Fun with all the hard work

Coming to the end of 2022, here is a selection of random letters, written by a few of my fave actors and a fave director.

First up is a letter from Barbara Stanwyck to Miss Cunningham (a fan) about the making of Banjo on My Knee (1936). Barbara writes how she and her colleagues had enjoyed making the film. Banjo on My Knee is the first film in which Barbara sings on screen. While she wanted to be dubbed —"I have a deep husky voice without a high note in it", Barbara had warned beforehand— producer Darryl Zanuck insisted that she would do her own singing. (There's a lovely duet by Barbara and Tony Martin, to be watched here). Apart from Banjo, Barbara also sings in This is My Affair (1937) and Lady of Burlesque (1943) but her voice was dubbed in Ball of Fire (1941).

Via: Ebay

Transcript:

Jan 10/37

Dear Miss Cunningham —

Thanks for your nice letter. I'm glad you liked "Banjo" - we all liked making it - we just had fun with all the hard work.

The filming took thirty-one days, that's about average time with the exception of epics and they go on forever.

My hair is dark red - eyes blue- and there you have it.

I do appreciate your taking the time to write me and hope you will continue to like my work.

Thank you,

Barbara Stanwyck

Barbara Stanwyck in the door opening of her trailer during production of Banjo on My Knee.

_____

In October 1938, Norma Shearer wrote to her fans, Mr and Mrs Layton, about Marie Antoinette (her "most loved role"), while next touching on the subject of Cleopatra and her new film Idiot's Delight co-starring Clark Gable.

Via: vivelareine.tumblr.com

Above: Norma Shearer and Tyrone Power in a scene from Marie Antoinette (1938), directed by W. S. Van Dyke. Below: Norma with Clark Gable in Clarence Brown's Idiot's Delight (1939).

Next is another letter to a fan, this one is from Alfred Hitchcock to a Mr Parker, dated 21 April 1941. Hitch reacts to a suggestion from Mr Parker to have the audience solve the murder mystery. The film Before the Fact mentioned in the letter would be released under the name Suspicion (1941).

Source:  Worthpoint

On the set of Suspicion with the leads Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine and director Alfred Hitchcock.

_____

In March 1971, Doris Day wrote this lovely letter to friend and fellow actress Mary Wickes. The two women appeared together in four movies, i.e. On Moonlight Bay (1951), I'll See You in My Dreams (1951), By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953) and It Happened to Jane (1959). Wickes also guest-starred on the first season of the tv series The Doris Day Show (1968).

Source: dorisday.net

A candid photo of Mary Wickes and Doris Day

Doris and Mary in By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953)

_____

Cary Grant wrote the following note to fellow actor and friend Clifton Webb, signing it "Betsy and Cary". Betsy Drake, an actress and writer, was Grant's third wife and they were married from 1949 until 1962.

Source: Heritage Auctions

Transcript:

Monday- 29th 

Clifton —

It's so nice to know someone, in this seldom considerate, and usually selfish, world, who is kind courteous and undemanding. You have our affection, dear Clifton!

Betsy and Cary

Chrysanthemums are so impressive and colorful this time of the year that we thought we'd accompany this note with a few for your mother and you.

B and C.

Cary Grant and Betsy Drake in 1958

1935, Cary Grant and Clifton Webb and some friends/fellow actors, among them Claudette Colbert and Marlene Dietrich.

_____

The final letter for this post was written by Deborah Kerr to her friend Radie in May 1990. In it, Kerr talks about Greta Garbo and Garbo's last visit to Klosters (Switzerland), the Alpine village in which Kerr and her second husband, novelist/screenwriter Peter Viertel, had settled since they got married in 1960. Viertel's mother was Salka Viertel —an actress/screenwriter and a very close friend of Greta Garbo— who, in order to be near her family, had also moved to Klosters. Garbo was a regular visitor there and even after Salka's death in 1978 she kept visiting Klosters during the summer months, her last visit being in 1988. (Incidentally, the Viertels also had a house in Marbella (Spain) from where Kerr wrote her letter.)

Tea and Sympathy (1956) mentioned in Kerr's letter is a Vincente Minnelli film, in which Kerr co-starred with John Kerr. The film was based on the 1953 stage play of the same name, written by Robert Anderson. I assume Kerr is referring to Anderson when she talks about "Bob".

Source: Heritage Auctions

Deborah Kerr and Peter Viertel — the couple got married in 1960 and remained married until Kerr's death in 2007.

Deborah Kerr with co-star John Kerr from Tea and Sympathy and Robert Anderson (right) who wrote the original play.

HAPPY 2023, EVERYONE!!

