Jan 28, 2016 - Sale 2403

Sale 2403 - Lot 218

Price Realized: $ 195
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 250 - $ 350
(FILM.) FRANK TUTTLE (Attributed to).
"The Drayton Home" from Guess Who's Coming for Dinner? Watercolor and gouache on board. 241x578 mm; 9 1/2x22 3/4 inches, sight. Unsigned but captioned in matte margin along bottom. Set design for the film. Matted and framed.

Additional Details

Tuttle's large and colorful design for the main set of the classic film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" directed and produced by Stanley Kramer and starring Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy, and Katharine Hepburn.

The film was Tracy's final screen performance. Because of his ill health and general exhaustion, 90% of the film was shot on one set, the Drayton home, which was created on a sound stage designed by Tuttle (and for which he was nominated for an Oscar). To work around the actor's limited stamina, Hepburn helped with lighting and direction to limit shoot takes and they only shot for a few hours each morning. He died only ten days after the film was completed. The movie went on to become Columbia Studio's highest grossing film to date as well as turned Poitier into their first African-American box office star--TCM film notes archives.