There it is: The window card for the greatest Broadway musical that never really existed…at least not with Lorenzo Saint DuBois in the lead. This is a prop created for the 1968 movie, The Producers, and the credits for music, choreography and art direction on it are for men who actually filled those functions on the film. The designer listed there, Charles Rosen, has put a number of items from his personal collection up for auction with a firm called Profiles in History. They, in turn, are offering them for purchase via eBay. One is the card seen at left. Another is a page that purports to be Mel Brooks's original lyric sheet for the song, "Springtime for Hitler." There's also a bound copy of the script, a fake Playbill, a poster and a bunch of set design sketches. I'm not going to be bidding but if you'd like to — or if you'd like to window-shop and browse some of the interesting information accompanying these items — here's a link to the auction.
Also up for grabs are props and costumes from a number of science-fiction films and TV shows, including a Superman costume worn by George Reeves, a head of E.T., the robot from the Buck Rogers TV series and other things you can't afford.
But getting back to The Producers: The most interesting item (to me) is this one, which is the original screenplay, dictated by Mel to his assistant, Alfa-Betty Olsen, and studded with hand-written changes by both of them. Ms. Olsen's name may be familiar to you since she later had a decent career as a comedy writer, often teamed with Marshall Efron, and also did some acting…plus, there was a character named after her once on Get Smart. A lot of folks hailed her as the unsung hero of The Producers since she not only helped Brooks assemble the screenplay but did a lot of the casting, as well. This original of the screenplay is apparently from her files, and I hope it doesn't disappear into someone's private collection. It would be nice to see an arrangement made with Brooks and other interested parties to reprint it in a big book, complete with all the cross-outs and altered lines. Flaunt it, baby. Flaunt it.