Newly Discovered Early Versions of Famous Creative Works

Here is a list of some not-so-well-known tentative titles and story lines that evolved into more familiar presentations in later revisions. The sources for this information remain confidential according to contemporary ethical journalistic standards.

George Lucas: Bar Wars

Years before achieving acclaim as the creator of Star Wars, the young director had explored the plethora of watering holes in the Central Valley California town of Modesto. The earliest discovered story lines involved an exploration of a handful of people who walk into several of these places feeling like humans then leave feeling like aliens. His favorite spot was reported to have been called Jabba's Hut.

Sophocles: The Boy Who Loved His Mother

An early working version that later morphed into the classic we know as "Oedipus Rex" was found in a cave in an area that was once part of ancient Greece's empire. In this earlier draft, the focus was not on the inevitable tragedy of what was to occur, but on the generally more accepted (and actually encouraged) proclivity toward both incest and patricide among royalty in Greece at that time.

Margaret Mitchell: The Man Who Would Be Superman

In this very early incarnation of the novel that would later become "Gone With the Wind," Margaret Mitchell imagines a film version of it with a minor character in it played by George Reeves, the man who would achieve fame on black and white television in the 1950's as the Man of Steel. She, however, thought better of it when she realized that the love story between Scarlett and Rhett would be of greater interest to people who might not be able to imagine, as she could, the future world of television and of Super Heroes.

Ray Bradbury: The Martian Monocles

The original story involved the examination of single-eyed beings who inhabited the planet Mars. Thus lacking in binocular visual perception, they were, however, able to see reasonably clearly where they had been. Problems arose when they needed to know where they were going. The monocles helped rather dramatically... if and when they remembered to turn around and ambulate backwards.

Gene Roddenberry: Star Dreck

As initially conceived, this supposedly five year journey that went on into eternity as "Star Trek," Roddenberry wrote scenes for the least skilled actors he could hire who would wear amateurish outfits, cheap makeup and spout just enough drivel to hold the attention of viewers between commercials. Of course, the final product had no relationship, whatever, to this earlier version.

HG (Hairy Geroge) Wells: War of the Curls

The world is invaded by extraterrestrial professional wrestling personalities. They eventually die out for lack of sufficient IQ points and are buried in a ditch outside Area 51. Later, as the finished product, "War of the Worlds" would entertain and terrify people around the earth.

Both Orson Well's Mercury Radio presentation of this script in its final form as well as George Pal's classic film, make numerous subtle allusions to the original script - but you really have to be carefully listening out for them.

Harry Bates: The Day the Earth Ate Krill

A short story dealing with the loss of most plant and non-human life on Earth, leading surviving humans to eat nothing but minute krill of the sea. Found to be nauseating prospect by Hollywood producers in the late 1940s, screenwriter Edmund H. North reformulated it into "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Klaatu barada nikto.

Anne Rice: Interview with the Umpire

A novella built around an interview with a baseball umpire who has been heard to say only "Y'er Out!!" of "Safe!" for nearly 35 years. This created complications in his daily life and his wife found it to be particularly embarrassing when they went out for dinner. The umpire turns out to be one in a long line of mechanical creations funded by the office of the Commissioner of Baseball. Vampires came as an afterthought.

Robert Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Band

A city-dwelling creature who is a championship kettle drum player in the Cosmos's mist highly decorated marching band, finds himself suddenly dropped into a small Midwestern North American town where he is assigned to play the only available instrument, the Glockenspiel, at the town's major event - the High School Homecoming. This one wasn't such a tremendous stretch from its final version of "Stranger in a Strange Land." Do you grock that?

Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Sweater

Discovered in the ruins of a colonial-era church in what is now South Boston, Hawthorne's first (or possibly second) try at a story of a young woman who violated the accepted clothing mores of her community by searing a scarlet colored sweater. It kept her warm in the cold New England winters, but the color was just too hot for the Puritan Fathers to tolerate. Later versions reduced the sweater to the symbol of "The Scarlet Letter." Hester was equally scorned and outcast. Sweater or letter - seemed to make little difference.

Charles Darwin: On The Origin of the Specious

Although just recently, a first edition of Darwin's "On The Origin of the Species" was discovered in the bathroom of a home in England, an earlier draft of the book was found back in 1937 in a steam bath locker room in Amsterdam. In it, Darwin develops his ideas focusing on the bogus mature of those more popular and accepted at the time rather than on promoting his own. This earlier version predated his famous trip to the Galapagos Islands.

Dan Millman: The Way of the Peaceful Clothier

While germinating and jotting down his early notes on what would soon be sold and popularized as "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior:, Millman was quite taken with the metaphoric meaning of clothing to the humans he came in contact with and begin his effort by exploring the symbolic and spiritual meaning of what were once called soft goods... textiles used in the manufacture of clothing.

He had a second notion in time to earn the attention and respect of an entire generation of readers and seekers.

And finally,

Herman Melville, Ahab's Shtick

Melville's first cut at what would later come to be regarded as a prime contended for the title of The Great American Novel, "Moby Dick." In this earlier attempt, Melville had written some (one legged) standup comedy routines for the nearly crotchety sea captain who was trying to make a new career for himself as a comedian on the early Ale Houses of the New England coast. At a point, Melville realized that Ahab lacked humor in any form, so a new direction of his work took shape and succeeded.

So, whatever your first effort, a second (or even third) may be worth your while!