NORMA LEE BROWNING - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 07/01/1984 - HFSID 270607

NORMA LEE BROWNING
TLS: "Norma and Russell", 1 page, 7¼x10½. Palm Springs, California, 1984 July 1. Form letter, authentically signed, on pictorial Oggs' Hummingbird Hacienda stationery to comedienne and actress Phyllis Diller. Begins: "Dear Special Hummingbird Friends". In full: "Good news! Russell and I are proud to announce that HE SAW A HUMMINGBIRD is back in print, by popular demand - thanks to all of you who helped make it happen. It is now being published by Northwood Institute Press, one of the best. As you may know, books published by a University or College Press carry a lot of prestige but not much weight in the trade market. Book distributors do not handle them. So it's up to us to sell them. You have already bought the book and spread its message. So this is not a nudge to buy more unless you need them as gifts. But here's how you can help: (a) Tell your friends the book is back in print; (2) check your local bookstores, hospital and museum gift shops, nature specialty stores, to see if they will stock the book; (c) make copies of this and/or enclosed blurb and pass it along. We now have a young college student, Jon Jaeger, who is working as our salesman-distributor, to help pay his tuition (at Cal-Poly, San Luis Obispo). If he is in your area, he may call on you. You could help by referring him to bookstores and gift shops that might be interested in carrying the book. Wholesale price is $6.00; retail $9.95 (plus postage). Our new book jacket has a nice quote from Dolores Hope: 'This charming, vital book has been a sellout for us in our gift shop.' (Eisenhower Medical Center). In fact it has been a sellout in any place that carries it. It's 'word-of-mouth' that sells it - and that's where all of you have helped so much. As our special THANK-YOU for all you have already done, our gift price is $6.00 for a Northwood First Edition, personally autographed, for you and your friends who may want to buy more books. But that's only if you want them. More important - help us spread the word. With appreciation...and an early very MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of you. Love". "Ogg" has been written in unknown hand in red ink next to signature. He Saw a Hummingbird, which contained color photographs of hummingbirds, was first published by E.P. Dutton in 1978. Northwood Press reprinted the book in 1984, and it was later released by Midland Northwood in 1987. Journalist and author NORMA LEE BROWNING (1914-2001), who went to work for the "Chicago Tribune" in 1944, met RUSSELL OGG when he was a photographer for the "Chicago Daily News". They were married until his death in 1990. Browning, who had previously written for radio, magazines and other newspapers, would remain with the "Chicago Tribune" until 1975. Nominated for the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for her stories exposing "quack" doctors, her undercover work also included exposes on unwed mothers, prostitutes and medical institutions. When she was sent to Hollywood in 1966 to write a column, Browning saw the job as a letdown. She nonetheless made the best of what her editors considered a "plum" assignment until retiring in 1976 (during that time, Browning appeared in a 1973 made-for-TV movie, The Great American Beauty Contest). Over her long career, Browning also authored or co-authored a number of books, including Other Side of the Mind (1964, co-author), The Honorable Mr. Marigold: My Life With Everett Dirksen (1972, in collaboration with Louella Carver Dirksen, the Senator's widow), Peter Hurkos: I Have Many Lives (1976) and Facelifts: Everything You Always Wanted to Know (1982), in addition to He Saw a Hummingbird (1978, with Ogg). 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). 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. Fine condition.