Frankie & Johnny

En 1930, Frankie and Johnny paraît chez Albert & Charles Boni, écrit par John Huston et illustré par Miguel Covarrubias.

Je reproduis ci-dessous le texte écrit sur la page facebook Miguel Covarrubias :

« The ill-fated lovers Frankie and Johnny inspired by one or more actual murders. One of these took place in an apartment building located at 212 Targee Street in St. Louis, Missouri, at 2:00 on the morning of October 15, 1899. Frankie Baker (1876 – 1952), a 22-year-old woman, shot her 17-year-old lover Allen (also known as “Albert”) Britt in the abdomen. Britt had just returned from a cakewalk at a local dance hall, where he and another woman, Nelly Bly (also known as “Alice Pryor”), had won a prize in a slow-dancing contest. Britt died of his wounds four days later at the City Hospital. On trial, Baker claimed that Britt had attacked her with a knife and that she acted in self-defense; she was acquitted and died in a Portland, Oregon mental institution in 1952.

Frankie and Johnny were already legends by 1930, the year of this illustrated drama’s publication. The unique interpretation is a collaboration between John Huston, the future director of The Maltese Falcon and other film classics, and Miguel Covarrubias. 

Huston, who reputedly interviewed a neighbor of the real-life Frankie and Johnny, was inspired to adapt the tale of love gone wrong for a puppet show for which George Gershwin supplied musical accompaniment. »

La même année, à 24 ans, John Huston signe avec Samuel Goldwyn son premier contrat de scénariste à Hollywood.  

Miguel Covarrubias, Frankie & Johnny, 1930

Miguel Covarrubias, Frankie & Johnny, 1930

Miguel Covarrubias, Frankie & Johnny, 1930

Miguel Covarrubias, Frankie & Johnny, 1930

Miguel Covarrubias, Frankie & Johnny, 1930

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