Two Steel Plates from "THE AFRICAN QUEEN" steamer from the 1951 Movie
California & Florida: Hollywood, 2012. original movie prop. wooden plaque. Stained Wooden plaque (17" W x ~10 3/8" H) mounted with two steel plates (~14" W x ~ 6" H x 3/4-1" D) from the vessel "African Queen." The plates have a total of 18 rivets and a grouping of 4 bolts & nuts, which surround a 3/4" hole (seemingly from a former bolt). The left, lower plate has been signed in ink "Stephen Humphrey Bogart" by Humphrey Bogart's son. 7 lbs. 7 oz.
A brass plate (10 3/8" W x 2" H) screwed onto the board reads:
"THE AFRICAN QUEEN / Built in England, Great Britain in 1912 this piece of steel was removed from the vessel / The African Queen during her restoration in 2012 for her centennial year. / The boat was made famous in the 1951 movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, directed by John Huston and produced by Sam Spiegel and John Woolf." Fine / Fine. Item #264
Two LARGE POVENANCED & MOUNTED FRAGMENTS from THE "AFRICAN QUEEN"!
We also include a fine black & white promotional photo of the memorable "African Queen" depicting Kate Hepburn and Bogie in costume.
Much of the film was shot in Technicolor with huge cameras in Uganda and the Congo in Africa. During the shooting on location, the cast and crew often suffered from sickness and had to endure rough living conditions.
In one scene, Hepburn was playing an organ but had a bucket nearby because she was frequently sick between takes. Bogart later boasted that he was the only one to escape illness, which he attributed to not drinking any water, but instead fortifying himself with whiskey that he had brought.
Because it was too dangerous to film actors Bogart and Hepburn in an actual croc-and-creature infested African rivers, the scenes in which Bogart and Hepburn are in leech-infested water were shot in studio tanks at Isleworth Studios, Middlesex. Because of the dangers involved when the "Afrtican Queen" went through rapids and over a waterfall, a model was used in the studio tank in London.
Most of the action takes place aboard the African Queen of the movie's title. Many scenes aboard the boat were filmed using a raft with a mockup of the boat on top. Once, when removing sections of the boat to make room for the large Technicolor camera, a heavy copper replica of the boiler nearly fell on Hepburn.
The small steam-boat used in the film to depict the African Queen was built in 1912, in England, for service in Africa. At one time it was owned by actor Fess Parker. In December 2011, plans were announced to restore the boat, and an auction was held to help pay for its restoration, which was completed by the following April. The African Queen is now on display at Key Largo, Florida.
“The African Queen” is a 1951 adventure film adapted from C. S. Forester’s 1935 novel. The film was directed by John Huston and produced by Sam Spiegel and John Woolf. The screenplay was adapted by James Agee, John Huston, John Collier and Peter Viertel. It was photographed in Technicolor by Jack Cardiff. The film stars Humphrey Bogart (who won an Academy Award for Best Actor), and Katharine Hepburn with Robert Morley, Peter Bull, and Theodore Bikel. The Library of Congress has declared the film "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”
As World War I is about to begin, Rev. Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley) and his sister Rose (Katharine Hepburn) are British Methodist missionaries serving in a village in German East Africa. Their supplies are delivered by a small tramp steamer named the African Queen, captained by seedy Canadian boat captain Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart), whose crude behavior they can barely tolerate.
Though Charlie warns them that war has broken out between Germany and Britain, the missionaries choose to stay, only to witness the Germans destroy their mission village. When the Germans drive off its natives, Reverend Samuel protests and is beaten by a German soldier. Afterwards, he becomes delirious and dies. When Charlie returns shortly afterward, he and Rose bury her brother and depart in the African Queen.
After Charlie tells Rose that the Germans have a gunboat, the Königin Luise (German for "Queen Louisa"), guarding a huge lake downriver, Rose conceives of a plan to convert the African Queen into a torpedo boat in order to sink the hated German warship.
Though Charlie believes that her plan to reach the lake is suicidal--since they would have to get past a German fort and run three sets of dangerous rapids on the Ulanga River--ever insistent, Rose manages to convince him.
During their journey down-river, Charlie, Rose, and the African Queen overcome many obstacles including the German fort and the rapids. The African Queen is flooded after the first rapids; then sustains bullet holes in its boiler when they pass the fortress and its soldiers shoot at them. These holes cause the ship’s engine to stop running.
Charlie barely manages to patch up the boiler, when they enter the second set of rapids. The steamer is again flooded as it gyrates through these rapids. While celebrating their survival, the two embrace, but break off from embarrassment.
Soon, however, they develop an affectionate relationship. They manage to get more fuel and drain the boat, and as they watch hippopotamuses and other creatures, the third dangerous group of rapids comes up. This time, as it goes over the falls, the hull of the boat is badly scraped.
When Charlie dives under the boat to inspect the damage, he discovers that the propeller shaft and its blades have been damaged. With his expertise and Rose’s suggestions, Charlie manages to straighten the shaft and weld a new blade onto the propeller, so they are able to resume their dangerous journey.
All appears lost when Charlie and Rose get lost and the African Queen becomes stuck in muck and dense reeds. When Charlie tries to tow their boat, he emerges from the water covered with disgusting leeches. All their efforts to free the African Queen fail. With no supplies left, Rose and Charlie turn in, convinced they have no hope of survival.
Exhausted Rose prays that she and Charlie may go into Heaven. Providentially, as they sleep, heavy rains raise the river and float the African Queen into the lake where they narrowly avoid being spotted by the Königin Luise.
Anticipating the warship’s return, Charlie and Rose hastily labor to fill two oxygen cylinders with explosives. They use nails as firing pins and shove the cylinders through holes in the bow of the African Queen as spar torpedoes.
When the Königin Luise returns, the couple steam the African Queen out onto the lake in darkness, planning to ram the Königin Luise before diving overboard and swimming to safety in Kenya.
Unfortunately, a storm erupts as they head toward the warship. Because the bow holes of the African Queen aren’t sealed, water floods in causing the brave little vessel to sink and capsize.
Thrown overboard, Charlie loses sight of Rose but is soon taken aboard the Königin Luise. Because he believes Rose has drowned, when the German captain (Peter Bull) accuses him of being a spy, Charlie doesn’t defend himself, so the captain sentences him to be hung.
Unexpectedly, Rose is brought aboard right after Charlie's sentence is handed down. When questioned by the captain, she defiantly confesses their plot. The captain then sentences her to be executed as a spy, too.
Charlie begs the German captain to marry them before carrying out his sentence, so he conducts a brief marriage ceremony, Just as the Germans are about to hang them, there is a huge explosion which causes the Königin Luise to sink. The warship had struck the submerged hull of the African Queen and detonated its torpedoes. Rose's plan worked after all, and the newly married couple swim happily to safety. (Details adapted from Wikipedia and other sources.)
Best available condition. Formerly in the possession of a gentleman who attended the 2012 Florida auction.
Price: $2,950.00