Deep feelings have never had adequate speech

I love letters that concern old Hollywood friendships. Here is a heartfelt letter from Douglas Fairbanks Jr. to Clifton Webb, written in September 1931. Webb had just visited Fairbanks and his wife Joan Crawford and Fairbanks eloquently thanks him, calling Webb's stay "a welcome rain after a long drought". Joan was a close friend of Webb's too and I've also included a letter from her to him written around the same year. 

Incidentally, Clifton Webb was very loved in Hollywood. He and his mother Mabelle regularly hosted parties visited by Hollywood's finest. Webb maintained close friendships with a number of Hollywood stars including Humphrey Bogart, a letter concerning theír friendship can be read here.

Source: international autograph auctions

Transcript:

Cliffie:

I have done many difficult things in my life but as I sit down to write this I am only to [sic] cognizant that this letter is presenting unprecedented hurdles. Because of this do be tolerant of my writing by typewriter rather than by hand. You couldn't even read it, I am sure, the other way.

Deep feelings have never had adequate speech and this is no exception. We have thousands of words at our disposal and a comfortable assortment of adjectives but when we have something of deep import such as telling a friend how grateful one is to him for his friendship and thanking him for many things that must go throughout infinity unrepaid, they all become as useless and futile as Christ's death or a Nun's twitch to a eunuch. 

Your visit here has done much for me. Never have I had such a good time. I am indefinitely obligated to you for everything. Your stay was like a welcome rain after a long draught [sic]. Only on leaving you have left with us a memory too wonderful and too profound to be so inadequately described as that.

If brevity is the soul of wit then silence must of necessity be the soul of emotion and by that same token I am without further words.

Nominating myself as a committee of one representing the Lady and your most humble, residing at Webbfair (if you remember) I extend to you the deepest and most sincere compliment within our restricted powers in the form of two words: Come again!

We simply adore you-

Doug.

  

Above: At Lilyan Tashman’s beach house in 1931, photo by Edward Steichen. Clockwise from bottom left: Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Lilyan Tashman, Clifton Webb, Kenneth McKenna, Edmund Lowe (Tashman’s husband), Kay Francis (McKenna’s wife), Ivor Novello and Joan Crawford. Below: Doug and Joan at their home in 1931.

Source: schulson autographs

Transcript:

Dear Poopsie: ---

So very sorry to hear you had to postpone your trip, it must have been a great disappointment to you.

You must think, and justly so, that I am an awful bitch, I'll admit I've neglected you dreadfully, but Clifton dearest, I was working on "Grand Hotel" and I've never been so miserable in all my life, then before I completed that I started on my last film*, which I have just finished.

So you see dear I have been awfully busy, do forgive me for not writing sooner. 

You lucky dog what a vacation you will have this summer at Grace Moore's in Cannes. Do keep us posted in case we are able to join you. 

No other news darling except we miss you, oh I do hope we can see you soon. Write anyway. 

Love from 

your 

Puss


* the film referenced here is Letty Lynton (1932)

Clifton Webb flanked by Joan Crawford and Gene Tierney in the late 1940s.

Clifton, our deepest sympathy

Clifton Webb lived with his mother Mabelle almost his entire life. She was the centre of his universe, and the two were inseparable (Webb would take his mother everywhere: to dinner parties, movie premieres, on vacation etc.). When Mabelle died in 1960 at age 91, Webb's world collapsed and he became inconsolable. His uncontrolled and incessant grieving made playwright and close friend Noel Coward write in his diary a few months after Mabelle's death: "Poor Clifton [..] is still, after two months, wailing and sobbing over Maybelle's death. As she was well over ninety, gaga, and had driven him mad for years, this seems excessive and over indulgent. He arrives here on Monday and I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas. Poor, poor Clifton. I am, of course, deeply sorry for him but he must snap out of it" [via]. Well, 'snap out of it' Webb never did. He would never get over his mother's death and make only one more movie, Satan never sleeps (1962). The remainder of his life --he died six years later at age 76-- Webb would spend in relative seclusion while struggling with his health.

Photos above: (left) Clifton Webb and his mother Mabelle; (right) a photograph taken at one of the Webbs' many Hollywood dinner parties with standing from left to right: Basil Rathbone, David Niven, director Gregory Ratoff, and seated: Heather Angel, Merle Oberon, Ouida Rathbone and Mabelle Webb. Photos below: Mary Pickford (with husband actor Buddy Rogers), Fred Astaire and Jack Warner-- the letter writers for this post. 

Once the news of Mabelle's death became known, Clifton Webb's friends and colleagues started sending their letters of sympathy. Below you'll find three such letters-- written by Mary Pickford (who also talks about the death of her mother-in-law), Fred Astaire and Warner Bros. studio head Jack Warner.

source

Transcript:

November 2, 1960

Dear Clifton,

Buddy and I felt very sad to learn of beloved Mabel's passing. We both know only too well the pain of parting and the void that is left when someone we love has left us, as Buddy lost his darling mother the same week as you lost yours.

