The Black Swallow

N.p. N.p., Circa 1983. Treatment script and synopsis for an unproduced film based on the life of African American aviator Eugene Jacques Bullard. Illustrated throughout with xerographically duplicated pages of newspaper clippings and images of Bullard. Laid in with the script is a two-page typed letter, dated April 14, 1983, from screenwriter Eric Troy Nicolaisen to casting agent Paul Kohner, introducing the film.

Bullard was born in Columbus, Georgia in 1895, but stowed away on a freighter headed to Europe in 1912, in hopes of escaping the racial discrimination he faced in the south. Eventually settling in France, he worked as a boxer and occasional music hall performer until the outbreak of World War I. He enlisted and soon gained renown as a pilot, flying with the Aeronautique Militaire as an air gunner and taking part in over 20 combat missions before being discharged in 1919. Bullard is now considered one of the first African American military pilots, along with William Robinson Clarke in the Royal Flying Corps, and was awarded several medals by the French government for his service, including the Croix de guerre and the Medaille de Verdun.

Clear mylar front wrapper, brown rear wrapper. Title page present, with credits for screenwriters John V. LaBarbera and Eric Troy Nicolaisen and biography credits to P.J. Carisella and James W. Ryan. 39 leaves, with last page of text numbered 20. Xerographic duplication, rectos only. Pages Near Fine, wrapper Near Fine, with a black Velo binding.

[Book #149789]