MARTHA TILTON - DOCUMENT SIGNED 11/09/1944 CO-SIGNED BY: RUSSELL J. BIRDWELL - HFSID 169468

MARTHA TILTON and RUSSELL J. BIRDWELL
Tilton signs on this document engaging Birdwell and Associates as her public relations counselors for a period of 6 months
Document Signed: "Martha Tilton", 1p, 8½x11. Also signed "Russell Birdwell". Beverly Hills, California, 1944 November 9. Copy of a documentary letter on letterhead of Birdwell's firm, confirming Tilton's engagement of Russell Birdwell and Associates as her public relations counselors for a period of 6 months, commencing 1944 November 9. Martha Tilton (1915-2006) was a talented big band singer with the Benny Goodman orchestra. Goodman (and later radio co-host Curt Massey) called her "the Liltin' Miss Tilton". She had singing roles in several films of the 1940s and The Benny Goodman Story (1955). "And the Angels Sing", recorded with Goodman's orchstra, was her best known song, but she had several charting hits in the 1940s. Birdwell (1903-1977), born Russell Juarez Birdwell, directed 5 movies between 1929 and 1957, but is best known for being one of Hollywood's most flamboyant press agents and publicists. Among Birdwell's best remembered stunts are launching a three-year publicity campaign for Gone With the Wind (1939), that included a nationwide search for an actress for Scarlett O'Hara and pressuring Clark Gable into the role of Rhett Butler; ads for Howard Hughes' The Outlaw (1943) that focused on buxom star Jane Russell's, ahem, two enormous talents; and hiring a "Woman in Black" to lay flowers at the grave of Rudolph Valentino, a stunt that developed a life of its own when a woman unrelated to the stunt started showing up annually at the grave. Birdwell was also a screenwriter, with writing credits on I Ring Doorbells (1946) and Jim Thorpe - All American (1951). Faint paperclip impression at left of upper edge. Otherwise, fine condition.