LEATRICE JOY - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED - HFSID 187117

LEATRICE JOY
5-page Autograph Letter on her personal stationery, explaining how her southerner's view of Abraham Lincoln changed dramatically after reading Carl Sandburg's books, signed as "Leatrice Gilbert."
Autograph Letter signed: "Leatrice Gilbert", 5 pages, 6x7½ - page 4 front and verso. No place, no date (but c. 1922-1924). On personal letterhead with her facsimile signature to William Stanhope. In full: ""So sorry the letter with autographed picture failed to reach you. In the letter I requested to be next to Carl Sandburg. (I so adored his books on Lincoln - they so changed the whole idea I had of dear President Lincoln. Being a dyed in the wool southerner, I put horns and tails on every picture of his I found in the school books. But with a grateful heart to Mr. Sandburg I would like to be placed near his photograph. [2 words illegible] for that the Little Basket I sent to you was my very first and only - I presume its success is due to the very warm protective love I have for the little feathered friends. A 'Bird Friend Box' has been started to let others share in re-orders bearing the 'Message of Mercy' to remain on the wing. They sell for $2.00 a copy. They may be ordered as "Bird Friend Box 322 Riverside Ave Riverside Conn 06878 and our group will immediately send them on their way. Thank, thank you. Sincerely.[signature] Life magazine Dec 1984 has a bit of news about this about this silent star of the early, very early 1920s." Silent film star Leatrice Joy (1893-1985) appeared in comedy shorts with Oliver Hardy (1917) before getting her first major feature film role, with Mary Pickford in The Pride of the Clan that same year. By the 1920s she was a major star, cast in Cecil B. DeMille extravaganzas like The Ten Commandments (1923). She often played strong, independent women. Her first husband was fellow film star John Gilbert; they were married 1922-1924. Joy had less success in the era of talking pictures, a decline some attributed to her then unfashionable southern accent. Joy still appeared in smaller roles, including an appearance with Marilyn Monroe in Love Nest (1951). After her third and final divorce, Joy reverted for legal purposes to her birth name, Leatrice Joy Zeidler. Horizontal fold crease. Otherwise, fine condition.