DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS JR. - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 05/25/1963 - HFSID 309876

DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR.
Brief letter of thanks for a VFW picture
Typed Letter signed: "Douglas Fairbanks", 1 page, 5½x8½. New York, N. Y., 1963 May 25. On personal letterhead to Miss Barbara Norton, Director, Public Relations, Sheraton Park Hotel, Washington, D.C. In full: "Thank you so much for the VFW [Veterans of Foreign Wars, item not included] picture. It was most kind of you to send it. Kindest regards, Sincerely". Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (1909-2000), the son of the dashing actor of the 1920s and Anna Beth Sully, the daughter of an industrialist, was raised by his mother after his parents' divorce in 1918. At the age of 13, he starred in Lasky's Stephen Steps Out, an unsuccessful attempt to exploit the Fairbanks name. Although the younger Fairbanks, a movie producer as well as an actor, appeared in some 75 films, his father took little interest in his son's career, and the two did not become close friends until the early 1930s. His feature films included Stella Dallas (1926), Little Caesar (1930), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Gunga Din (1939) and Sinbad the Sailor (1947), and Fairbanks also appeared in a number of made-for-TV movies and hosted the anthology series, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Presents (1952-1955). In the 1930s, he was married to actress Joan Crawford. Fairbanks was highly decorated for his US Navy service in World War II; he organized the Beach Jumpers, an elite unit which staged diversionary amphibious landings to draw enemy forces away from the genuine landing sites. An honored veteran himself, Fairbanks would have been a welcome guest at any VFW convention. Adhesive residue at top edge. Multiple mailing folds. Fine condition.