Hemingway, Ernest; Saugstad, Mac Julian (photos)

[Small Photographic Hemingway Archive]

[Cabo Blanco, Peru: 1956]. Vintage black-and-white photographic print postcard (measuring 5 1/2" x 3 1/2") and three small vintage black-and-white photographic prints (each measuring approximately 2 1/2" x 2 1/4").

Small archive of photographic material related to Ernest Hemingway’s involvement with John Sturges's 1958 film adaptation of The Old Man and the Sea, from the personal collection of Warner Bros. still photographer Mac Julian Saugstad. Hemingway, who was retained as a consultant and technical adviser on the film, insisted that fake footage not be used and that a real marlin "co-star" with Spencer Tracy. When the production team's attempts to film a real giant marlin near Cuba failed, Hemingway led a fishing expedition off the coast of Cabo Blanco, Peru. He ultimately spent thirty-two days at Cabo Blanco, where he assisted the film unit and fished daily with his close friend Elicio Argüelles, the Cuban sportsman and senator, who reeled in a 750-pound marlin during the expedition. This group of material contains an original photographic print postcard handwritten and mailed by Saugstad to family members and four original small-format black-and-white photographic prints documenting the expedition and fish caught by Argüelles. The postcard, with a Peruvian airmail stamp and a May 1956 postal cancellation, reproduces a photo of Hemingway, his wife Mary Welsh (who makes an uncredited cameo in the film as a tourist), and members of the fishing and film crew posed next to the marlin suspended from a dockside hoist. The verso bears a handwritten message from Saugstad describing daily life on the expedition: "We have caught two so far, this is the first, 730 lbs., the other 750. Hemingway and wife are in this picture." An accompanying photograph shows the marlin suspended and chalked "730 – Happy Birthday Elicio – 1956 – Cabo Blanco Peru – April 26," flanked by Argüelles and Hemingway. The three other images feature Hemingway and other members of the Cabo Blanco group. Known professionally as Mac Julian, Saugstad was an influential Hollywood still photographer who spent over thirty years capturing behind-the-scenes, portrait, publicity, and location photos for Warner Bros. He worked closely with figures such as Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper, and Lauren Bacall, with his photography shaping the public image of some of Hollywood's greatest Golden Age films. Three of the four photos with ink notation to verso, two with "Kodak Velox Paper" inkstamps to verso. One photo with paper abrasion from adhesive removal to verso. All with minor foxing to versos and light wear and handling. Very good overall. Item #13490

$750.00