Rare DS, two pages, 8.5 x 11, November 5, 1931. Agreement between the Caddo Company and MGM, in part: "This is to confirm our understanding of the arrangement we have made to loan you the exclusive services of Miss Jean Harlow, hereinafter referred to as the 'artist,' to play the leading female part in the photoplay now tentatively entitled 'Freaks' or the leading female part in the photoplay now tentatively entitled 'The Cleanup.'" The document goes on to outline the terms of the agreement in eight articles. Signed at the conclusion in fountain pen by Harlow to consent to the agreement, and also signed by Noah Dietrich for the Caddo Company and Irving Thalberg for MGM. In fine condition.
MGM mogul Irving Thalberg commissioned Freaks as the studio's first horror film, to be directed by Tod Browning in hopes of repeating the success he found with Dracula for Universal in early 1931. Harlow was originally considered for the role of Venus, a seal trainer who falls in love with a circus clown, and this document represents the first steps toward casting her in the film. As she was under contract with Howard Hughes's Caddo Company, her services would have been lent to MGM in order for her to perform in one of their movies. Ultimately, Harlow did not appear in Freaks, which was a disastrous failure at the box office but reemerged as a cult classic in the 1960s. A highly unusual document connecting Harlow, one of Hollywood's iconic blonde bombshells, with Freaks, a grotesque gem of the horror genre.
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