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FITZGERALD, F. SCOTT. Autograph manuscript of his partial proposal (story idea, etc.) for the screenplay of the adaptation of his classic story "Babylon Revisited." [Santa Barbara or Los Angeles? c. Spring 1940]. 9 pages, 4to, in pencil on rectos of blue stationary of the Mar Monte Hotel in Santa Barbara, with one revision , comprising 8 pages (paginated by Fitzgerald) dealing with the story line one and unnumbered page giving details on three characters. In fine condition. FITZGERALD IN HOLLYWOOD: "BABYLON REVISITED" -- FROM STORY TO MOVIE In early 1940 Fitzgerald, hoping to complete his Hollywood novel The Last Tycoon by the end of the year, but fearing he was finished as a screen writer, was given an unexpected opportunity. "Independent producer Lester Cowan bought the movie rights to 'Babylon Revisited' (from Taps at Reveille , 1935) for $1,000 in March and hired Fitzgerald to write the screenplay...which brought him another $5,000 [see agreement for this in lot 142]. Cowan, who had made My Little Chickadee with W.C. Fields and Mae West, intended to produce 'Babylon Revisited' with the Columbia studios [perhaps with Shirley Temple in a starring role]. The price for the story was low, and the weekly salary was less than half Fitzgerald's studio rate; but he was to receive a bonus if the movie was made. Fitzgerald needed the money and enjoyed working on one of his best stories at home...The movie was never made from Fitzgerald's screenplay [entitled Cosmopolitan ]. Cowan later sold the rights to 'Babylon Revisited' to M-G-M for a reported $40,000, and it was made as The Last Time I Saw Paris " in 1954 from a new screenplay (Matthew J. Bruccoli, Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald , New York, 1993, pp. 574-575). " Cosmopolitan has the reputation of being Fitzgerald's best screenplay. It is not a close adaptation of 'Babylon Revisited,' for Fitzgerald invented a new plot which greatly enlarged the role of the child, Honoria. (In the screenplay the name of the child was changed to Victoria, in honor of Budd Schulberg's baby daughter.)..." (Bruccoli, p. 575). In the manuscript -- apparently unpublished -- of Fitzgerald's partial proposal for the screenplay, he seems somewhat nearer the conception of the original story. The manuscript reads in part: "When [Charles] Wales goes to pieces & signs over papers to Marion [the sister of his deceased wife] for his child -- he also drinks to forget & in the Ritz bar sitting alone at the bartender's elbow he is observed & hailed by woman & companion. This woman is an old flame he loved after the...war in Paris before he married...she joins Wales at the Bar & tries to envoke gay memories of the past by mentioning names & pulling out sweet memories to entice his interest. One by one, figures fade into the scene peopling the bar with the hectic picture of What Used to Be. Wales & Woman become younger, gay, attractive in their romance...This love scene gives the film the background of romantic past which is so sadly lacking & adds character to Wales, who is to sublimate all his emotions later into that of devoted fatherhood... "The Woman is Back Street. Her unrequited love, her pagan appeal, her desire to get Wales back as a playmate or lover...His sense of direction is defined all the more clearly as he gropes thru tragedy, frustration & circumstance toward the realization of his predominant reason for living -- & that is his sole interest in his child. We don't know after the Ritz Bar scene whether he pursues drinking with the Woman or refuses to see her -- until the scene where he takes Honoria alone to lunch & the circus...[The Woman] & friend burst into Marion's [house] just as his [Wales's] magical return to health & enjoyment of his afternoon with Honoria would make it obvious to the audience as well as to Marion that there is no reason now to keep father & daughter separated. But Marion's seeing the pleasure-loving Woman & friend in her house is at once outra