The Pony Express

Jerry Hopper (director)
Frank Gruber (story writer)
Charles Marquis Warren (screenwriter)
Rhonda Fleming, Charlton Heston (starring)

Los Angeles: Paramount Pictures, 1952. Final White script for the 1953 film.

A loose adaptation of the popular 1925 silent film directed by James Cruze, retelling a largely fictionalized account of the formation of the US mail system. Charlton Heston plays a gritty Buffalo Bill Cody and Forrest Tucker plays Wild Bill Hickock. In reality, however, Wild Bill Hickock never rode for the Pony Express, Buffalo Bill Cody was only fourteen when he rode for the route, and the route itself ran for only eighteen months of service before being superseded by the transcontinental telegraph.

Set between Missouri and California, shot on location in Utah and Arizona.

White titled self wrappers, noted as FINAL WHITE on the front wrapper, noted as production No. SF 88972, dated May 21, 1952, with credits for producer Nat Holt and writer Frank Gruber. Distribution page present, with receipt removed, rubber stamped as copy No. 84. Title page integral with the distribution page, dated May 21, 1952, noted as FINAL WHITE, with credits for writer Frank Gruber. 123 leaves, with last page of text numbered 120. Mimeograph duplication. Pages Fin, wrapper Near Fine, bound with two gold brads.


[Book #143716]