I will always remember Mabel, that charming and gay laugh of hers.

Mrs. Rogers, fortunately for her, did not suffer a long illness, with the result that it was a shock to her family, her going so quickly.

Buddy, like you, always was a wonderful son and this knowledge should be a source of comfort to you both. Both Buddy's mother and yours were singularly fortunate in sharing the interesting and full lives of their sons.

We both send you our love and sympathy.

Yours affectionately,

Mary (signed)

Mr. Clifton Webb
1005 N. Rexford Dr.
Beverly Hills, Calif.

source

Transcript:

Tues.

Dear Clifton:-

Just a line to express my deepest heartfelt sympathy.

As ever sincerely-
Fred

source

Transcript:

October 18, 1960

Dear Clifton:

Words are futile to describe our feelings at this time. We loved your mother very much and appreciated the warm spot she had in her heart for us.

The only condolence you can have is that she was a wonderful woman.

Ann joins me in sending our love.

Jack (signed)

Mr. Clifton Webb

1005 N. Rexford Dr.

Beverly Hills, Calif.

Images of all three letters courtesy of Heritage Auctions

Happy Holidays!

Here are a few Season's Greetings from Hollywood stars sent to their fellow actors and friends. First up are four telegrams from Greta Garbo to Clifton Webb. Garbo would send Webb a holiday telegram every year on Christmas Eve, signing them with "Harry Brown" (short for Harriet Brown), the pseudonym she used while travelling. The telegrams shown are from 1946, 1953, 1955 and 1962.

Source: first image heritage auctions (reproduced with permission)/ second image: telegrams from last century

Transcript:

BEVERLY HILLS CALIF 

1946 DEC 24

CLIFTON MABELE [sic] WEBB=

SAVOY PLAZA NYK=

HAPPY XMAS AND NEW YEAR=

HARRY BROWN.

Note: Mabel was Webb's mother whom he lived with.

Transcript:

NEW YORK NY= 1953 DEC 24

CLIFTON WEBBS=

1005 REXFORD DR BEVERLY HILLS CALIF =

MILLIONS OF GREETINGS

HARRY BROWN=

Source: both images heritage auctions (here and here) / reproduced with permission

Transcript:

NEW YORK NY =1955 DEC 24

CLIFTON WEBB=

1005 REXFORD DR BEVERLY HILLS CALIF=

HARRY BROWN SEND LOVE=

UNSIGNED=

Transcript:

DEC 24 62
NEW YORK NY
CLIFTON WEBB

1005 REXFORD DR BEVERLY HILLS CALIF

FONDEST GREETINGS

HARRY BROWN.

One of my earlier posts showed a fan letter from Clara Bow to Marlon Brando (here). This is a Christmas card Bow sent her idol somewhere in the 1950s (I can't make out the postmark on the envelope, so I don't know from what year this card is exactly).

Source: heritage auctions/ image reproduced with permission

Transcript:

Dear Mr Brando:

A belated thanks for your most gracious note, and the autographed picture of your son- it is on my den wall in the place of honor- I will always cherish it, so thanks once again for your kindness. I do hope you and yours enjoy the happiest of holidays! good luck to you always! 

Sincerely and gratefully,

Clara Bow

And two notes sent to Joan Crawford. The first one is a belated New Year's greeting from Anne Baxter, followed by a note from Barbara Stanwyck.

Source: heritage auctions/ image reproduced with permission

Transcript:

Dear Joan-

Your Christmas greeting was forwarded to me on tour.

It is always so heart warming to feel your kind thoughts reaching out to all of your far-flung friends and acquaintances.

Have the best New Year in the world.

Fondly always,

Anne Baxter (signed)

Miss Joan Crawford

150 East 69th Street

New York, N.Y. 10021

January 12, 1974

Source: the best of everything: a joan crawford encyclopedia

Transcript:

Joan dear,

What a beautiful Christmas basket just arrived filled with so many wonderful things! You are a dear generous friend and I thank you so very very much and I hope and pray the New Year will bring you all you desire-

Love always,

Missy

Dec 24/75

Cary Grant's shoes

In one of my earlier posts (here), the always stylish Cary Grant talked about the shirts he liked. In the following letter, addressed to fellow actor and friend Clifton Webb, Grant talks about shoes. After Webb had admired a pair of moccasins that belonged to Grant, Grant gave his friend a pair of his own. This is the note -dated 8 April 1955- that accompanied his gift.

