Joan Alison

Joan Alison (1902 - 31 March, 1992) was an American writer who co-wrote the play "Everybody Comes to Rick's" (with Murray Burnett), which was the basis for the movie "Casablanca" (1942) starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.

When Alison and Burnett failed to find a Broadway producer, they sold the play to Warner Brothers for $20,000. Warner Brothers handed the script to the screenwriters Howard Koch, Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein, who changed the title to "Casablanca" and made various other changes. In the screen play the letters of transit were signed by the French Marshall Maxime Weygand (paired with the infamous Vichy regime), but in the motion picture it was General Charles de Gaulle.

Some dialogue was left out or added, the time sequence was changed to some degree, and whereas the whole play takes place in Rick's bar, the movie has some scenes outside. There are two major changes with the characters. First there was that of Ilsa Laszlo, who was made more compatible with the Hays Code. In the film Ilsa hints that she and Victor Laszlo are not married; in the play she definitely wasn't married to Victor Laszlo. Rick seems more benevolent in the screenplay than in the movie. Yet the foundation of the play remained intact - such as the tension between Major Strausser and Victor.

The song "As Time Goes By" was sung in Burnett's and Alison's play, although its creation had nothing to do with any play, having been written by Hermann Hupfeld in 1931.

Burnett and Alison sued Warner Brothers when the television series based on "Casablanca" aired in 1983, but the courts decided that they had signed away all rights to their work. Finally, when they threatened not to renew their agreement with Warner Brothers when it would expire in 1997, they received $100,000 and the right to produce the original play.

In 1991 "Everybody Comes to Rick's" was produced by David Kelsey at The Whitehall Theatre in London. By that time Howard Koch, who was 89 years old, had changed his mind. In a letter to the Los Angeles Times, Koch admitted that Murray's and Alison's complaints about the lack of credit they received for their contribution to the film had been justified.

The original play is available from the Arts Library of the University of California - Los Angeles.

References

* Harmetz, Aljean. Round up the Usual Suspects: The Making of "Casablanca". Bogart, Bergman, and World War II, New York: Hyperion, 1992
* The Creator of Rick's Cafe Seeks Rights to 'Casablanca' Characters, New York Times, Oct 10, 1985