5 April 1959, ALS: ". . . The theme is eternal. Barbara Bel Geddes I think is ideal . . . . I lean to Dauphin, who can look like a chauffeur or a duke at will. I think a play with a song fits this better than a 'musical'. Could we have someone like whoever wrote the song for Irma la Douce . . . ."
12 May 1959, ALS: ". . . Seeing Irma la Douce, looking up the composer. Lady in Paris after that. Its nice here--green is my favorite color. . . ."
5 June 1959, TLS: "I got hold of Dauphin . . . .
"He will accept if we make him a firm offer. . . .
"While I don't wish to cast the play I think he is ideal, (he has also directed Clerambard) and of course he is French and familiar with our milieu. . . ."
3 July 1959, TLS: "I found a melody . . . it is Spanish and I think for a play easy on the ear . . . . I don't know who wrote it, a Spanish lady sang it on my boat . . . . Qu'est ce que ça peut faire du moment qu'on s'aime.
". . . I think if Armand, whoever he be, carries with him a guitar and sings this at every effort at conquest, it would be both pathetic and true. . . ."
29 July 1959, TLS: ". . . I don't know why anybody is in the theatre. I am [for] hours before my easel, and [w]hen its finished, I don't know how the time passed, I am happy . . . . [T]hese things you make like a pair of shoes with your hands and you know where you are, but the theater and the awfulness of most of the people in it, its a strange addiction and I wish you well. . . ."
18 October 1960, TLS: "Here is the book of the play, or rather the first brainspinnery.
"It occurred to me since that . . . the Parisian police is heavily armed . . . . In arming them, and in mentioning the Arabs in the beginning, we set the trigger. I think at the last scene or near the last, the Professor is shot accidentally . . . by Arabs, then when the Bride finds out that her only true love is gone, she hangs his typewriter on the wall . . . and slowly starts to undo her makeup, it was all illusion, for she is a man. . . . I know these fabulous half-Menschen half man half woman . . . in whom all is the terrible desire for love that is in all human beings. . . ."
13 November 1960, ALS: "I've spent a great deal of time on the scene . . . . I think in 3 weeks I will have an outline of the whole thing . . . ."
22 March 1961, TLS: "It takes me four years to do a Madeline, and I see now, that I can't do a play in a matter of months. So I have done this outline for a novel and play.
"I have always complained that nobody could adapt me properly to the stage. Now I am on trial. Here is the outline. . . ."
25 August 1962, TLS: ". . . I have started to plot the Magicians book in full now, and it goes something like this, reversing the usual Madeline theme [Madeline's Christmas, 1985?]. The Magician is a man of tremendous arrogance and power, something like Nubar Gulbenkian, with always an orchid in his buttonhole, and who loves to eat . . . . [H]e can regulate the weather, and make Notre Dame blue, green, red, any color he wants. He exercises in the morning with 18 karat golden Barbells and . . . when he exhales, he is so strong in breath, that all the pigeons in the neighborhood are pressed motionless against the buildings . . . .
"Now we move into the House of the little girls. It was the night before Christmas . . . and everybody is sick except Madeline. . . ."
with--Two typescripts, unsigned, each entitled The Street Where the Heart Lies, each a draft of the play, one a first draft consisting of first two acts, the other complete and with few holograph corrections. Together over 80 pages, 4to. 1960-61 Over 10 pages of correspondence from Frank to Bemelmans, retained drafts, concerning the play and other projects. 1959-62 A few letters from Bemelmans's agents concerning publishing rights for Madeline stories. 1961 Madeline's Christmas. 12mo, pictorial wrappers; original pictorial envelope. [New York]: A McCall's Book, 1956 Printed galleys for Madeline in London. 5 pages, 9x24 inches. [1961] Printed invitation to showing of Bemelmans's casein paintings from Madeline in London at Hammer Galleries. 1961.