ANGELA LANSBURY - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 10/20/1996 - HFSID 270299
Price: $240.00
ANGELA LANSBURY
Angela Lansbury sends a letter to her friend Phyllis Diller.
Typed Letter Signed: "Angela", 1 page, 8½x11. No place, but
probably Los Angeles, 1996 October 20. On stationery imprinted with her
name to comedienne and actress Phyllis Diller, Los Angeles, California.
Begins: "Dear Phyllis". In full: "I know first hand
about the generosity and caring of the American people...the most generous in
the world. As a 15-year-old drama student escaping the German blintz
(sic) of London, I arrived in this country 58 years ago to continue my
studies which I supported by my job as a salesgirl. Four years later, I was
honored with an Academy nomination for 'Gaslight,' my first film. What a
wonderful adventure it has been thus far. The same kind of generosity that
embraced me then, I see every day of my life in a working community where
'giving' is an intrinsic part of life. We are so very fortunate to make our
livings doing what we love, I feel it is natural for us to want to give back.
Please consider doing just that for the Volunteers of America's 'Christmas to
Remember.' For eight years, this 100-year-old organization has hosted five
hundred or more of Los Angeles' impoverished and, too often, 'forgotten' elderly
to a holiday luncheon on Christmas Day at The Bonaventure Hotel. I
understand that many start calling the Volunteers of America office months
before just to know that they will have a place to go on this special day.
Though they have little money, they arrive looking their best to indulge in a
'posh' hotel lunch...a photo opportunity with Santa...a small gift...and
entertainment. However, your sponsorship does much more. The bulk of your
gift goes to provide home-delivered meals throughout the year to those frail
elderly who are homebound and physically unable to attend the party. Every
day, Volunteers of America delivers a warm, nutritious meal and a bit of
friendly conversation by way of a volunteer to the frail and forgotten aged in
the poverty pockets of Los Angeles. If you can afford to sponsor one person, I
know you will. If you can afford to sponsor a whole table of ten, I know you
will. If all of us join together, I know we will fill the ballroom of the
Bonaventure on Christmas Day. So whether your holiday is celebrated around a
Hanukkah bush or a Christmas tree, please consider this marvelous way to express
your concern for others. Finally, although it's early in the season, Peter
joins me in wishing you a very happy holiday. Sincerely". Peter was
Lansbury's second husband, British actor PETER SHAW, to whom she was
married from August 12, 1949 until his death on January 29, 2003; the couple had
two children. She had previously been married to actor Richard Cromwell
from1945-1946. In the year she signed this letter, Lansbury starred in the
title role in the made-for-TV movie, Mrs. Santa Claus, appeared on The
Rosie O'Donnell Show and was finishing up the last season of her hit TV
show, Murder, She Wrote. Stage, screen and television actress
ANGELA LANSBURY, born in London in 1925, is best known to television
audiences as Jesica Fletcher, the role she played in the long-running TV series,
Murder, She Wrote (1984-1996), and its subsequent made-for-TV movies.
The series, about a best-selling novelist-turned-amateur sleuth, debuted on
September 30, 1984, and it was the highest-rated drama series on TV for a record
nine straight seasons (1985-1994). As mentioned in this letter, Lansbury
made her film debut in 1944's Gaslight, for which she was nominated
for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award. She would also be
nominated for Best Supporting Actress Oscars for The Picture of Dorian
Gray (1945) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962). Lansbury's other
film credits include Samson and Delilah (1949), The Long, Hot
Summer (1958), The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960), Blue
Hawaii (1961), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Bedknobs and
Broomsticks (1971), Death on the Nile (1978) and Nanny McPhee
(2006), and she was the voice of Mrs. Potts in the animated film,
Beauty and the Beast (1991). Lansbury also won the 1966 Tony Award for
Best Actress in a Musical, her first, for her portrayal of the title
character in Mame. She later won Tony Awards for Dear World
(1969), Gypsy (1975) and Sweeney Todd (1979).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). By 2000, the
comedienne, 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. 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). Lightly creased with
folds, not at signature. Fine condition.
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