BELLE LIVINGSTONE - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 01/05/1949 - HFSID 31857

BELLE LIVINGSTONE
The "speakeasy queen" pens a letter to notable New York columnist Louis Sobol
Autograph Letter signed: "Belle Livingstone" in blue ink, 1p, 7¼x10½. No place, 1949 January 5. Written on her personal letterhead. To "Dear Louis Sobol". In part: "For many years it has been my happy custom to wish you the compliments of this season, but this time I am more than happy because it gives me the oportunity [sic] to right a wrong a high handed nurse did when unbeknown [sic] to me she wrote you on my behalf…I have truly appreciated all your many mentions, even after I no longer held the spot-light…". Belle Livingstone (1875-1957), born Isabelle Graham Hutchins, was one of New York's "speakeasy queens" of the 1920s and 1930s. Well-known in the New York nightlife scene of the 1920s, Livingstone started out as a chorus girl. After traveling in Europe during the 1920s, she returned stateside and opened what in her words was a "salon of culture, wit, and bohemia" on Park Avenue, but was in fact a speakeasy. Once prohibition was repealed however, she faded from prominence. Livingstone also wrote a memoir recounting some of her life adventures: Belle Out of Order (1959). New York journalist Louis Sobol (1896-1986) wrote a gossip-oriented entertainment column for 40 years, initially focused on the Broadway stage but also covering film and TV personalities for the New York Journal American. His books include The Longest Street (1968), a Broadway memoir and Along the Broadway Beat (1951). He retired in 1967. In 1947, Sobol, Earl Wilson of the New York Post and Abel Green, the editor of Variety, appeared in Copacabana (1947), Groucho Marx's first solo film without his brothers. Sobol again appeared as a reporter with Wilson and with Walter Winchell in College Confidential (1960). Toned. Corners and edges worn. Ink has faded and bled in several areas. Three horizontal folds. Otherwise, fine condition.