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The Day the Clown Cried, the 1972 Jerry Lewis World War II (WWII) Nazi Germany concentration camp persecution-of-Jews clown melodrama (about a non-Jewish German circus clown at the start of World War II; he gets drunk and criticizes the Nazis and is put in a camp for political prisoners; he brags to the other prisoners that he was once a famous circus clown, and they ask to see his performance, and he is terrible, but Jewish children temporarily in the camp see him and laugh at him, and he is thrilled to have an audience; he starts performing for the children, and he is told he can't do that, and he is beaten, and he is used to be a "Judas goat" who leads children into the gas chambers, because they will willingly follow him; he is so filled with remorse that he stays with the children in the gas chamber, as the movie ends) starring Jerry Lewis (in the title role as the Clown, Helmut Doork), Peter Ahlm, Lars Amble, Harriet Andersson, and Jonas Bergstrom. Note that this is a legendary movie. A writer named Joan O'Brien came up with the story around 1962, and it was apparently called "Clown" at that time, and she may have written a script herself in 1967, or perhaps she hired a German screenwriter named Peter Berneis to write the script from her story (which may have become "The Day the Clown Cried", and then reverted back to "The Clown" based on a script of this screenplay we have seen), but we can find no reference to his involvement on the Internet. We have seen a hand-typed script that is from 1967 that has extensive corrections and changes on it, and we suspect that O'Brien typed the script herself and then Berneis is the one who extensively edited it, but we can't say for sure. Apparently, this script went nowhere, and O'Brien hired a writer named Richard Eamer to give his opinion of how to improve the script. Joan O'Brien next co-wrote a new script with Charles Denton, and it was now called "The Day the Clown Cried". At some point after that, Loel Minardi made revisions to the script by O'Brien and Denton. Filming on it finally started in 1972, but it was a troubled production, both because the producer did not have sufficient funds, and also because Joan O'Brien was not happy with the changes to her story, most notably because in her original story, the central character was an arrogant self-centered man, but Lewis had changed him into a more sympathetic character, and that the ending was intended to show his redemption, but that was not what she (or the others who worked on the script with her) had intended. There were lawsuits, and the movie, which had been completed, was never publicly shown. In 1992, Jerry Lewis said "You will never see it. No one will ever see it, because I am embarrassed by the poor work." However, over the years since, Lewis has shown the film to a select few people, including the comedian Harry Shearer, and there are varying reports as to the quality of the movie. Very recently, a few clips from the movie have been put onto YouTube, and there is talk that the movie will finally be released, over 40 years after it was made! Is it one of the worst movies ever made, or Jerry Lewis' "Citizen Kane"? We will know when everyone finally gets to see it.
NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography.

Important Added Info: Note that this lot includes three different drafts of this script. One is the first draft, with a screenplay written by Peter Berneis (with 137 pages, and it has the working title "Clown"), the second is a screenplay written by Joan O'Brien and Charles Denton (with 141 pages). The third is a screenplay was written by Joan O'Brien, Charles Denton, and Loel Minardi (with 141 pages). Both of the first two scripts above have a Paul Kohner binder on them with no title on the cover. The earlier script (with the working title "Clown") is on a different paper than the other script is, and we don't know when it was made, but we strongly suspect that it, and the second script, were submitted to Paul Kohner at the same time, and that those covers were put onto them at that time. The third script has a different kind of cover and there is a paper glued to the cover giving the title and authors' names. In all three scripts, the character played by Jerry Lewis in the movie is named "Karl", whereas in the final script that was actually filmed, the character's name was changed to "Helmut", so we know for certain that ALL THREE of these scripts predate the script that was filmed! So not only do these contain important history about this legendary unreleased movie, but they also allow you to see THREE early versions of the script, and you can see the differences between them, as well as the differences between them and the movie, once it is finally released. Note that all three scripts are undated, but based on our research, it seems clear that all three were written between 1962 and 1971, but we are unable to pinpoint exactly when they were written (although it is clear the order in which they were written, based on the different credited screenwriters for each). Note that these are scripts for a screenplay that was sent to agent Paul Kohner (see below), and they are 100% certainly original scripts that were created at the time we indicate above, and they are NOT any sort of copy or later creation. The person who purchases these scripts is solely purchasing the scripts themselves, and NOT any right to reproduce them in any way, or publish it. These scripts come from the estate of Paul Kohner, who had a remarkable life! Kohner was born in Czechoslovakia in 1902, and he was a journalist working at his father's newspaper. He came to Hollywood after interviewing Carl Laemmle, who gave him a job as a publicity man. He became the head of Universal's European department in Berlin, and returned to the U.S. in the early 1930s, and left Universal in 1938, becoming a publicity agent. Among his clients were some of the greatest film stars ever, including Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, and also great directors such as John Huston and Billy Wilder. He had close personal friendships with many of his clients, and he saved every bit of correspondence and paper work from his agency! He was married to actress Lupita Tovar from 1932 until his death in 1988. Amazingly, after his death, few institutions showed interest in his immense files, and only a small amount ended up being saved, with a lot literally thrown away! Our consignor purchased the item offered here from Mr. Kohner's estate in 1989, and he has held it until now, when he has consigned several items from Mr. Kohner's estate to eMoviePoster.com, and each item is being auctioned separately.

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