Close Reading

The full text of this episode, including footnotes, can be found on my website: https://www.jeremy-duns.com/blog/carruthers7

The footnotes for this chapter can be found at the web-page: https://www.jeremy-duns.com/blog/carruthers6

A tantalising glimpse of buried treasure in Jamaica! Let's take a closer look. To follow along, click this link: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn604656 Click ‘Search this collection’ and enter ‘Jamaica’ (or ‘Morgenthau Jamaica’). Here is the finding aid for the whole collection: https://collections.ushmm.org/findingaids/2015.255.1_01_fnd_en.pdf Here are the most relevant files: Morgenthau Family Papers, US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Series 1: Family papers 1860-2006, File 145: Television Projects Set in Jamaica 1955-1956, 2 folders [Note: has perhaps only the first folder been made visible in error? There is no obvious divide in the digital scans.] ‘Captain Jamaica of the CIC’ proposal, 9 April 1956: jpegs 157-174 Letter from Morgenthau to Fleming, 16 July 1956: jpegs 133-136 (copied elsewhere in this folder: 114-117 and 118-121) Letter from Fleming to Morgenthau, 19 July 1956, including his ‘Commander X’ title suggestion: jpegs 127-130 Undated proposal for TV film production in Jamaica, including an adventure show primarily aimed at children titled ‘Adventure Harbor’ and an untitled show and possibly feature film set in a hotel resort with Noel Coward as MC (it seems likely this was sent to Fleming, hence his mention in his 19 July letter of Coward being unlikely to be interested): jpegs 154-156 Undated ‘Commander Jamaica’ proposal (possibly also sent to Fleming): jpegs 144-149 Letter from Fleming to Morgenthau, 27 August 1956, saying he has airmailed ‘a 9-page outline of the whole series and a 28-page script for the Pilot’ for ‘James Gunn - Secret Agent’: jpeg 140 Jo Stewart, Curtis Brown, to Morgenthau, 29 August 1956: jpeg 138 Jo Stewart, Curtis Brown, to Morgenthau sending the outline and pilot script, 4 September 1956: jpeg 143 Jo Stewart, Curtis Brown, to Morgenthau, 1 October 1956: jpeg 137 Letter from Morgenthau to Howard L Hausman, William Morris, 10 October 1956: jpegs 123-124 Howard L Hausman, William Morris, to Morgenthau, 15 October 1956: jpeg 131 (and also 126, but unsigned) Letter from Morgenthau to Fleming, 3 December 1956: jpeg 122 Michel Bouche secretary to Howard L Hausman, William Morris, letter saying attaching outline and first episode script to Morgenthau, 30 October 1956 (but no attachment): jpeg 125 Series 9, File 53 contains photographs of Jamaica taken circa 1955, which looks like it could be part of the research and scouting for the series.

In 1965, Catch-22 author Joseph Heller and novelist George Mandel wrote over 100 pages of material for Hollywood producer Charles K. Feldman: an adaptation of Ian Fleming's first novel Casino Royale. Spy novelist and Bond obsessive Jeremy Duns discusses their opening sequence for it.