PORTER, Cole (1891-1964).

Autograph music manuscript for 40 bars from a song, untitled but possibly from the 1938 Broadway musical comedy You Never Know, with partial lyrics in pencil under eight bars ‘…mi-a, you’ve got to come + see me’, and the notation ‘Transition from Maria vocal to dance’ beneath the lyrics, additionally annotated in pencil ‘f sempre, same movement in accompaniment’ at bar nine and ‘into Maria dance’ at bar 40.

Based on the story By Candlelight by Siegfried Geiger and a script by Rowland Leigh, You Never Know featured music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story concerns a Parisian maid named Maria who impersonates her mistress and falls in love with a valet posing as a baron. In the original cast, Mexican comedian Lupe Velez played Maria opposite Clifton Webb. The musical ran for 78 performances at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theater in 1938. From the collection of Porter’s close friend Clifton Webb, who had starred in the original cast of You Never Know. Webb worked primarily on Broadway until the mid-1940s when his Hollywood career took off with an Academy Award nominated performance in the 1944 noir Laura.

One page, 311 x 234 mm, twelve stave paper by Chappell. Provenance: Clifton Webb (1899-1966, Hollywood actor and Porter’s close friend).