Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Letter from James Ivory, Los Angeles, California, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1974 January 30 : autograph manuscript signed.

BIB_ID
454868
Accession number
MA 23840.1231
Creator
Ivory, James, sender.
Credit line
Gift of James Ivory, 2022.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 27 x 18.4 cm + envelope
Notes
Date from postmark and perpetual calendar.
Written in purple ink on Sunset Marquis letterhead.
Envelope addressed to Mrs. R. Prawer Jhabvala, 1-A Flagstaff Road, Delhi 6, India, and postmarked January 30, 1974.
"Sides" are condensed sections of a film script for used shooting on a particular day; or, in the case of those used in auditions, an entirely original scene using the same characters.
Provenance
James Ivory.
Summary
Enclosing a copy of the sides-- written by Walter Marks-- that they have been using to audition actresses for the role of Queenie, and asking for her opinion on them-- "Would you say, on reading it, that it's hopeless, or he is hopeless?"; elaborating on how depressing he's finding the casting process; noting, however, that they've found "a superb Black [a.k.a. Dale Sword]" in Perry King, who played the lead opposite Shirley MacLaine in Waris Hussein's American film ["The Possession of Joel Delaney" (1972)]; describing the "clientele of actors and rock musicians" in the hotel he's staying in.