December 2012 Auction Ends Tuesday, December 18th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/18/2012
20 personal letters written by Mary Astor and signed ''Mary''. A dozen autograph letters signed and eight typed letters signed comprise the lot. She writes most of them to her agent, Gloria Safier. Dated in the late 1950's through the 1960's, this collection spans her time of transition from Academy Award-winning actress to bestselling author. Included is the letter in which she formally asks Safier to be not only her theatrical agent but her literary agent as well. Safier accepts, and becomes Astor's point of contact for everything having to do with the development of her 1968 memoir ''My Story: an Autobiography''. In one shocking letter, she contemplates changing the names of her ex-husbands in the book, since ''...Dr. Thorpe is not going to stand still about his begging me to have an abortion, or the whole plot between him and his common-law wife to see to it that I miscarried on the yacht trip to Honolulu. Nor the stories about del Campo's constant infidelities, or Wheelock's breaking me financially. 'The names must be changed to protect the GUILTY!'...'' This, with six other letters date to 1957, including one to another talent agent, ''Georgia,'' agreeing to augment her income with commercial work. The rest are dated 1967-1968. The later pieces pertain to her novel ''A Place Called Saturday'' and proposed changes to its characters and plot. She writes: ''...I am asking, 'Is a hopeful ending taboo?' I think these 'the misery of it all' endings of so many novels today are as much a cliche as the happy Hollywood endings...'' Most of the letters handwritten by Astor are on her personal stationery. All are in very good to near fine condition.
Mary Astor 20-Letter Lot -- ''...Thorpe is not going to stand still about his begging me to have an abortion, or the...plot...to see to it that I miscarried on the yacht trip to Honolulu...''
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