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Lot #699
Francis Ford Coppola

Coppola pays out shareholders in his first mainstream film, and buys a Steenbeck editor with George Lucas

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Estimate: $500+
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Description

Coppola pays out shareholders in his first mainstream film, and buys a Steenbeck editor with George Lucas

Two items signed by Francis Ford Coppola: a TLS, one page, 8.5 x 11, The Coppola Company letterhead, enclosing a "check for 5,102 66/xx payment on my holding in Dementia," to be distributed to shareholders including Chuck Hanawalt, John Vicario, Joe Gross, Mort Truber, Eleanor Neil, and Donald Chu, as well as "some fees from lecturing for Total Media, one to George Lucas. This is money we wanted to apply to new Steenbeck"; and a personal check, 6 x 2.75, filled out and signed by Coppola, made payable to American Express for $500, July 25, 1966, also endorsed on the reverse by Coppola. In very good to fine condition, with a couple small stains to the letter, and intersecting folds to the check.

At age 24 in 1963, Francis Ford Coppola made the independent film Dementia 13, a horror-thriller that was his first mainstream 'legitimate' directorial effort. Charles Hannawalt did the cinematography, and Morton Tubor was one of the editors. Coppola had befriended George Lucas during the latter's time at USC, and they would co-found the studio American Zoetrope in 1969. The "Steenbeck" that Coppola mentions was a type of flatbed film editing suite.

Auction Info

  • Auction Title: Fine Autograph and Artifacts
  • Dates: #600 - Ended January 13, 2021





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