Literatura
Then, much later, when I lived in Katharine Hepburn, including her magical
Ireland for almost a year, writing the appearance in Summertime, and my long
screenplay of Moby Dick for John Huston, poem based on the score of The Wind
I encountered the works of Stephen and the Lion. All of these ran together and
Leacock, the Canadian humorist. Among inspired me to begin a long prologue to
them was a charming little book titled the novella that ultimately followed.
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. Today, looking back, I realize how
I was so taken with the book that fortunate I am to have collected such
I tried to get MGM to make a motion elements, to have held them ready, and
picture of it. I typed up a few preliminary then put them together to make this fi nal
pages to show the studio how I product, Somewhere a Band Is Playing.
envisioned the book as a film. When I have been fortunate to have many
MGM’s interest failed, I was left with the “helpers” along the way. One of those,
Ray Bradbury
beginning of a screenplay that had the in the case of this story, is my dear friend
feeling of a small town. But at the same Anne Hardin, who has off ered me strong
in his own words
time I couldn’t help but remember the encouragement over the past few years
Tucson I had known and loved when to see this novella published. For that she
I was six and when I was twelve, and shares in the dedication of this work.
by/por: LWR Staff
began to write my own screenplay and Of course, I had hoped to finish the
short story about a town somewhere in novella, over the years, in order to have
S
ome stories-be they short stories, the desert. it ready in time for Katharine Hepburn,
novellas, or novels-you may During those same years I kept no matter how old she got, to play the
realize, are written as a result of a encountering Katharine Hepburn, either lead in a theater or film adaptation. Katie
single, immediate, clear impulse. Others in person or on the screen, and I was waited patiently, but the years passed,
ricochet off various events over a lifetime terribly attracted by the fact that she she became tired, and finally left this
and come together much later to make remained so youthful in appearance world. I cannot help but feel she deserves
a whole. When I was six years old my through the years. the dedication I have placed on this
father, who had an urge to travel, took Sometime in 1956, when she was story. n
our family by train to Tucson, Arizona, for in her late forties, she made the film
a year, where we lived in a burgeoning Summertime. This caused me somehow
environment; for me, it was exhilarating. to put her at the center of a story for
The town was very small and it was still which I had no title yet, but Somewhere
growing. There’s nothing more exciting a Band Is Playing was obviously evolving.
than to be part of the evolution of a Some thirty years ago I saw a film called
place. I felt a sense of freedom there and The Wind and the Lion, starring Sean
I made many wonderful friends. Connery and with a fabulous score
A year later, we moved back to by Jerry Goldsmith. I was so taken
Waukegan, Illinois, where I had been born with the score that I sat down, played
and spent the fi rst years of my life. But it, and wrote a long poem based on
we returned to Tucson when I was twelve, the enchanting music. This became
and this time I experienced an even another element of Somewhere a Band
greater sense of exhilaration because Is Playing as I progressed through the
we lived out on the edge of town and I beginnings of a story which I had not yet
walked to school every day, through the fully comprehended, but it seemed as
desert, past all the fantastic varieties of if fi nally all the elements were coming
cacti, encountering lizards, spiders and, on together: the year I spent in Tucson, age
occasion, snakes, on my way to seventh six, the year I spent there when I was
grade; that was the year I began to write. twelve, the various encounters with
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