Rosemary's Baby

N.p. Associated British Picture Corporation, 1967. Original ribbon copy typescript four-page reader's summary and report for the 1967 novel by Ira Levin. Made for the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) by ABPC reader Frank Jackson, dated "21.2.67," with a blue rubber stamp stating "RECEIVED / 21 Feb 1967." Unique.

One of the most powerful media conglomerates in British cinema history, the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) was founded in 1927 when John Maxwell acquired British National Pictures Studios and its Elstree Studios complex, first named British International Pictures (BIP).

The company was renamed ABPC in 1933 after acquiring British Pathé, enabling the company to become a fully vertically integrated studio capable of producing, distributing, and exhibiting its own pictures. Following Maxwell's death in 1940, Warner Bros. purchased a large stake in the company, allowing ABPC to distribute its films into the lucrative US market, as well as taking an active stake in television by launching the Associated British Corporation (ABC). Amid the downturn in the British film industry by the late 1960s, EMI staged an aggressive takeover of ABPC in 1969, and by 1970 the name was officially retired.

At the height of ABPC's success in the 1950s and 1960s, its readers reviewed nearly everything being published, from established authors to those with recent screen success, to emerging new authors, in search of material for film adaptation. The resulting reader's summary and reports are an extraordinary record of mid-twentieth century literature never intended for public consumption and unseen since their composition.

The four-page reader's summary and report, written in the ABPC house style, includes the source material and publication information at the top of the first page (noted as being submitted in proof format by agents representing Levin), followed by a summary and a list of characters names and descriptions, then a detailed synopsis on the second and third pages, and finally the reader's comments on the material's quality and filmic possibilities on the fourth page.

ABPC reader Jackson "found this subject so distasteful that it is difficult to make an objective judgement on it as film material," and if so, "it would be wiser to abandon all attempts at light sophistication from the start and go for straight unsophisticated horror. ... though why anyone should pay to see such a nasty, life-denigrating story I cannot image."

It is of note that this report was written a month prior to Paramount securing the film rights in mid-March of 1967.

Made into the seminal 1968 horror film by director Roman Polanski, one of the best genre pictures ever made, from the earliest days of the New Hollywood cinema, bringing together newcomer Polanski, established producer William Castle, young star Mia Farrow, and Hollywood veteran John Cassavetes. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Ruth Gordon and nominated for Best Screenplay.

8 x 13 inches, with a perforation binding and a two-hole punch to the left side. Binding separated between the second and third leaves, with light edgewear to the upper left, else Near Fine.

[Book #172974]