KAY KYSER - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 10/06/1948 - HFSID 207177

KAY KYSER
Kay Kyser sends a typed letter resigning as a member Director of the Friar's Club.
Typed Letter Signed: "Kay", 1p, 7¼x10¼. Hollywood, California, 1948 October 6. On his personal letterhead to Mr. Harry Cohn, Columbia Pictures, Hollywood, California. The bandleader resigns as a member and Director of the Friar's Club. In full: "As you have noticed by my absence it's physically impossible for me to keep up with my duties as a member of the Friars Board of Directors. Between five radio shows a week, my hospital activities, other board of director's duties and trying to keep my wife from turning in her ring, something has to go. Therefore, after careful consideration I believe I must ask to be released from the Friars Board. I not only can't make it on Board meeting nights, but it has been impossible for me to even go to the Club in the past few months and it will become increasingly difficult for me to enjoy the Club's privileges, so I feel I must also resign from the Club. Please accept my resignation as of the first of November. I have enjoyed my association with you and all the rest of the fellows and it's with deep regret that I tender my resignation." In 1949, the year after he signed this letter, Kyser's radio show was cancelled. Bandleader KAY KYSER (1906-1985), who couldn't read a note of music, was one of the most popular bandleaders and music personalities in America from 1933 until the end of the 1940s. Kyser and his band became nationally known following a series of radio broadcasts from the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica. These shows, which featured his trademark comedy (vocalists singing the titles of songs, interrupting a chorus for the band's theme, "Thinking of You") and an engagement at the Blackhawk Restaurant in Chicago, Kyser a star. His many hits included "The White Cliffs of Dover" and "Old Buttermilk Sky". Kyser's zany radio show, Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge, ran for more than 15 years and was so popular that RKO signed him up for a series of films, starting with That's Right, You're Wrong. During WWII, Kyser and his band appeared at over 500 military installations in USO shows. After his radio show was cancelled in1949, Kyser had difficulty making a transition to television, and he retired in 1950. Kyser's wife, whom he mentions in this letter, was GEORGIA CARROLL, one of his former vocalists. The couple was married from 1944 until his death in 1985 and had three daughters. Under the leadership of producer HARRY COHN (1891-1958), one of the co-founders of Columbia Pictures, the studio had produced the Oscar winning pictures You Can't Take It With You (1938), All The King's Men (1949), From Here to Eternity (1953) and On the Waterfront (1954). Cohn, who produced a number of films, including It Happened One Night (1934), and executive produced The Lady From Shanghai (1948, his last film, in the year of this letter), is credited with hiring director Frank Capra and making stars out of Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, Jack Lemmon and Kim Novak, was sometimes called "His Crudeness" and "White Fang" for his harshness with people in the industry, including his stars. When a large number turned out for his funeral, one pundit (usually credited as Red Skelton) said, "Give the people what they want and they'll turn out for it." Staple holes and 2 file holes at upper blank margin. Lightly soiled at lower blank margin. Fine condition.