DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS JR. - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 08/21/1972 - HFSID 155575

DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. sends a typed letter of thanks for the Chaplin poster.
Typed Letter Signed: "Doug F", 1p, 8½x11. Huntington Hartford Theatre, Los Angeles, California, 1972 August 21. To Mr. Mel May, Long Beach, California. In full: "It was good to hear from you. And thanks not only for the Chaplin poster but the information about your plans for the ex-R.M.S. Queen Mary. I know her well and sailed on her two or three times before the War. As to my doing something about it, I can't say this early. It depends on who else you get, what the final script is like, and so on. It would also depend on 'when and where', as you know I move about so much. I suggest you contact I.F.A., who are now my agents, and keep them informed of your progress. I would not think my playing the Captain of the ship would be appropriate. You should get a Britisher. All the Captains had to be British, and it would be a most unauthentic piece of casting were I to take it on. As to Prince Philip, I seriously doubt if he could or would do it. He is not allowed to do anything with any private commercial connections, and the Queen Mary is, after all, now a commercial enterprise. It doesn't matter if he gives a fee to charity or not, the ship is privately owned and in business - hence I'm certain he wouldn't help. Nevertheless, I wish you success with this very good idea. Thanks for writing, and let me know if and when you come to the play." Typewritten postscript: "P.S. I'm returning the scripts herewith." Enclosures not present. At the time he wrote this letter, Fairbanks was appearing in a play at the Huntington Hartford Theatre, which became the James A. Doolittle Theatre and is now the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre. In the year of this letter, Fairbanks appeared in the made-for-TV movie, The Crooked Hearts. The Chaplin poster he mentions was likely from one of Chaplin's films, as Fairbanks would not appear in any Chaplin-associated project until 1981, when he starred in a documentary entitled Chaplin. Fairbanks' father, Douglas, Sr., had co-founded United Artists in 1919 with Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, and Mary Pickford, who would become his second wife. 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. Lightly creased with folds, not at signature. Light stains at mid-right and lower right blank margins, nicked at upper right edge. Overall, fine condition.