Lights! Camera! Tourism! Zelda Movie To Have Tourism Commercial Inside Film

Actress Grace McPhillips performs a demo scene from the
upcoming movie Beautiful Little Fools, a modern take on
the legendary Zelda Fitzgerald 

Excerpt From: Beautiful Little Fools screenplay by Carrie Stett

Movie Producer: Sterling Rock Productions, IL

Tourism Attraction: F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum

Location: Montgomery, Alabama
Photos: Click to enlarge! Production photos courtesy of Sterling Rock Productions. Museum photos by Patrick Miller

Below is an exclusive excerpt from the screenplay Beautiful Little Fools, a modern take on Zelda Fitzgerald soon to be filmed in her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama. The movie centers on a present day woman, Zelda Stone, who begins to learn about her namesake Zelda Fitzgerald after moving to Montgomery with her husband. Zelda Fitzgerald also appears as a character in the film through many historical flashbacks. One of the places Zelda Stone starts with is the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum, located in the only surviving home of the Fitzgerald family. Please learn more about this film in the Tourism Guide after the excerpt. Plus, isn't it interesting to see the format of a screenplay before watching it on film?

BEAUTIFUL LITTLE FOOLS

BY CARRIE STETT

Actress Grace McPhillips prepares to become Zelda Fitzgerald's modern
counterpart, Zelda Stone. Someone else will play Zelda Fitzgerald
in historical flashbacks throughout the movie. Who will play Zelda Fitzgerald? 

INT. FITZGERALD MUSEUM – PRESENT DAY

Zelda enters. It's a small apartment filled with artifacts

from Scott and Zelda Fitzgeralds' lives -- paintings,

letters, books, and original 1930's furniture, all old and

slightly dusty. Large individual portraits of Zelda and F.

Scott stare out from the mantle.

Zelda's portrait in the museum.

GEORGE, 55, the scattered museum keeper, greets Zelda

enthusiastically.

GEORGE

Welcome to the Museum.

ZELDA

Thanks.

Zelda surveys the room.

GEORGE

Scott and Zelda lived in this building in 1931 and 32. It

has since been made into separate apartments,

but this was their actual dining room.

Zelda admires a set of realistic hand-painted paper dolls on

the wall depicting Zelda, Scott and their daughter Scottie

in their undergarments, with changes of clothes next to

them.

Zelda's paper dolls on display in the museum.

GEORGE (CONT’D)

Zelda painted lots of paper dolls.

It was part of her therapy.

ZELDA

They're striking.

GEORGE

Artist, writer, ballerina... She had so much talent.

All she ever wanted was to make a name for herself.

And she did.

(beat)

I'm doing my dissertation on Scott and Zelda.

They had such fascinating lives.

(beat)

Sorry, I'm rambling. It's refreshing to have a visitor.

This photograph of Zelda was taken in the same
room where it is now on display in the museum.
She used this photograph for the cover of her
novel Save Me the Waltz.

ZELDA

You mean someone new?

GEORGE

No,just a visitor.

They exchange smiles.

ZELDA

We just moved in down the street.

GEORGE

I didn't catch your name. I'm George.

Co-producers Grace McPhillips and Bob Hudgins

ZELDA

Zelda Stone.

GEORGE

Really? Do people ever ask you –

Zelda nods.

ZELDA

Not until recently.

GEORGE

Well she's not such a bad person to be associated with.

She was a renaissance woman for sure.

George goes to a shelf of old books and pulls one out, blows

dust off of it. On the cover is a photograph of young Zelda

Fitzgerald and the title:

"ZELDA FITZGERALD: AMERICA'S FIRST FLAPPER."

GEORGE (CONT’D)

(gives her the book)

Here -- the best book ever written on Zelda. Take it.

And let me know when you're done. There's many more where

that came from.

ZELDA

Thanks. Goodness knows I've got plenty of time on my hands.

GEORGE

Maybe it'll inspire you.

Zelda seemed to have that effect on people.

ZELDA

Maybe it will.

BEAUTIFUL LITTLE FOOLS © 2011 by Sterling Rock Productions, LLC and WGA ®

919 Felder Films, LLC owns all property in regards to BEAUTIFUL LITTLE FOOLS,

and all material and characters in this screenplay are fictitious and in no way

portray real individuals, or, are drawn from historical public domain record.


Tourism Guide

F. Scott Fitzgerald's portrait in the museum.
Zelda's dolls are to the right of the lamp.

As a board member of the real museum in the scene above, you can imagine how excited I am to know that a movie will be filmed inside our museum. How is that going to impact tourism to our city? These days, tourism revenues are tough to come by for cash-strapped states and cities, and that has led to some creative ways to attract visitors.

