CHARLES LUCKMAN - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 12/26/1948 - HFSID 85560

CHARLES LUCKMAN
The businessman and architect offers friend health and happiness in the new year, signs his name "Chuck" in blue ink
Autograph letter signed: "Chuck" in blue ink. 1 page, 7¼x10½. Written on personalized letterhead. December 26, 1948. In full: "Dear Louis:- In the course of recalling the past year - I thought first of the things you could have said, then of the things you did say. Thanks! May 1949 bring you health and happiness". Charles Luckman (1909-1999) was an American businessman and architect, famously titled the "Boy Wonder of American Business" when he was named President of the Pepsodent toothpaste company in 1939 at the age of 30, and later through acquisition the president of Lever Brothers. In 1946 he was appointed to serve on the President's Committee on Civil Rights, and later named by Truman to help feed a starving Europe, for which he was honored with Britain's Order of St. John, France's Legion of Honor, and Italy's Star of Solidarity. After a chance exchange with a curious paper boy about chandeliers, Luckman made the career change to become an architect, which he had studied in school, and used his skills to build the Lever Brothers' New York skyscraper, the Lever House, which was one of the first sealed glass towers that began the curtain wall trend. After retiring from business and creating his own architecture firm, Luckman went on to design buildings such as the Prudential Tower in Boston, the new Madison Square Garden in New York, and the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. Normal mailing folds. Toned. Small stain in left margin. Ink stamp in top margin. Otherwise, fine condition.