LESLIE (CAROLINE LOUISE DUDLEY) CARTER - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED - HFSID 42554

LESLIE CARTER
Thanking a member of her audience, the actress remembers meeting her.
Autograph Letter signed: "Leslie Carter", 2 pages (integral leaf), 6½x6½. No place, no date ("Sunday"). To "Dear Miss George", in full: "I want to thank you for your charming letter of kind thoughts and good wishes. I am wondering if you liked the play. Did you? Yes I remember meeting you - & hope to have that pleasure again -soon. Every good wish. Just -" Broadway star Caroline Louise Dudley (1857-1937) continued to use her first married name, Mrs. Leslie Carter, to spite her first husband. Her marriage to Chicago millionaire Leslie Carter (1880-1889) had ended in a bitter divorce, in which she claimed abuse and abandonment and Mr. Carter claimed adultery. Scandalous headlines did not impair Mrs. Carter's stage career, however. Called "the American Sarah Bernhardt", she starred in a series of Broadway hits including Heart of Maryland (1895), Zaza (1898) and Madame DuBarry (1901). After quarreling with theatre impresario David Belasco, she left legitimate theatre for vaudeville. She made silent film versions of her biggest stage hits, but was by now too old for the parts she was playing. She returned to film in the 1930s, playing character roles. She was married to actor Louis Payne from 1906 until her death. Three horizontal and one vertical fold. Lightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.