Death of a Salesman (Columbia Pictures) (1951)

FILM-BOOK CAMPAIGN! s~ Bantam Book Gets Around DRAMA EDITORS Bantam Books is sending copies of its reprint edition to newspaper drama editors throughout the country. Accompanying the book is the news release printed below. ¢ If local drama editors have not yet printed this story, arrange for its publication with your playdate and theatre credits. ¢ If story has already been printed, obtain a copy of the article for lobby display, using stills and credits. ¢ Invite local drama editors to advance screening of the film, or to opening day, and arrange for early comment by them on the play, the book and the motion picture. ® Send copies of this news release to editors of high school and college newspapers, educators, etc. COLLEGES Bantam Books is sending the heads of the drama departments of colleges throughout the United States copies of the book and the same communication (below) which went to drama editors. Follow through by inviting local drama department heads and other key college personnel to showings of the movie. Ask them to boost the book and the movie with bulletin board displays, classroom discussions and review contests. In addition, college book stores have been separately con tacted for special displays. BOOK REVIEWERS Copies of the book, and the accom panying news release (below), are be ing sent newspaper and radio book reviewers throughout the country by Bantam Books. Follow through on this promotion in the manner suggested for drama editors, at left. For Your Information... “Death of a Salesman,” Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize play, will reach a new mass audience three years after its first Broadway performance with the simultaneous release of a motion picture version and a new pocket-sized ‘‘readers' edition." Bringing a modern classic like ‘Death of a Salesman" to the huge audiences of the newsstands and movie theatres presented Stanley Kramer, producer of the film, and Bantam Books, publisher of the new edition of the play, with many problems. The publishers were faced with overcoming what many people feel is the greatest difficulty in reading plays—the fact that the richness of the dialogue alternates with the bare bones of stage directions. When this problem was presented to Arthur Miller, he undertook an extensive writing chore to clarify the stage directions and give them the emotional power of the dialogue. Instead of reading this: “Young Biff and Young Happy appear from the direction Willy was addressing. Happy carries rags and a pail of water. Biff, wearing a sweater with a block ‘S', carries a football." Readers of the Bantam edition will find this: “From the direction toward which Willy was speaking, Young Biff and Young Happy appear. They come springing onto the stage before the house, looking just as he remembers them. Happy has a baseball cap askew on his head, wears sneakers and rolled-up pants and an old shirt. Biff wears a sweater with a big block ‘S’ sewed on the chest and he is carrying a football which he keeps squeezing as though to locate himself in the world. They are both eager, overjoyed at seeing Willy, wishing for him to command them, and Willy is full of pride and pleasure as he gazes offstage toward the car.” The directions in Miller's expanded form have already been compared to George Bernard Shaw's famous stage directions for his own plays, which, brilliant as they were, were given augmented values by his detailed descriptions of sets, character and indicated action. The new Bantam ‘‘Death of a Salesman" has illustrations by Joseph Hirsch. Film goers will have a stimulating opportunity to compare the action and dialogue of the motion picture with the more detailed and expanded version of the Bantam Book. Produced by the Stanley Kramer Company for Columbia release, the screen version stars Fredric March as Willy Loman, with Mildred Dunnock re-creating the role she played on the Broadway stage. Also from the original Broadway company will be Cameron Mitchell, Howard Smith and Don Keefer. Direction is by Laslo Benedek. “Death of a Salesman’ has created theatrical history on many fronts. It has been translated into twenty-six languages, has played throughout the world in countries including Germany, Austria, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Holland, England, Ireland, Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, and Israel. Plans are now underway for productions in Mexico, France and South Africa. Paul Muni starred in the play in England, and a Yiddish version played for two months in Brooklyn, during the winter of 1950-51. lee J. Cobb starred in the original Broadway version, which opened at the Morosco Theatre on February 10, 1949, and closed on November 18, 1950, after 742 performances. Mildred Dunnock played opposite him as Linda, Willy Loman's devoted and understanding wife. So demanding was the Loman role that Cobb was later succeeded by four other Willy Lomans—Gene Lockhart, Thomas Mitchell, Robert Simonds and Albert Dekker. Thomas Mitchell starred in the National Company which played with brilliant success throughout the country; in Chicago, the play ran for twenty-two weeks. In the current road company Duncan Baldwin is playing the Willy Loman role. “Death of a Salesman" established a record in the number of awards bestowed upon it, among them the Pulitzer award, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, The Newspaper Guild's Front Page Award, the American Theatre Wing's Antoinette Perry Award, the Donaldson Medal, voted by the actors and directors of the New York theatre, and the Theatre Club’s Gold Medal. It was the first play ever to be the selection of the Book of the Month club, distributed to the membership in book form. | She " e l i _— BANTAM LETS ‘EM KNOW! Bantam Books is using an extensive direct mail campaign to reach thousands of showmanship-valuable contacts throughout the country. In addition to the mailings described below—to drama editors, book reviewers and Little Theatre group leaders —special information about the picture and the book was sent to more than 800 different college educators in the country, including: e¢ 250 Department chairmen. ¢ 503 English Department chairmen. ¢ 139 Literary Criticism Department chairmen. The Little Theatre group postcard shown below was sent to 2,456 leaders of amateur dramatic societies and other organizations interested in the American theatre. THEATRE GROUPS More than 2,000 Little Theatre groups around the country have been advised of the book-picture tie-up via a special postcard mailing (below). Get in touch with local drama groups to work out a theatre party sponsored by the drama group, use of their mailing lists and publicity in the drama group’s programs and your lobby. For all students of the drama... For everyone... DEATH of a SALESMAN by ARTHUR MILLER meant (eee = BANTAM BOOKS edition (25¢) with edt ms '.| additional descriptive material by the pictere wes mode author. CoLuMBIA PIcTuRES presents a STANLEY KRAMER motion picture version starring FREDRIC MARCH. Page 5