signed first edition Hardcover
1938 · New York
by Stoddard, Henry L.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1938. A 1938 Christmas gift from Will H. Hays to his son Will H. Hays Jr.(Bill). Will H. Hays managed Warren G. Hardings successful campaign for the Presidency of the U.S. and was subsequently appointed Postmaster General. After a year in that position, he resigned to become most famously known as the first President of Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), which under his guidance published a blacklist of actors and workers studios should not hire, inserted moral clauses into actors' contracts, and published an informal list of suggested guidelines for film producers. Laid into the book is a 5" x8" piece of stationery titled 28 West Forty-Fourth Street stating "Merry Christmas WHH 1938". The book is SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR Henry L Stoddard, best known as editor and part owner of the New York Evening Mail and author of several Presidential monographs, on the front endpage - " To Bill Hays, of Yale, Son of my friend of many years. Here's wishing him as fine a career as his father's. Henry L Stoddard December 8, 1938". Bill Hays went on to author the 1949 musical "You're My Everything" starring Dan Dailey and Anne Baxter; 3 books, including Come Home With Me Now.The Untold Story of Movie Czar Will Hays By His Son; and was elected Mayor of Crawfordsville, IN. Book is Near Fine, lacking the dustjacket, red cloth ever so lightly faded at spine, small period bookstore label bottom of front pastedown. A great piece of Hollywood and Hoosier Americana ! . SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR. First Edition. Cloth. Near Fine/No Jacket. Association Copy.
(Inventory #: 004459)