MADGE KENDAL - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED - HFSID 206369

MADGE KENDAL
Testy letter to her agent about upcoming engagements: "I do hope it isn't a Lunatic Asylum you've sent me to!"
Autograph Letter signed: "Madge Kendal", 4 pages (integral leaf), 4x6. 12 Portland Place [London] "Tuesday", no date.. To"Mr. Christy", in full: "I forgot to tell you yesterday, that I don't care to fulfill Bristol engagement! I do hope it isn't a Lunatic Asylum you've sent me to. I sent a postcard to a man named Westerheim, according to your letter & have received a reply I don't (& shall never) understand! I only require a clean, decent placement - reply to a few questions & then see the hall - unless someone can date at Clifton's Dover Hotel - at 2:30 on Wednesday - and doubtless I shall not go to the hall under any circumstance. & you as my Agent arrange as you think best with this [illegible] organ grinder - or Father Superior - whatever he may choose to call himself. Yrs in haste. ". Madge Kendal (1848-1935) born in Great Gimsby, England, married actor William (Grimston) Kendal (1843-1917), who took her name, in 1869, and the couple starred in stage performances from Shakespeare to the "fairy comedies" of W. S. Gilbert, touring the US for the first time in 1889. The Kendal's, who helped restore respectability to the London theatre after a period of disrepute, retired in 1908. Outliving her husband by nearly two decades, she became a Dame Grand Cross of the British Empire in 1927. Toned. Edges and corners lightly worn, with a small tear in right edge of first page. Otherwise, fine condition.