AMIRAM RIGAI - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 07/23/1993 - HFSID 270456

AMIRAM RIGAI
TLS: "Amiram", 1 page, 8½x11. New York, New York, 1993 July 23. On imprinted letterhead to comedienne, actress and concert pianist Phyllis Diller, Los Angeles, California. Begins: "Dear Miss Diller". In full: "It was a great pleasure to receive our mutual photo from the S.S. Rotterdam, you beautiful poem and music. All my thanks to your executive assistant, Ms. Ingrid Vanderstock for mailing it to me. Recently I visited Los Angeles, and I was hoping to see you again while I was there. Unfortunately, your manager informed me that you were away on tour. Enclosed you will find one of my recent photos taken with the Israeli Sinfonietta in Beersheba during a performance in March 1993, and a large photo of myself at the piano. I mailed a copy of my recent CD to your manager's address. I hope you will have time to listen to the music of Gottschalk which I recorded for several different companies since 1966. With best wishes for a pleasant and successful summer. I hope to meet you again one day soon. Sincerely yours". Lightly creased with folds, not at signature. Staple holes at upper left blank corner. Fine condition. Accompanied by photograph, unsigned. Color, 6x4. Ink notes (unknown hand) on verso in Hebrew and English: "A. Rigai Soloist/with Beer-Sheva/Symphony Ore/3-27-93". Minor surface scratches. Staple holes at upper left corner. With promotional flyer, unsigned. Color, 7x11, front and verso. Imprinted on verso, in part: "World renowned pianist, Amiram Rigai has been aptly described as a musical ambassador between the USA, Israel and the world. Mr. Rigai was the first Israeli born pianist to appear with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Mann Auditorium, and with the advice and encouragement of Leonard Bernstein, came to the United States for further studies...He gave the American premier of Paul Ben-Haim's Piano Concerto at Carnegie Hall...He has also appeared as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Jerusalem Symphony, the Haifa Symphony...Amiram Rigai was the first Israeli soloist to perform at the United Nations, and has since performed there on two additional occasions...Mr. Rigai has toured the United States, Israel, South America, the Caribbean, Japan, Hong Kong, Europe and Scandinavia...Mr. Rigai has recorded on the Folkways, Musical Heritage, and Vox labels...In addition, a book he edited of Gottschalk's compositions [published by Chappel & Co.] has won the Paul Revere Award." Lightly creased with folds. Staple holes at upper left corner. Fine condition. With photocopied page from "The News Bulletin of The Leschetizky Association", 2 pages, 8½x11, front and verso. October 1992. Brief biography of Rigai imprinted on verso. Arrow drawn to name, Sinfonietta underlined. Lightly creased with folds. Usual black marks from photocopying at blank margins. Staple holes at upper right blank corner. Fine condition. By 2000, Diller, who had trained as a concert pianist before her marriage (1939-1965) to Sherwood Anderson Diller, had appeared as a piano soloist with 100 symphony orchestras across the U.S. Comedienne PHYLLIS DILLER (1917-2012), known for her outrageous appearance, zany outfits, distinctive laugh and a stand-up act that featured frequent references to her fictional husband, "Fang", and zingers about her sex appeal and numerous plastic surgeries, got her big break in March 1955 (at age 37), when she debuted at San Francisco's Purple Onion club. A subsequent appearance on The Tonight Show hosted by Jack Paar launched her national career, which got a big boost after Bob Hope saw Diller in a Washington, D.C. club. A favorite of the comedian, Diller would appear in three of Hope's films and 23 of his TV specials. Diller, who recorded her first comedy record album in 1959, took her groundbreaking "funny hausfrau" act to nightclubs and television variety shows and specials and she also appeared on the big screen. Her feature film credits include Splendor in the Grass (1961), The Fat Spy (1966), Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966), The Sunshine Boys (1975) and The Silence of the Hams (1994), and she provided the voice of the Queen in A Bug's Life (1998). Despite retiring from nightclub/stage tours in May 2002 at the age of 84, Diller continued to make films (Motorcross Kids, 2004; Forget About It, 2005) and occasionally appear on TV programs, including two episodes of 7th Heaven (2002, 2003) and a guest shot on The Wayne Brady Show (2004). Four items.