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After being denied membership to the Los Angeles Country Club because he was believed to be Jewish, 20th Century-Fox boss Darryl Zanuck decided to purchase the rights to Laura Hobson's 1947 novel Gentleman's Agreement and adapt it for the screen. Hobson's novel tackles the subject of anti-Semitism, which was a controversial subject at the time. Urged by Samuel Goldwyn and other Jewish film executives not to make the film as it might "stir up trouble", Zanuck went ahead regardless and his decision ultimately paid off. Gentleman's Agreement (1947), starring Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield and Celeste Holm, became an unexpected box-office success and at the Academy Awards also took home awards for Best Picture (Darryl Zanuck), Best Director (Eliza Kazan) and Best Supporting Actress (Celeste Holm).

Celeste Holm started her career in the theatre and earned both critical and public praise for her role of Ado Annie in Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Oklahoma! (1943). Signed to a contract by 20th Century-Fox in 1946, Holm made her screen debut that same year in Three Little Girls in Blue. When Gentleman's Agreement was being cast, Zanuck reportedly didn't want Holm for the part of fashion editor Anne Dettrey but hired her at the insistence of director Kazan. Holm's performance proved to be one of the finest of her career and the only one for which she earned an Oscar (although she would receive further nominations for Come to the Stable (1949) and All About Eve (1950)). Preferring the theatre over film work, Holm made relatively few films during her career. Her other pictures include Road House (1948), The Snake Pit (1948), The Tender Trap (1955) and High Society (1956), the latter two co-starring Frank Sinatra.

Above: Celeste Holm with Gregory Peck in Gentleman's Agreement. About Peck Holm said that he wasn't much fun. Below: At the Oscars with (from left to right) Darryl Zanuck, Edmund Gwenn, Loretta Young, Ronald Colman and Holm.

A few weeks before Gentleman's Agreement went into production, Darryl Zanuck wrote the following letter to Celeste Holm. A hands-on studio boss who involved himself in all aspects of film production, Zanuck was concerned with Holm being too heavy for her role and suggested she'd lose weight. Apart from Zanuck's letter, a draft of Holm's reply to Zanuck is also shown.

Source: live auctioneers

Source: live auctioneers

Transcript: 

My dear Mr. Zanuck —

Nothing could make me happier than does this assignment in "G.A"!

To this end, nothing would be difficult — and I shall continue

Thank you  So I shall continue my reducing to achieve even lesser proportions [than] those I had in 3 Little G's in Blue.

Sincerely — in appreciation

C

Celeste Holm in a scene from Three Little Girls in Blue, while performing the song Always the Lady.