FRANK BUCK
(1884 - 1950) American wild animal entrepreneur and showman who worked with Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus and the author of numerous books and popular lecturer. An important grouping of five A.L.S.'s "Frank", eight T.L.S.'s "Frank" and "Frank Buck", a T.L.S. "F. B." a secretarially-signed T.L.S., many letters multi-paged, 1931-1934, with an important D.S., 2pp. 4to., New York, Mar. 25, 1931, concerning an effort to bring Buck's Book, Bring 'Em Back Alive into production as a motion picture, and his ongoing disputes with co-author Edward Anthony. The entire correspondence is addressed to George T. Bye of the Van Beuren Corporation, the firm that purchased Buck's film rights to the book, and Buck seems to be having quite a time - he writes from aboard a steamer, and from Marseille, Singapore, and New York. In small part: "...I have made some very necessary changes...'pigeon english' is spoken only in Northern China. No Cantonese or Moro would use it...I don't know how the stuff is going to look on the screen...I really think I am making a great picture...Elliott really isn't much of a director so there is no attempt at sequences...made some grand python stuff during the last three days - even got a black leopard and python fighting. I finally got a baby elephant two feet ten inches high...great stuff for the kids...I'm homesick as the devil for New York...we shall arrive at Colombo, Ceylon tomorrow...Ed Anthony and I have fixed up about half the manuscript...I feel certain that I will be in a better position than anybody else to judge as to the best disposition to make of any movie rights on my wild animal experiences...we are just now beginning to take some of our good animal pictures...close ups which we are making in a compound here in Singapore...we are taking all of our long shots, trapping etc. up in Johore, in Sumatra and in Borneo...in order to get good close-up shots I am bringing the animals here and letting them out in the compound...we have been 'shooting' every clear day...You are right about the severing of relations between Ed and myself as far as writing goes...Our picture opens June 17th...I spent six months of the hardest work I ever did in my life in hot jungles and risked my life...than I have in the whole twenty years I have been collecting animals...[Anthony] was paid for any claim he had on the title of the picture and that's all there is to it...[I] authorize you to sell the Motion Picture rights to 'Wild Cargo'...I'm afraid this is a rather messy looking letter...I'm no good at typing. The only one-finger system that I ever worked out successfully was not on a typewriter...". One or two letters have significant chips at margins due to the brittleness of the paper, but with no loss of text - overall condition is very good. "Bring 'Em Back Alive" was a commercial smash, although the plot was a bit hokey by today's standards. Buck travels with Ali, his "number one boy," on an expedition into the Malayan jungle. With a team of native helpers they go in search of interesting wild animals, reptiles and birds. Hoping to find a tiger, Buck captures a monitor lizard and a black leopard, while another black leopard narrowly escapes an encounter with a giant python and then battles a bigger and stronger tiger. After trapping a spotted leopard, Frank adopts a baby honey bear and a baby elephant. The team catches an orangutan, but the tiger eludes their camouflaged pit. Meanwhile, Frank visits the "bathing festival" of a local tribe and watches as tribesmen kill an intruding spotted leopard with blow darts. The tiger then meets an enormous regal python, who has just crushed a crocodile, and fights to a draw with it. Certainly not a PETA-friendly film.... Overall very good condition, and certainly an interesting group.