Jules Furthman screenplay collection

This archive comprises a group of twenty-three screenplays, dating from 1923 to 1958, and related material by Jules Furthman (1888-1966).

Jules Furthman was born in Chicago (Julius Grinnell Furthman), educated at Northwestern, and began his career as journalist and magazine writer.

He first submitted stories for silent films in 1915, and for forty years from 1918 wrote screenplays for Paramount, Fox, MGM, Warner Brothers, and other studios. He worked with the directors Josef von Sternberg and Howard Hawks.

Furthman's best-known films include Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), To Have and Have Not (with William Faulkner, 1944), The Big Sleep (1946), and Rio Bravo (1959). In addition to screenplays, the donation includes typescripts for several stories and story-treatments, as well as additional items documenting Furthman's interest in rare books, coins, and orchids.

The earliest screenplay in the archive is Furthman's The Acquittal (1923). The archive was generously donated by Furthman's nephew, Mr. Frank D. Balzer. In fall 2001, while going through the papers of Furthman's widow, he came across an unanswered inquiry from Prof. Matthew J. Bruccoli, of USC's English Department, asking about the location of Furthman's professional archives, and offered these papers to Thomas Cooper Library.