BUTTERFLY McQUEEN - ENVELOPE SIGNED CIRCA 1984 - HFSID 274133

BUTTERFLY McQUEEN
Butterfly McQueen signs an envelope.
Envelope signed: "B. McQueen" in return address, 6½x3¾. 20-cent Carter G. Woodson stamp affixed, postmarked Jamaica, New York, July 16, 1984. Imprinted label to Jerry Granat/Manuscripts taped to front. McQueen has handwritten "Jerry Granat" above label and written her three-line return address at upper left corner. Jerry Granat was an autograph dealer who arranged for McQueen's first appearance at an autograph show in 1984. Thelma McQueen (1911-1995) was only 13 when she joined a theater group in Harlem. She was nicknamed "Butterfly" after dancing in the butterfly ballet in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. McQueen debuted on Broadway in Brown Sugar (1937), and two years later, she played her first and most memorable movie role, that of Prissy, the young slave, in Gone With the Wind. After being typecast as a sobbing maid in several films of the 1940s, McQueen grew tired of the image and retired from films in 1947. She continued intermittent theatrical engagements and returned to the screen in the early 1970s (Amazing Grace, 1974; The Mosquito Coast, 1986). In 1975, at the age of 64, she received a Bachelor's Degree in political science from the City College of New York. Creased and soiled. Light stains touch the "een" of McQueen and the "t" in Granat. Torn open at back flap, which has minor paper loss. Overall, fair condition.