Three scripts from Orson Welles' Citizen Kane have sold for a combined $102,400.
Each from a different stage in the film's creation, the earliest was a 1940 script titled "American". It sold for $32,000.
 Mankiewicz's rough draft 'exhibits huge gaps in continuity' |
It is screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz's first rough draft - the earliest draft of the film in private hands.
"In March of 1940, Orson Welles sent Mankiewicz and close friend John Houseman (tasked with making sure Mankiewicz wrote rather than getting drunk) to Mrs. Campbell's Guest Ranch retreat in Victorville, California some 60 miles outside of Los Angeles to write the first drafts of Citizen Kane, with a 300-page draft script of dialogue and camera instructions by Welles as a starting point," explains auctioneer Profiles in History.
"Mankiewicz's April 16, 1940 draft clocks in at approximately 250 pages but exhibits huge gaps in continuity…"
The second script, which is closer to the finished film, made $25,600, while the most valuable was Welles' shooting script, which contained the star's annotated directions. It sold for $44,800.
The auction is the latest evidence of the popularity of "Kane" memorabilia with collectors. The film is routinely voted the best of all time, and was pioneering in its use of filming techniques.
In 2014, another of Welles' personal copies of the script made �98,500 ($164,692), while one of three Rosebud sleds used in the film has auctioned for $233,500.
Keeping with the Welles theme, an original CBS transcript of the 1938 Mercury Theatre War of the Worlds broadcast made $28,800 at yesterday's auction.
The dramatisation caused panic among some listeners, who mistook it for a genuine Martian invasion. The transcript came with a CBS cover letter apologising for the confusion.
The auction house offers two further days of film memorabilia lots on Wednesday and Thursday. We will bring you the best of the action right here.
Click here to view our movie memorabilia for sale.
Please sign up to our free newsletter to receive exciting news about film memorabilia auctions.
