Looking for James Gunn
Update: Since writing the text below, I have located the script material. Read more here.
I don’t know what to file this under: perhaps ‘a near-discovery’? Discussing the possibility of Amazon making a James Bond TV series with my friend Ajay Chowdhury a couple of weeks ago, I somewhat randomly remembered that years ago I had rummaged around a bit to see if I could find anything more than already known about Ian Fleming’s involvement in writing an outline and pilot script for a TV series in the mid-1950s. Set in Jamaica this was called, variously, ‘Commander Jamaica’ and ‘James Gunn - Secret Agent’, and was a project initiated by producer Henry Morgenthau III. It’s mentioned in several books about Fleming, including the biographies by John Pearson, Andrew Lycett, and Nicholas Shakespeare. Back in 2010, I had managed to speak to Morgenthau, then in his nineties, but it was an introductory discussion and despite me following up a few times, nothing more came of it.
I have good news and bad news. The good news is I have found out a few new things about the project, including some unpublished letters to and from Fleming about it, and this material is available online, for free: the links are below. There are some fascinating Fleming touches, such as his suggestion that the series’ title could be ‘Commander X’.
But the bad news: I haven’t found the script material itself. However, I think it might be out there, and possibly even in the same archive, placed in a different file by mistake. It’s a massive archive, and not especially easy to search through, though it becomes easier the more you use it.
I tried to get my thoughts down about this in, for want of a better term, a podcast (it’s really just me talking through it on my phone). You can listen on Spotify, Apple, and elsewhere: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/close-reading/id1537447331
Here is the episode’s description, which should be useful if you want to follow along reading the material - and if you want to look elsewhere to see if you can find the rest of it.
A tantalising glimpse of buried treasure in Jamaica! Let's take a closer look. To follow along, click this link: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn604656
Click ‘Search this collection’ and enter ‘Jamaica’ (or ‘Morgenthau Jamaica’).
Here is the finding aid for the whole collection:
https://collections.ushmm.org/findingaids/2015.255.1_01_fnd_en.pdf
Here are the most relevant files:
Morgenthau Family Papers, US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Series 1: Family papers 1860-2006, File 145: Television Projects Set in Jamaica 1955-1956, 2 folders [Note: has perhaps only the first folder been made visible in error? There is no obvious divide in the digital scans.]
‘Captain Jamaica of the CIC’ proposal, 9 April 1956: jpegs 157-174
Letter from Henry Morgenthau III to Ian Fleming, 16 July 1956: jpegs 133-136 (copied elsewhere in this folder: 114-117 and 118-121)
Letter from Fleming to Morgenthau, 19 July 1956, including his ‘Commander X’ title suggestion: jpegs 127-130
Undated proposal for TV film production in Jamaica, including an adventure show primarily aimed at children titled ‘Adventure Harbor’ with a protagonist called Commander Jamaica, and an untitled show and possibly feature film set in a hotel resort with Noel Coward as MC (it seems likely this was sent to Fleming, hence his mention in his 19 July letter of Coward being unlikely to be interested): jpegs 154-156
Undated ‘Commander Jamaica’ proposal (possibly also sent to Fleming): jpegs 144-149
Letter from Fleming to Morgenthau, 27 August 1956, saying he has airmailed ‘a 9-page outline of the whole series and a 28-page script for the Pilot’ for ‘James Gunn - Secret Agent’: jpeg 140
Jo Stewart, Curtis Brown, to Morgenthau, 29 August 1956: jpeg 138
Jo Stewart, Curtis Brown, to Morgenthau sending the outline and pilot script, 4 September 1956: jpeg 143
Jo Stewart, Curtis Brown, to Morgenthau, 1 October 1956: jpeg 137
Letter from Morgenthau to Howard L Hausman, William Morris, 10 October 1956: jpegs 123-124
Howard L Hausman, William Morris, to Morgenthau, 15 October 1956: jpeg 131 (and also 126, but unsigned)
Letter from Morgenthau to Fleming, 3 December 1956: jpeg 122
Michel Bouche secretary to Howard L Hausman, William Morris, letter saying attaching outline and first episode script to Morgenthau, 30 October 1956 (but no attachment): jpeg 125
Series 9, File 53 contains photographs of Jamaica taken circa 1955, which looks like it could be part of the research and scouting for the series.
