Bidding on ‘Kane’

One of the rarest screenplays in Hollywood history--screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz’s personal copy of “Citizen Kane” (1941)--will be auctioned by Christie’s East in NYC on June 21. The pages contain penciled annotations by lawyers for William Randolph Hearst, the legendary newspaper tycoon upon whose life the movie is based. Christie’s projects a selling price of $70,000-$90,000.

Mankiewicz, who won an Academy Award for his work on the classic film, apparently loaned the script to his friend and fellow screenwriter Charles Lederer, the nephew of Marion Davies, who passed it on to Hearst.

Also included in the lot is an unproduced 1939 screenplay by Mankiewicz, entitled “American,” which closely parallels the Kane story. It may give credence to the claim that Mankiewicz--not Orson Welles--was responsible for the story.

The “Kane” script, along with other Mankiewicz mementos, was consigned by family heirs Frank and Tom Mankiewicz.

“There’s already been incredible interest in the script,” said Christie’s spokeswoman Bethe Goldberg. “It should fetch well above the estimated price.”