Television Plays: The Bachelor Party, Printer's Measure, Holiday Song, The Big Deal, The Mother, Marty

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955. First Edition. INSCRIBED by the author on the front endpaper to Delbert Mann: "To Delbert / Who needs no / inscription (p. 259). Thank you very much, Del / Paddy." In a custom clamshell box with red cloth and black calf quarter binding, titles in gilt.

Delbert Mann, in addition to his notable work as a film director, was one of the most important directors of the golden age of television. He directed four of the six teleplays contained in this volume, among them the classic "Marty," in some ways the high-water mark of a certain school of live television drama in the 1950s. More significantly, it was a milestone in the lives of both Chayefsky and Mann, who collaborated on the film adaptation, the first feature film for both men. The two earned Academy Awards for same, along with the film itself, which took Best Picture in 1955.

The "page 259" in the inscription refers to the concluding essay of the book, "The Director and the Actors," in which Chayefsky lavishes praise on Mann for his "delicate direction" of "the Bachelor Party," which two years later would serve as the basis for their second film collaboration. A significant association on many levels.

[Book #145553]