A group of nine handwritten letters, one partial, with eight original transmittal envelopes all addressed to Mr. Lathrop Mitchell on Hotel Wentworth stationary comprising a total of forty-five, double-sided pages. The letters are addressed to "Lay Lay Lover" and paint a fascinating portrait of silent screen star Naldi from 1956 to 1960. Her unique voice pulls no punches in these intimate letters in which she refers to herself as "Mitchell's Moonbeam" and comments on a wide variety of entertainment subjects including Orson Welles 1960 20th Century Fox film Crack in the Mirror quipping, "get there / at the beginning or / else all is confusion / Welles must have been / stuffing his baby face / continuously." Naldi refers to Diana Barrymore as "Vesuvius" in many of the letters and comments "...Vesuvius could / get the contract if she / made up her wayward / wino mind to be an / Example of Sobriety." Her unguarded commentary to Mr. Mitchell continues in another letter, "...however Ginger Rogers married a young / Frenchman - managed to secure / contracts for this Bergerac Buggering / Bastard - he gives Ginger the / air - grabs himself some hot / pants Hollywood harlots & is sitting pretty - maybe that the tender trend these days."
Provenance: Estate of Charles Williamson and Tucker Fleming.