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Storyboards from Emilio and His Magical Bull (1975), working title, Ring Around Saturn

Currency:USD Category:Memorabilia Start Price:6,000.00 USD Estimated At:6,000.00 - 8,000.00 USD
Storyboards from Emilio and His Magical Bull (1975), working title, Ring Around Saturn
Condition Reports: If you wish to obtain additional information on a particular lot, or cannot appear at the viewing, Profiles may provide, upon request, a condition report. We remind prospective buyers that descriptions of property are not warranted and that each lot is sold “as is” in accordance with the terms of the limited warranty. Condition reports, as other descriptions of property, are not warranted; they are only provided as a service to interested clients.
20 total, accomplished in pencil, gouache on leaves of 15 in. x 20 in. artist’s illustration board. These colorful and well preserved story boards from Emilio and his Magical Bull were done by art director, John Datu Arensma (one, “Ring Around Saturn” billboard is by Willis O’Brien), known for his work on the John Wayne classic, Red River (1948). The story behind Emilio and his Magical Bull is teeming with Hollywood folklore, a lawsuit, and an Academy Award. The Emilio saga begins on April 12, 1936, In Barcelona Spain at Plaza del Toros, when a bull was pardoned by the mayor and returned to the young boy that owned him. This incident sparked the making of two films, The Brave One (1956), which won an Academy Award for Best Motion Picture Story, and Emilio and His Magical Bull (1975). During the Academy Awards ceremony in March 1957, credited story writer "Robert Rich" won the Oscar. “Rich” was, in fact, a pseudonym for blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo, who, under a February 6, 1957 Academy bylaw declaring Communist Party members ineligible for Oscars, could not publicly accept his honor. Instead, Jesse Lasky, Jr., head of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), accepted the award, stating, according to a modern source, that Rich was in the hospital where his wife was giving birth. The Nassour brothers sued its producers, the King Brothers, over plagiarism. It seems the script for The Brave One bore an uncanny resemblance to that for Ring Around Saturn. The King Brothers settled the dispute by paying out to Nassour the sum of $750,000 in an out-of-court settlement. To add to the drama, on April 15, 1957, Life magazine reported that Fred Zinnemann credited documentarian Robert Flaherty with the original idea, which Orson Welles, then bought, and in 1944 and tried to produce. In the same article, Willis O’Brien alleged that The Brave One’s story should be credited to him, because years earlier he sold the Emilio And Guloso story to Jesse Lasky, Jr., who sold it to Orson Welles, who then sold it to the Nassours. Following Edward Nassour’s death in 1962, his brother William, working from these original story boards, released it in a re-edited replacement animation version called Emilio and His Magical Bull in 1975. They are signed, “JTA” or “J. Arensma” and the lot includes a photograph of John Datu at work, newsprint cell sketches, and an illustration of a bullfighter he did as a Christmas gift to the Nassour family, and a mock up of a billboard to advertise the film. This is a rare opportunity to own a piece of 1950's Hollywood history. A wonderful collection of vintage illustrations from the golden age of Hollywood.