Marquand Donates H. M. Pulham Movie Script to Theatre Collection

Hemmed in by reporters and photographers, John P. Marquand '15, yesterday presented the motion picture script of his best-selling novel, "H. M. Pulham, Esq." to the Widener Library Theatre Collection. The presentation was part of a publicity scheme intended to boost ticket sales of the M.G.M. picture, which opens in Boston tonight.

Thanks to the efforts of an energetic press agent, the small Theatre Collection Room was jamed with newspaper men, who fired questions at Marquand about his opinion of the movie and his attitude towards current literary work.

Asked why Yale was given the manuscript of the book instead of Harvard, Marquand explained, "Yale asked for it first. I didn't realize that Widener would want it." He said that he is now arranging with Head Librarian Keyes Metcalf to give his other manuscripts and family letters to the College.

"Harvard can take anything," stated the author, tongue in check, when he was questioned about the probable response here to the movie's sathe of the University. A pre-war graduate who has already celebrated his twenty-fifth reunion, the former Lampoon editor admitted that he doesn't "understand the modern Harvard man, the 1941 model. The engine and carburetor are the same," he claimed.

He said that although the picture has "several sad deficiencies," it is, on the whole, "a good job with some excellent parts. Anything wrong in the script you can't blame on me. The good lines are mine."