The art of faking letters

The practice of faking letters and documents has existed ever since men started putting pen to paper. While the earliest forgery dates back to the 8th Century and was about gaining political power, now the forger's aim usually is profit. I only recently read about Lee Israel who was a master literary forger in the 1990s. A biographer and editor, Israel had a hard time finding work in the early 1990s and for more than a year, while broke and addicted to alcohol, she made a living manufacturing and selling numerous letters that she said had been written by famous (dead) people. Israel meticulously researched her subjects, bought several period typewriters and stole vintage paper from the library to make her letters appear authentic. (Two of Noël Coward's letters that she forged even ended up in The Letters of Noël Coward, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2007.) Later Israel even stole original letters from libraries which she would replace with her forgeries, and the originals she then sold. In June 1993, after having been arrested by the FBI, Israel pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months house arrest and five years probation. Israel's memoir Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger was published in 2008.

The only names of Hollywood actors I found in connection with Israel are Humphrey Bogart and Louise Brooks. Of Bogart Israel did a one-off letter, but Brooks was a subject she used more often. The following Brooks letter is one of Israel's forgeries.

source: vice

Here are three more letters which are not by Israel but which I believe are fake as well. 

Allegedly written by Barbara Stanwyck, the first letter has Barbara call Vivien Leigh a "whore". Seeing that Barbara was such a professional and was even shocked by Joan Crawford's language in this letter, I believe she would never have called Vivien that. But more importantly (as others have pointed out before me), the letter seems to have been written on a computer instead of a typewriter. (Incidentally, I saw the letter being offered on several auction sites, so someone did try to sell it as an authentic Barbara Stanwyck letter.)

via: via margutta 51

The second letter is a letter Bette Davis allegedly wrote to Joan Crawford on the occasion of her birthday and was reportedly found in Bette's desk drawer. I have serious doubts about the stationery used here, it's very unlike the type of stationery I've seen of Bette. And would she really have written this to Joan, calling her "sluttiest MGM star" and "most psychotic" (not to mention the rest of the letter)? But then again, Bette was reported to have said some nasty things about Joan, like when Joan died: "You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good... Joan Crawford is dead. Good." Ouch. 

At any rate, I very much doubt this letter is authentic. Makes for fun reading, though.

via: the frisky

And then there's the following note. It was supposedly written by Marlene Dietrich to Elizabeth Taylor, two women who also hated each other. I don't believe this note is genuine either. It looks like someone was trying hard to copy Marlene's handwriting. (For comparison, see this letter where Marlene writes both in small letters and capitals.) As for the content —even though she hated Elizabeth, would Marlene really have written this?

via: opera queen

During a visit to the set of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966), Marlene Dietrich reportedly said to Elizabeth Taylor: “Darling, everyone is so fantastic! You have a lot of guts to perform with real actors."

A bone to pick with Chaplin

Louise Brooks and Charlie Chaplin had a love affair in New York during the summer of 1925. At the time, 18-year old Brooks was a chorus girl with the Ziegfeld Follies and had yet to make her film debut, while Chaplin --36 years old and married to Lita Grey-- was already a popular filmmaker (he was in New York for the premiere of The Gold Rush). Their intense love affair lasted for two months after which Brooks and Chaplin went their separate ways. Although Brooks' views on Chaplin were mostly positive throughout the years, in 1964 after reading Chaplin's autobiography she said some very nasty things about him (see the two letters below). By 1966, Brooks had changed her tune considerably, remembering Chaplin in an essay in "Film Culture" (read here). 

Louise Brooks wrote the following letter about Charlie Chaplin to Frank (a friend?) on 27 November 1964. The letter is quite vicious but makes for a fascinating read.

Via: the silent movie blog

Transcript:

7 N Goodman Street

Rochester 7 NY

27 November 1964

Dear Frank

You were right about having a bone to pick with Chaplin. I would have forgiven him everything if he had written a first-rate film book. This he did not chose [sic] to do because of his vulgar need to please. At least he has made me understand why I never liked him. When I met him again after New York at the Hollywood home of Arthur Hornblow, I did not speak but moved into a corner. From that lovely vantage point, I watched him doing all his tricks -like a poodle- for Garbo, whom he had just met. She sat smugly on the arm of a chair leaning on the back, watching him under her lashes (like centipedes) with her slight contemptuous smile while her feet pawed idly at the slippers she had cast on the floor. He could not afford emotionally to remember her in the book. Did I say poodle? Well, she did a jolly job of altering him.

Oh, the book has made me ill. His sex pride! His intellectual fatuity! All those babes knocking on his bedroom door. He still tries to pass off a crude bunch of lies to a world who would not know the difference. He grew to hate Paulette, who was, as I told Herman, a bitch in a ditch. They did a sneak marriage in Mexico because she was putting the freeze on him during THE DICTATOR and that could have ruined him. And he does not even mention Martha Raye, who was so magnificent in M VERDOUX or Von Sternberg or Monta Bell. And picture after picture of how pretty he was in his youth!

I am working very long hours. Manya tired me. Since I left the Church, I have had few human contacts. I prefer the blank paper to the needy companion.

Regards,

(signed) Louise Brooks

Charles Chaplin photographed by Edward Steichen in 1925, and the first edition of Chaplin's autobiography.

And this is an excerpt from a letter by Brooks written to a woman named Dorothy. The letter is undated but was also written after the publication of Chaplin's autobiography in 1964. 

Source: heritage auctions/ image reproduced with permission

Transcript:

The BBC interview, which ran 50 minutes, was pretty good, although the kid who interviewed me was a screaming pansy. Happily, we did not discuss Chaplin. That such a barren little man could have produced [redacted] such a monumental collection of work is beyond belief. I have been so busy defending him over the last decades that I had forgotten, until I read his book, how very vulgar and cheap he was. His sex pride! All [redacted] those babes knocking on his bedroom door! His character becomes more and more Dorian Gray-ish-- his films becoming more wonderful as he devolves into something frightful, vapid, and crass. Another fine example of the missing link between genius and humanity!!

regards

(signed) Louise Brooks