June 7, 2022
Introduction: In this article, Jane Hampton Cook tells some background stories about “To Kill a Mockingbird” – both the book and the movie have become classics. Jane is a presidential historian and author of ten books, including Stories of Faith and Courage from the Revolutionary War. Her works can be found at Janecook.com. She is also the host of Red, White, Blue and You.
The year 2022 marks the 60th anniversary of the Academy Award-winning 1962 movie To Kill a Mockingbird, which was based on the bestselling, award-winning novel by Harper Lee. Told from Lee’s viewpoint as a young girl, this fictitious Depression-era story featured an Alabama father and lawyer who defended a black man falsely accused of a violent crime. This classic book continues to be studied in high schools today.
As a search in GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives reveals, newspaper coverage of both the book and the movie provides some fun insight into the glitz and glamour of the early 1960s and the role that fatherhood played in inspiring the story.
This article reported that Harper Lee won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961.
This article reported:
“Nelle Harper Lee of Monroeville [Alabama] could easily be the most surprised authoress in the nation… Recently, Miss Lee dropped by the newspaper office here to say hello. She expressed surprise that her intriguing first novel had created so much attention.”
Though her novel took place in a fictional Alabama town, the neighbors of Lee’s real hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, were abuzz with excitement that one of their own had won the Pulitzer Prize. They were also trying to figure out which of the book’s characters matched the town’s real-life residents.
“Nelle Lee’s friends say for the record that the characters in her novel have counterparts in Monroeville. On the other hand, she won’t deny it.”
Harper Lee was clearly the grownup version of the book’s main character and narrator, a tomboy named Scout Finch. Lee’s father, an attorney who had turned to real estate law after losing his one and only criminal case defending two black men in 1919, inspired the book’s other main character, Atticus Finch.
“She said her father, Atty. A. C. Lee, had been kept busy autographing copies of Nelle’s book for Monroeville neighbors.
“She said the neighbors were asking him to sign his name ‘Atticus Finch,’ the fictional lawyer-father whose advice to his young daughter provided the title for ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’”
The excitement of a young woman from Alabama winning the New York-based Pulitzer was soon eclipsed by something even more glamorous: a Hollywood movie. Harper Lee and Monroeville, Alabama, received a very significant visitor: famed actor Gregory Peck, who was cast to play the role of Atticus Finch in the upcoming film version of To Kill a Mockingbird.
This article reported:
“Gregory Peck dropped in on Harper Lee and her family in Monroeville yesterday.
“The veteran actor will star in and co-produce the film version of Miss Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning work, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’
“‘I like to ease into a role by really knowing the part,’ Peck told Miss Lee upon his arrival from New York.”
By this time, Peck had played leading parts in a variety of successful films, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound, followed by David and Bathsheba, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Roman Holiday, and Moby Dick. Despite Peck’s fame he was relatable, according to members of the Lee family.
“Miss Alice Lee [Harper’s sister] said Mr. Peck was a very charming man and ‘very much down-to-earth. He walked around town soaking up the atmosphere.’”
Soon filming began on a set in Los Angeles, California. From Peck’s perspective, playing Atticus Finch was natural to him for a simple reason: he was playing the role of a father.
According to this article:
“Greg [Gregory Peck] said that after a few days of shooting on ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ he is sure this is the easiest role he has ever had, and he laughed when he said it.
“‘I play the father of two children,’ he said [Peck was the father of five children], ‘and that comes very natural to me.’
“‘Mary Badham, who plays my daughter, is the most charming little girl and I think both she and Philip Alford, who plays my son, will be very good.’”
Both child actors were from Alabama.
That same month, Harper Lee visited the set and had good things to say about the production.
This article reported:
“Miss Lee was invited to Hollywood to look at preparations to film her Pulitzer Prize novel, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ which will star Gregory Peck.
“‘I know that authors are supposed to knock Hollywood and complain about how their works are treated here,’ she said, ‘but I just can’t manage it.’
“‘Everybody has been so darned nice to me and everything is being done with such care that I can’t find anything to complain about.’
“She likes the movie script, and the set of the Southern home she wrote about ‘looked so real that I wanted to sit down in a rocking chair and fan myself.’”
The movie was released in December 1962 and received rave reviews.
According to this article:
“[The film] ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is taken almost intact from the endearing Harper Lee novel about [a] Depression-year life in a small Alabama town.”
The article praised the acting capability of the two children who played key roles in the movie, including the main character, Scout.
“Both youngsters are perfect.”
They weren’t the only ones described as spot-on perfect for their parts.
“So is Gregory Peck, playing his most credible role in years as the right-minded Atticus.”
Peck went on to win the Academy Award for best actor in a leading role for his portrayal of Atticus. To Kill a Mockingbird, both the book and the movie, have become classics.
