LEE MERIWETHER - TYPED LETTER SIGNED - HFSID 270369

LEE MERIWETHER. TLS: "Love/Lee Meriwether", 1p, 8½x11. Los Angeles, California, no date. On letterhead of "The Crippled Children's Society/The World's Greatest Working Truck Show" to comedienne and actress Phyllis Diller. Begins: "Dear Phyllis". In full: "Please, Please, I need your help! With talk of deficits and taxes everywhere, I hope you'll understand and forgive my begging. WAIT!! No, not money!! I desperately need your body!! WAIT!! For charity!! This is my baby and I am shamelessly calling on all my old friends. It's the 13th annual 'World's Greatest Working Truck Show', on Sunday May 23rd, at Anaheim Stadium. A benefit for the Crippled Children's Society of Southern California. All the money raised that day goes directly into the camper fund, so that their special children can go away to summer camps operated by the Society. They are fabulous camps (one in the mountains the other at the beach) where the youngsters get one-on-one care. Back to the truck show.. the trucks and the truckers that turn out by the hundreds, are some of the best in the country. They compete for trophies in dozens of classifications of working and beauty contests (that's truck beauty not bikini stuff). It's a great show.. something for the whole family. We'll feed you some goood food. You can come as casual as you like and I guarantee you'll have a fun day with a great bunch of people. You sign autographs in a protected area. You get breaks. You can watch the festivities and....You can compete for a trophy, yourself, by steering the tiller back-end of a fire engine that swings about and brother, is that a rush!!! Defending champion, Peter DeLuise, is out to win it again, and needs some competition in this celeb-only contest. Get your reservation in early for this one! And look at it this way. I'm in your debt! Feel free to call on me for your next charity gig. I even fill in for people who can't make one of their own. (At the last minute, too.) If you have questions, call me at home 818/366-3612 or Christie Palmer, P.R. Director at CCS. 213/874-3300, ext. 335 or at home 213/463-3501. If you can do this for me then, please, just complete the enclosed form and mail it, with a photo and bio material for the program book to Christie at The Crippled Children's Society 7120 Franklin Ave. L.A. CA, 90046." Enclosure not present. Actor PETER DeLUISE (born in 1966) is the oldest son of actors Dom and Carol DeLuise (the family appeared together in the made-for-TV movie, Happy, in 1983). A former Miss San Francisco, Miss California and Miss America (1955), LEE MERIWETHER (born in 1935) has appeared on stage and in film, playing Catwoman in the 1966 Batman movie, but her greatest success has been on television. She is best known for playing Betty Jones, Buddy Ebsen's daughter-in-law, in the long-running Barnaby Jones series (1975-1982). Her other small screen credits include guest shots on a number of series, including Batman (not as the Catwoman), Murder, She Wrote and Touched by an Angel, a recurring role on All My Children and appearances in several made-for-TV movies. Meriwether was married to her first husband, actor Frank Aletter, from 1958-1974. Comedienne PHYLLIS DILLER (1917-2012), known for her outrageous appearance, zany outfits, distinctive laugh and a stand-up act that featured frequent references to her fictional husband, "Fang", and zingers about her sex appeal and numerous plastic surgeries, got her big break in March 1955 (at age 37), when she debuted at San Francisco's Purple Onion club. A subsequent appearance on The Tonight Show hosted by Jack Paar launched her national career, which got a big boost after Bob Hope saw Diller in a Washington, D.C. club. A favorite of the comedian, Diller would appear in three of Hope's films and 23 of his TV specials. Diller, who recorded her first comedy record album in 1959, took her groundbreaking "funny hausfrau" act to nightclubs and television variety shows and specials and she also appeared on the big screen. Her feature film credits include Splendor in the Grass (1961), The Fat Spy (1966), Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966), The Sunshine Boys (1975) and The Silence of the Hams (1994), and she provided the voice of the Queen in A Bug's Life (1998). By 2000, the comedienne, who had trained as a concert pianist before her marriage (1939-1965) to Sherwood Anderson Diller, had appeared as a piano soloist with 100 symphony orchestras across the U.S. Despite retiring from nightclub/stage tours in May 2002 at the age of 84, Diller continued to make films (Motorcross Kids, 2004; Forget About It, 2005) and occasionally appear on TV programs, including two episodes of 7th Heaven (2002, 2003) and a guest shot on The Wayne Brady Show (2004). Lightly creased with folds, not at signature. Fine condition.