against Robert-Houdin by Houdini, who seems to have been jealous of the posthumous reputation of our old master...[Evans] has evidently written this book in order to break this reputation."

Méliès  then expounds on the nature of his original trade, and the philosophy behind the illusion at the heart of cinema: "The conjurors (don't they?) work for the public, not for the professionals; if they have a success and seem extraordinary men to spectators, what do they require more? Nobody of us is really a 'sorcerer,' it is sufficient to look to be, and principally to know how to put our tricks, clever or not, in the maximum of value."

I had a chance to examine this precious archive at the recent 45th California International Antiquarian Book Fair.  It was no illusion. But it was definitely magic. Méliès was indeed the sorcerer of the Silent film era.

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Images courtesy of Royal Books, with our thanks. The Méliès biography, at top, is being offered separately from the archive of letters.

Stills from the colored version of A Trip To The Moon courtesy of Harvey Deneroff, with our thanks.

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Books Into Best-Picture Oscar® Winners To Highlight 2010 California Antiquarian Book Fair

LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION! BOOKS!

Embracing great books into great movies, the 43d California International Antiquarian Book Fair promises to be the most exciting yet. We in the Southern California chapter of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA), the Fair’s sponsoring organization, have been working overtime to present Fair-goers with an exhibit to knock socks - or bindings - off.

From Author to Oscar® is the theme for this year’s Special Exhibits, highlighting great books that became great Best Picture Academy Award®-winning films. We’ll be exploring the journey a book makes to the big screen, focusing on the important role that literature has played in providing Hollywood with strong, interesting plots and characters to draw upon. The majority of Best Picture Oscar® winners have been based upon literary works, and rare, first edition copies of each volume will be showcased in the exhibit, along with a selection of unique associated items from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ (AMPAS) Margaret Herrick Library.

The ABAA routinely works with distinguished libraries across the country but this is the first time we’ve had the pleasure of making the Margaret Herrick Library’s acquaintance. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was most gracious in accepting our request for assistance, and generous: There are items on loan from the Academy’s archives that have never been seen by the general public, each item focusing on the symbiotic relationship between books and film.

As the guy who spent six hours sifting through photos and documents with the Library’s acquisitions archivist I can tell you that, while there may not be any shock, there will definitely be awe in those who attend the Fair and see the exhibit. Afterward, I required an ice-pack over my peepers to get the goggle-eyes back down to size.

A few highlights:

• Photos of the cast of From Here To Eternity (Best-Picture 1953) posing with novelist James Jones, a copy of the book in his hands.

• Photo of Alfred Hitchcock at his desk, working on his screenplay for Rebecca (Best-Picture 1940), his copy of the book opened for reference.

• Letter from Lost Weekend novelist, Charles Jackson, to Lost Weekend (Best-Picture 1945) screenwriter, Charles Brackett, damning him and director, Billy Wilder, for changing the ending of the book, then proffering his own five-page re-write.

• Letter from Raymond Chandler to Charles Brackett congratulating him for his great script for Lost Weekend (Chandler knew a thing or two about drinking).

• Numerous examples of how during its Golden Age Hollywood relied on the source book to sell the movie to audiences.

• And much more.

I could go on but the Fair’s publicist is looking over my shoulder with a Glock .45 pointed at my ear lest I spill to much too soon. (Somewhere, a publicist is smiling. I hope.).

Rare poster for Rebecca on exhibit. Note how a book is used
in the design to promote the movie.

Why the emphasis on books into film? Simple. All movies begin on a page of paper, whether an original screenplay or one adapted from a book. From the early days of silent films, movie studios routinely adapted great novels to the screen to capitalize on their classic or best-selling status and familiarity with audiences. Classic dramatic and adventurous plots and characters from novels were brought to life on the silver screen, prose into pictures in motion that moved.

Indeed, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, movie studios - as will be demonstrated in the exhibit - exploited the original book for all marketing and advertising purposes: At the time, though movies were more popular, books were the most prestigious medium in American culture and studios sought to exploit that prestige for the gloss of class it provided. It was an era when novelists were at the apex of their importance in the cultural landscape. It is an era that has vanished.

But while studios no longer depend upon the original book to spearhead their promotional efforts, novels and great non-fiction works continue to be adapted to film simply because there is no substitute for a great story, well-told, with complex, flesh-and-blood characters. Whether ultimately Best-Picture winners, nominees, or otherwise, all movies begin with the word, and the word, as often as not, is Books.

The exhibit can be viewed throughout the entire weekend of the Fair, February 12-14, 2010 at the Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles.

To accompany the exhibit, on Saturday, February 13 at 3PM, the book fair will host a panel discussion featuring esteemed Los Angeles Times film critic, Kenneth Turan; rare cinema and books -into- film dealer-specialist, James Pepper; and Kevin Johnson of Royal Books, whose lovingly produced, two-volume book, The Dark Pages: Books That Inspired American Film Noir, has become an essential reference.

The Writer’s Guild of America - West is assisting us in recruiting a screenwriter to join the panel discussion. We hope to have word soon.

The Book Fair Committee scraped the bottom of the barrel to find someone to moderate the panel and succeeded: I’ll be your host for the discussion. My qualifications? I was sick a lot as a kid and read a lot of books and watched a lot of movies on TV. This eventually led to my becoming Executive Story Editor at a major production company during the early 1980s. That company is now defunct. Draw your own conclusions.

The California International Antiquarian Book Fair is now the largest rare book fair in the world. This year, we have 180 dealers from around the globe exhibiting some of the best, rarest, and just plain coolest books on the planet, across every imaginable subject area.

If you love books and you love movies don’t miss the Fair this year.

But if you can’t make it, stay tuned to Book Patrol for the most comprehensive coverage of the 2010 California International Antiquarian Book Fair. We’ll be devoting all our attention to reporting on what’s going on, book highlights, exhibit and panel activities, etc.. And we have a secret weapon, a mole within the SoCal chapter of the ABAA, one of its officers, exhibit organizers, and firm exhibitors to pass along insider info.

The mole is half-blind, furry, prefers the underground, and avoids direct sunlight: I’ll be passing along the shhhh!, strictly confidential, exclusive scoops to myself. Then to you.

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For full schedule and hours, ticket information, and more, log on to the 43d California International Antiquarian Book Fair website.
Hot line: (800) 454-6401.
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Important Notice: The opinions expressed by me on Book Patrol are not those of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, nor should I be considered its spokesperson.