Action (May 1941 - Mar 1958)

Seri/ ice Me Ip ^ullisk Jan The market is bullish in pin-ups nnw. The studin’s Fan Mail department receives nver 50 DO servicemen’s requests fnr pin up phntns each week. Snmetimes mnvie fans frnm all nver the T, wnrld send in as many as 15,000 weekly letters. .HERE’S iiothing like a beautiful girl. Just ask Madge Inman, efficient head of Twentieth’s hustling Fan Mail Department. The 5,000 weekly pin-up requests that rain on our Fan Mail Department from the fighting boys is proof of this. Soldiers, sailors and airmen all want autographed pin-up photos of the studio’s shapely actresses. Betty Grable, pin-up favorite of the Armed Forces in the last war, is still leading the field as tjueen of the servicemen, according to Fan Mail reports. Not all fan letters, however, are from the ser\’icemen. Film lovers from the four corners of the world bombard the studio for photographs, advice and countless other requests that boosts the average total letters received a week to between 12,000 and 15,000. Simple requests for pictures are followed up with snapshots. A mimeographed “thank you” card goes along with the picture explaining that due to the many requests the star finds it impossible to send the larger studio portraits personally autographed. However, Incoming fan mail is sorted and the letters divided among the different girls. Mamie Miller and Ruth Satterlee sort the mail while head of the department, Madge Inman, stands by. they may secure them by sending money. The charges run 10 cents for a 5x7; 25 cents for 8 x 10; $1.00 for 11 x 14. Occasionally a fan complains of the charge, but fairness of the practice is generally accepted. These cards, however, never go to the servicemen. Instead of sending the regular snapshot. Fan Mail encloses a glamorous pin-up of the actress. Because the girls in Fan Mail do their own zoning of the mail and sort it according to cities, states and countries for the postoffice, the studio gets a sjDecial mailing rate which saves countless thousands of dollars each year. Located in the bottom floor of the picturesque Old Writer’s building. Fan Mail’s letter requests weren’t always handled in such an efficient manner. As late as 1940, stars were paying for their own pictures sent out by the studio. Now the studio pays the freight and figures the money well spent in promoting interest in our stars and motion pictures. Fan Mail is probably the best barometer of our business. Its monthly records, sent each month to the top officials of the studio, accurately records the changing status of the stars and the curve of popular interest in our motion pictures. A popular picture like I’D CLIMB THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN, immediately sends Bill Lundigan’s and Susan Hayward’s fan mail spiralling upward. When the department was first organized, a penny postcard with a price list of the available photographs was mailed to the fans. Later this method proved unsatisfactory, so a snapshot of a star appearing in one of Twentieth’s forthcoming pictures was mailed. This too seemed to irk the fans. Now Twentieth’s Fan Mail is the model of efficiency and several other studios have patterned their organizations after ours. Boss Madge Inman could likely be called “Miss Fan Mail” herself. Celebrating her 19th year with the studio, she has been head of the department since 1942. Starting as a receptionist at the Western Avenue Studio, Madge was soon transferred to Script. Impatient, she asked to work in Fan Mail where it was supposed to be “busy.” Needless to say, she’s been running ever since. The five pretty and pert girls in the de( Continued on Page 6) Four