If having a scene filmed inside a real tourism attraction isn't enough, there might be an even more stunning draw for tourism in this movie because Sterling Rock Productions, the movie’s producer, is considering incorporating a tourism commercial about the many real life attractions in the movie—a commercial to be shown inside the movie (probably at the end with the real actors and actresses directly inviting viewers to come visit the places).  Have you ever seen that in a movie? Wouldn’t it be fun to go visit the real places you just watched in a movie, and who better to invite you than the lead stars in the movie? The commercial would direct viewers to visit a special website where they could follow tourism links to all the places in the movie. The links would show photos, provide directions, and list ticket prices and other information, such as hours of operation.

Naturally, all of us at the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum are very excited about this, but once the movie comes out, isn’t it possible that many more movies in the near future set in different places will follow the same model? And how will that affect national tourism revenues and eventually the national economy, which is 70% driven by consumer spending? We are proud to be a part of this innovation in tourism marketing. No amount of generic tourism commercial formatting could compete with the artistic emotional appeal of a film, so this will open up a whole new level of connecting with the films and places for artistic moviegoers, much like the tourism novels featured on this wesbite. Of course, showing fans how to physically connect with their favorite movies is going to generate some much higher revenues for film producers and their investors as well. Follow the links below to learn more about the museum and the movie.

Tourism/Movie Links
F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum
Sterling Rock Productions-Zelda link

"The Last of the Belles"

Come join us for the 18th annual Gala and Fundraiser for the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum on March 3, 2012. Tickets are available from the museum in advance.

One of the fun themes of this gala is dressing up as Flappers from the 1920's (optional, not required). Willie Thompson, the executive director, knows how to throw a party worthy of Scott and Zelda. They will be there in spirit! Great food, plenty of drinks, and plenty of fun!

For pictures of the last gala, click on this link: What Would Fitzgerald Think of the Kindle? And don't forget to come out Sunday for the free Readers' Theater production put on by Alabama Public Radio personality Don Noble and his friends.

Fitzgerald Becomes First Classic Author To Have Interactive Tourism Novel

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel has just made literary history again by becoming the first classic novel in the world to be published with an interactive tourism guide. This Side of Paradise: Interactive Tourism Edition, published by SELTI, guides readers to the real locations that inspired the fictional story. All royalties from this special tourism edition are being donated to the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum, the only museum in the world dedicated to the famous couple. The tourism edition also includes a link to the SELTI article “What Would Fitzgerald Think of the Kindle?”

“These types of classic and contemporary interactive tourism novels could usher in a new wave of consumer spending that helps the economy rebound,” said Patrick Miller, founder of SELTI and publisher of the first interactive tourism novel on Kindle, Blind Fate, a suspense thriller. “Consumer spending accounts for 70% of our nation’s economy, and one of the heaviest sources of consumer spending is tourism. The best way to reach potential tourists is directly through the novels they read. New devices like the Kindle Fire and iPad allow readers to click on related tourism websites from inside the book—if publishers include them.”

Readers can purchase this special edition right now for their Kindles or, with a Kindle app, for their desktop or laptop computers, iPads, iPhones, or any smart phone or tablet computer. Remember: anyone can Kindle! Check out the new novel on Amazon and click on the free sample here: This Side of Paradise: Interactive Tourism Edition.

Kindle readers can click on tourism links
from inside this special edition to visit related
websites, such as the museum's
page on the Southern Literary Trail,
as seen on the Kindle Fire.

“Scott Fitzgerald's dogged pursuit of literary fame and fortune took him across oceans and continents,” said Willie Thompson, Executive Director of the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum. “How fitting that his first novel can now not only transport the reader back in time, but also across the globe. The Interactive Tourism Edition of This Side of Paradise is only the beginning of everything that literature can become in our modern world.”

Since Fitzgerald’s works have always enjoyed international popularity, the new interactive tourism edition might be the first time foreign readers are introduced to the Princeton and Montgomery Fitzgerald tours with photos and tourism guides, especially from inside a book. That new enhancement could transform foreign readers into foreign tourists. One of the real settings in the novel was Princeton University, where Fitzgerald also attended in real life.

“When I attended Princeton in the sixties, Fitzgerald’s legacy on campus was still very strong with the students,” said Julian McPhillips, President of the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum Board of Directors. “His descriptions of the social clubs, student life, and Gothic campus buildings were very accurate. We were all inspired by the classic work that helped establish his prominent role in history and literature.”

Twenty years after graduating from Princeton, McPhillips worked with his wife Leslie to save the Fitzgerald House in Montgomery from demolition and convert the aged structure into the museum it is today. One of the fun events held there every year is the Annual Flapper Gala, where Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald enthusiasts attend a fundraising party in period costumes from the 1920’s.