EUGENIE LEONTOVICH - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED - HFSID 201652

EUGENIE LEONTOVICH
The Tony Award-winning actress writes to friend, updating him on her career and their play, signs name in blue ink
Autograph letter signed: "Eugenie" in blue ink. 1 page front and verso, 7¼x10½. Addressed to "Robert Reud" in New York City. Original envelope signed. In full: "Dear Robert! Hallo - I am writing to you in my room - so I can write on a decent piece of paper. I want to tell you that it is a lonely melancholy morning - the sun didn't choose to come out, and that I am thinking of you as usualy in connection with our play, our plans and simply [illegible] you. I am happily working on our play - so don't take the little news - I am to tell you more than it means to me. I have received an offer to play a play called "Maya". Originally writing in French it is superbly translated and adapted by John Erskin. The producer offers me to play the lead, and also co-direct if I wish to. I shall thank him for the offer and tell him, that I am committed to you to play "O.C.H." - For I believe it is so. - For I believe in our play. - For I believe in you - Please let me hear from you, other wise I'll feel you are anti-Russian - Please be well and gay - Yours very truly (not in an usual office meaning)". Broadway producer and press agent Robert Reud, whom these letters are addressed to, was involved with New York theatre for over twenty years, including productions of Hello, Daddy (1929), Our Town (1938), The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1943), Ramshackle Inn (1944), The Odds on Mrs. Oakley (1944), and Duet for Two Hands (1947); he was friends with many actresses including Elisabeth Bergner and Greta Garbo. EUGENIE LEONTOVICH (1900-1993) was a Russian-born American stage actress who also appeared on film and television, described as "one of the most colorful figures of the 20th-century theatre, a successful actress, producer, playwright and teacher". Born in Moscow, after studying at the city's Imperial School of Dramatic Art and the Moscow Art Theatre, Leontovich suffered tragedy when her father and brothers, officers in the Russian Imperial Army, were murdered by the Bolsheviks during the Revolution; she eventually found her way to New York and mastered English, leading her to Broadway stardom. She was first noticed as the dancer Grusinkaya in Grand Hotel (1930), and went on to appear as Lilly Garland in Twentieth Century (1932), and on the West End as Archduchess in Tovarich (1935). Leontovich originated the role of the Dowager Empress in the Broadway production of Anastasia (1954), the Queen in Cave Dwellers (1957) for which she won a Tony Award for Best Actress in 1958, and Mademoiselle Kuprin in A Call on Kuprin (1961), and in 1972 wrote her own adaptation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, going on to star and direct the production. She often appeared on film in productions of The Rains of Ranchipur (1955) and The Rains Came (1939). She spent the rest of her life as a teacher, referred to as "Madame" at her schools in New York and Chicago. Normal mailing folds. Lightly toned. Light surface creases. Corners rounded. Ink corrections throughout. Otherwise, fine condition.