 The Illinois General Assembly wisely adopted the slogan "Land of
Lincoln" in 1955 and had it placed on license plates, ensuring its
wide promotion. To make certain that no other state would infringe
on the claim, Congress passed a special act that same year giving
Illinois the exclusive use of the phrase "Land of Lincoln."
Writers have also been territorial about the 16th president. John
G. Nicolay, Lincoln's private secretary, was incensed at Ida Tarbell
in the 1890s when he discovered that she intended to write a popular
biography of Abraham Lincoln. Nicolay, having recently finished a
10-volume Lincoln biography with John Hay, protested to Tarbell:
"You are invading my field." His real concern was that a competing
Lincoln biography would diminish "the value of my property."
Perhaps only a handful of Lincoln books have made the kind of
sales that give one pause. Carl Sandburg, David Herbert Donald and
Doris Kearns Goodwin come immediately to mind.
The recent announcements that two feature-length films are now in
production – "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" and Steven
Spielberg's "Lincoln," a loosely based adaptation of the Goodwin
bestseller -- recall an earlier era when two other Lincoln films
were in production at the same time.
Robert Sherwood's play "Abe Lincoln in Illinois," starring
Raymond Massey, was a Broadway hit in the fall of 1938. New York
critics and audiences applauded Massey's dramatic interpretation of
a young Abraham Lincoln. Hollywood frequently took Broadway hits and
quickly turned them into motion pictures. In this case, RKO Pictures
wasted no time in purchasing the film rights and began production.
Little did they know that screenwriter Howard Estabrook had
written a screenplay entitled "Young Lincoln" for Fox Film Corp. in
1935. But production ceased when Fox merged with Twentieth Century
to become Twentieth Century-Fox. Screenwriter Lamar Trotti, who had
finished production of a biopic on Alexander Graham Bell in November
1938, then began rewriting Estabrook's script, which had taken on
the new title "Lawyer of the West." Darryl Zanuck, the producer of
the film, changed the name of the film to "Young Mr. Lincoln."
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The competing Lincoln films resulted in a lawsuit in which
Sherwood sued Twentieth Century-Fox. Sherwood claimed that the
Twentieth Century-Fox film was a blatant facsimile of Sherwood's
play, using the same plot elements, a similar title, similar
promotional campaign and drawing upon the popularity of Lincoln
created by Sherwood's play. Sherwood said that "there was little
public interest in any portion of the life of Lincoln" until his
play generated a widespread public awareness. In many respects,
Sherwood's assertions were similar to those of John G. Nicolay: "You
are invading my field" and diminishing "the value of my property."
Twentieth Century-Fox countered with the obvious fact that
Lincoln's historical life was in the public domain. All of the facts
and events relating to Lincoln's life would be similar in any
biographical film. Moreover, the claim that Lincoln was unknown to
the larger public until Sherwood's play appeared was easily
dismissed with an abridged listing of films and major plays and
books published on Lincoln from 1900 to 1939. Among those dealing
with Lincoln's early life were Carl Sandburg's two-volume work "The
Prairie Years" (1926), D.W. Griffith's 1930 film "Abraham Lincoln"
and John Drinkwater's 1919 hit play "Abraham Lincoln."
The court sided with Twentieth Century-Fox, allowing the John
Ford film that starred Henry Fonda to move toward release a year
before "Abe Lincoln in Illinois."
And Sherwood need not have worried, since both films were eagerly
embraced by audiences.
[By THOMAS F. SCHWARTZ, Illinois
state historian]
From the Abraham Lincoln Presidential
Library and Museum
blog, "From Out of the Top Hat."
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