Source: heritage auctions/ image reproduced with permission

Transcript: 

April 8, 1955

Dear Clifton:

Everything comes to he who waits. Including peculiar things like these. This will teach you not to lavish your flattering little words so easily the next time, because, as anyone could have expected, they are not quite the same as those you pretended to admire. Still, their color..... darker than those I have--- may fade to the proper shade of rust .....in fact, I think mine did. The sole-stitching is, however, quite different and I don't know what to do about that. (I could do with some new soul-stitching myself.) Anyway the buttons, you must admit, are elegant.

Let me know if, or not, they fit..... they should be a little snug at first. If you've any questions on how to cut the button-holes after they're on your handsome little tootsies, just telephone me. CRestview 50970.

Oh, this is far too long a note to accompany a mere pair of moccasins. Just throw them away.

Love to Mabel, and from Betsy, dear Clifton.

Cary (signed)

Bogie always adored you

On 14 January 1957, Humphrey Bogart died of cancer at age 57, leaving behind his wife Lauren Bacall, son Stephen and daughter Leslie. He also left behind a lot of friends, many of whom were his colleagues from the film industry. One of them was Clifton Webb. Webb and Bogie had been friends ever since they starred together in the Broadway play Meet the Wife in the early 1920s. Shortly after Bogie's death, Lauren Bacall sent a note to Webb thanking him for his long and loyal friendship. Bacall's note is quite touching and is shown below.

Left photo: Humphrey Bogart, Clifton Webb and Laurence Olivier in 1933. Right: Bogie and Webb with Marilyn Monroe at Romanoff's in 1954.

Source: heritage auctions/ image reproduced with permission

Transcript:

Darling Clifton-

This is just an inarticulate but truly felt note to try to thank you for your long friendship, loyalty, and love for Bogie- for seeing him when you did and behaving as you did. I know how hard it was for you but you came through in style. Bogie always adored you. You knew him long before I did so I guess you knew that. I envy you for those extra years- you were lucky and so was I. I'm grateful for it all- there's never been a man like Bogie. It won't be the same for us, Cliff- but we have a lot that can never be taken from us and for that I'm grateful. So darling- you are now my good friend and I like that.

Always my love- Betty

Lauren Bacall wrote her message to Clifton Webb on a note card from which she had removed the "Mr. and" part. (Image source: heritage auctions)

Relaxing during a lunch for the Oliviers. In the photo, amongst others, Laurence Olivier, Clifton Webb, Vivien Leigh, Joan Bennett, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and in the chair Maybelle Webb, Clifton Webb's mother. (Photo source: heritage auctions)

Hello Character

Here is an amusing letter from Danny Kaye to fellow actor and friend Clifton Webb. At the time of writing, Kaye and his wife Sylvia had just moved from New York City to Beverly Hills. Although his new home wasn't as bad as he had thought it would be, Kaye was hit by occasional waves of nostalgia for New York and the people there. 

On 26 March 1943 --not wishing to neglect his New York connections-- Danny Kaye wrote Clifton Webb the following letter, or rather, as becomes clear in the final paragraph, dictated the letter to a girl named Jerry.

Source: heritage auctions/ image reproduced with permission

Transcript:

March 26, 1943

Mr. Clifton Webb

Booth Theatre

45th Between Broadway and Eight

New York City

Hello Character:

During this brief respite from my very heavy labors I'm stealing a moment to write you a brief note which I hope you appreciate. I haven't been able to write very much to anyone else because of the tremendous task involved in making a few million dollars for Mr. Goldwyn. But I said to him one morning, I said, "Sam, I simply can't go on this way without writing to Clifton. I feel that he will be terribly hurt and I must keep up my connections in New York, because who knows when I might have to go back to the theatre?" So I'm sending you photographs and a brief biography of myself so you can keep me in mind when you decide to turn producer and use me in one of your glittering successes.

Sylvia and I have a lovely house out here and we enjoy living in it. It would be nice if we had some friends from the East to make it more pleasant, but everyone has been wonderful to us out here, and except for the fact that I get up a couple of times a week with a terrific nostalgia for New York and the people I know and love, it's not as unpleasant as I thought it would be.

Jerry, that's the girl who is writing this letter, is starving. She's drooling from the mouth, her eyes are bulging out of her head, steam is whistling from her nose, and her seat is bouncing up and down with impatience. So before the telephone, the lamp and the typewriter are thrown at me, I'd better say goodbye and tell you that we think of you and miss you and hope we see you soon.

Sylvia and I send our best to you and Mabel.

Love and kisses,

Danny (signed)

917 North Beverly Drive

Beverly Hills, Calif.

*Note: Mabel was Clifton Webb's mother, whom Webb lived with until she died at age 91 (he was 70 at the time himself). Webb was inseparable from his mother and never recovered from her death. 

left: Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine, who were married from 1940 until Kaye's death in 1987; right: Clifton Webb.