Talking Screen (Sep-Oct 1930)

mm Of Hollywood fan mail, only 16 per cent offer constructive criticism; 48 per cent request autographed pictures, 12 per cent vow love, and 24 per cent demand favors that beggar description. No wonder a tiny fraction of this correspondence is all that reaches the star. THE two fan universe is divided into two parts — those who write fan letters and those who have writer's cramp. If all stamps licked to Hollywood were added up, the result would keep Peggy Joyce in bracelets for a year. A fan is a clipped form of fanatic. Now please don't get me wrong. Dr misunderstand. I'm not trying to be supercilious or high hat. I was a fan myself once. At the tender age of eight, I wrote to Mary Pickford telling her I had named my doll after her (those were the good old days when children played with dolls) . In return, I received a beautifully stamped, autographed photo. Now certainly, after such an experience, you couldn't call me anything but a fan, could you? Telling what sort of person writes what to whom — and why the addressee reads so little of the constant inrush of letters have been two other fellows) imagine his frightful embarrassment! RECENT statistics show that of the hundreds and thousands of letters that pour into Hollywood every day, 16 per cent offer constructive criticism; 48 per cent request autographed pictures; 12 per cent avow protestations of love and 24 per cent demand favors that beggar description. If fans would only realize that out of this entire group the only ones that merit any personal attention belong to the first group they would save themselves postage, perfumed stationary, valuable time and keen disappointment when their letters remain unanswered. To those of you who dip your pens in vitriol and vent your wrath publicly in the "brickbats and bouquets" columns, I will cite a few examples of the type of letter that clutters up the mail and which may serve to shed an all-revealing light on the problem. Let's start off with Sue Carol and Nick Stuart — two kids whose fan mail is tremendous and who get a big kick out of reading it. One day. Sue, Nick and myself were sitting in Sue's dressing-room going over some of the mail when suddenly Nick called out, "Whoopee, listen to this!" My dear Mr. Stuart: Buddy Rogers, Gary Cooper, Dick Arlen may be considered the shieks of the screen but when it comes to acting, you put them all in the shade. Have followed every one of your pictures and I have never seen you give a bad performance. In closing, allow me to say that I shall never forget your marvelous death scene in What Price Glory? Please send me an autographed picture, signed personally. Sincerely yours — Since Nick never appeared in What Price Glory? (it must THEIR FA IM MAIL By RADIE HARRIS SUE is constantly getting fan mail asking about her darling sister, Nancy, although the fact has been widely publicized that Nancy Carroll is an Irish colleen from Ne^A' York City whose real name is Ann La Hiff while Sue Carol hails from Chicago and her real name is Evelyn Lederer. Surely, if the fans don't even take the trouble of knowing to whom they are writing, you can't expect the stars to show their appreciation with a photograph: Clara Bow, who receives more mail in one week than some people receive in a lifetime, numbers among her fans an admirer who writes to her every day via air mail and special delivery. The letters consist of nothing but declarations of love, very badly written. The trash paper basket is the only one that ever sees these letters and yet with automaton-like regularity, they arrive daily. On the other hand, if Clara receives a letter telling her that she is much more suited to emotional roles of the Ladies of the Mob calibre than the rowdy fripperies of True to the Navy, that letter is immediately brought to Clara's personal attention and elicits a prompt response. RECENTLY, Lois Moran received a letter from an old lady . in some foreign port, who insisted that Lois was her dead daughter resurrected. Enclosed in the letter was a substantial sum of money to cover Lois' travelling expenses in returning to her. Lois' own mother, who, incidentally, looks enough like her to be her twin sister, answered the letter, returning the money with the necessary explanation. Will Rogers received a request for a photo with the accompanying statement that the writer needed the picture to prove to a friend that Rogers was homelier than Lon Chaney. Barbara Worth loves to tell about the fan who wrote her the following: "You are my favorite motion picture actress because I never have to wait in line to see your pictures." Virginia Cherrill, Charlie Chaplin's leading lady in City Lights, who as yet has never appeared on the screen, already has received hundreds of letters telling her how marvelous she was in her last picture. Patsy Ruth Miller receives daily communications from a man in an insane asylum who hurls all sorts of insults at her for refusing to marry him. Letters such as these command absolutely no attention. Neither do letters written to one star asking for information [^Continued on page 93 } 79