AUDREY MEADOWS - TYPED LETTER SIGNED - HFSID 270262

CHINESE-BORN AUDREY MEADOWS COULD NOT ATTEND A DINNER HONORING PHYLLIS DILLER BECAUSE SHE WAS IN HONG KONG
 
AUDREY MEADOWS. Typed Letter Signed: "Audrey", 1p, 6¼x8½. No place, no date. On her "Audrey Meadows Six" stationery to comedienne Phyllis Diller. In full: "Just a note to let you know the reason I was not there on January 9th to cheer you on, was because I was in Hong Kong. I'm sure you and the evening were both a fabulous success. Nobody deserves to be honored more than you." Meadows has handwritten a comma after the second "on". Married to Continental Airlines CEO Robert Six from 1961 until his death in 1986, AUDREY MEADOWS (1926-1996) was born in Wu'chang China. Her parents were missionaries and returned to the United States when Audrey was 6. Up until that time, she spoke nothing but Chinese. Her acting career began when she appeared on Broadway for a few months in Top Banana (1951). She then got a job on The Bob And Ray Show on NBC (1951). In 1952, Meadows was hired to play Alice Kramden on "The Honeymooners", a comedy sketch which was shown during the second half hour of The Jackie Gleason Show on CBS (1952-1957). "The Honeymooners" was first seen on Dumont's Cavalcade of Stars (1950-1952); Pert Kelton had portrayed Alice. Nominated for four Emmys for Best Supporting Actress in a Regular Series (1954-1957) for portraying Alice Kramden, Audrey Meadows won the 1955 Emmy. She later starred in a few films including That Touch Of Mink (1961) and Take Her, She's Mine (1962), later appearing as Ted Knight's mother in law in the sitcom Too Close For Comfort (1982-1983). Comedienne PHYLLIS DILLER 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 mid-horizontal fold, not at signature. Fine condition.