I’ve written and received emails from Tim Dorsey for a few years now. It’s a love of all things weird and wonderful in Florida. Plenty of material.
When I was little I wrote a fan letter to Harrison Ford. I got back an autographed glossy B & W photo of him (shirtless!) as Indiana Jones. I still have it.
I also wrote to Wayne Gretzky and got back an 8x10 autographed picture.
Back when Dennis Miller had his TV show on HBO (before he became an uber Right Wing apologist), I wrote him a letter. It was about one of his “rants”, the topic I can’t remember, but I commented that he misunderstood some topic or other which I explained. I received a signed picture and I think a form letter. I framed the pic for a while on the wall. I took it down, along with several others, when I moved.
On the one hand, it was neat I got a response. On the other hand, it was a form response that didn’t address my complaint at all. Oh well, he’s just a humorist.
My sister and I spent an entire summer writing to celebrities when we were teens. She and I had fun sending notes to mostly second bananas like Tim Conway and Dick Van Patten, who actually sent personal photos of himself and family.
We wrote a nice long letter to Frank Sinatra, talking about how much his music meant to our parents, and nearly a year later got not only a full color 8X10 glossie, but it had a long hand-written note from him thanking us and our parents. My sister and I were in awe.
Also got lucky that summer in getting both Jackie Gleason AND Art Carney as well as Katherine Hepburn and wait for it . . . .
Chef Boyardee.
whadayawanna bet he is using the same pic today? (I would in his shoes)
I was just talking about this last night.
When I was little (5 or 6, I think) I drew a picture of Bert from Sesame Street. Now, it was my mum that sent it to CTW which isn’t strictly in the terms of the OP, but we got a reply!
A photo of the whole Sesame Street cast!
Unfortunately, they were so far ahead of the episodes New Zealand TV was playing, I barely recognised any of the cast, human or muppet.
No idea what happened to the photo, but now I think it was pretty darned neat for them to send it all the way over here. Certainly the only response I got from a fan letter.
Before he passed away I wrote twice to James Michener, and got polite, short, signed notes in reply.
I have also written twice to Spider Robinson, and had replies both times.
I wrote a short letter to Adm. (Ret.) James Stockdale, asking for his autograph. I included a card and a SASE, He wrote a very gracious note, signed, responding to me.
The part about Frank Sinatra was amazing;I imagine that not many people got a picture and a letter from him.In fact,I doubt many people got anything from him.
Out of curiosity,do you still have those things today?
Thanks for sharing that experience.Really very interesting.
Yep, still have it. The note’s actually written ON the photo in gold ink. My sister and I got it framed to keep it safe.
Have to admit, it convinced me about the power of a well-written letter; if you can get the Chairman of the Board to write back to us, we must have done something right!
When I was in second grade, I wrote a letter to Richard Scarry. I was absolutely thrilled when I got a reply. I assume it was a form letter, but at that age, it didn’t matter.
I think I still have it somewhere.
I had a very short written back-and-forth with Spider Robinson about the proper way to add cream to coffee. He has some very exact methods and thinks quite a bit about the subject.
Yes, seriously!
ETA: added “written.”
I wrote a letter to Mr Asimov as well, and got a typed, hand-signed letter in reply. I had “discovered” a flaw in the Three Laws. And he discussed my flaw a bit in the letter and directed me to a story he had already written (“That Thou Art Mindful of Him”) that explored the implications of the flaw.
Basically, what I thought of, he had thought of first. Still, even though I had failed to stump him, I was thrilled at getting his letter and kept it for years. When we got it, I told my parents we should keep it in our safety deposit box at the bank, but they reminded me we didn’t have one.
When I first started my DisneyShorts website I sent snail mails to various Disney artists asking what their favorite Disney cartoon was. I got a nice personal letter from Marc Davis along with a personally signed still from “101 Dalmatians.”
Really would have liked to hear back from Ward Kimball, though.
That is unbelievably cool. He and Alan Page were my footballs idol when I was a kid.
In 1978 I sent a letter to Ian Anderson (leader of “Jethro Tull”) asking a bunch of lyric questions and pleading for an official live album as I hated buying bootlegs. I also included a photo I took of him as he left the Broome Arena in Binghamton that previous winter. A couple of months later I received a hand-written reply, answering my lyric questions, and informing me that an official live album was just recorded in Switzerland and would be out in the fall (of '78 - Bursting Out it was called.) But a friend of mine suggested that maybe an office staffer wrote it. This bugged me for a few years until I had a chance to meet him in person at a radio station. I showed him the letter and he looked genuinely shocked. He confirmed that he had written it himself, and that I must have had something interesting to say since he rarely replied to letters.
I still have this letter, of course.
Not surprising. A Lannister always pays his debts.
Ahh…on the letter instead of with it.Thanks for pointing out my mistake.After looking back over your original post I noticed that you’d already said that in your first post,so I guess I just read it wrong.
Anyway,I’m glad to hear you’ve still got it,because that’s got to be quite a nice thing to be able to show guests.
When I was in high school my friend and I liked to send prank letters to political figures we discussed in our political science class- nothing mean- just silly things. We made up an interest group called the Virgina Pony Lovers Association (VAPLA) and asked our senators to join. Strangely a campaign manager for George Allen, a former senator best known for referring to a person of Indian descent as “Macaca,” responded expressing interest. We also had an assignment where we had to write a letter to a congressman and my friend sent her congressman the lyrics to “When A Man Loves A Woman.”
When I was in college I sent a letter to Daniel Radcliffe after I saw Equus** and got a signed photo in return. Then my cat peed on it and I tossed it. Oh well.
Back in the days when email was still relatively new (to me, anyway - I’m thinking around '98), I impulsively sent an email to Fred Rogers at CPTV, having just learned it was his birthday and scoured the CPTV website for his address. I rhapsodized about how much I loved him and how his show meant so much to me growing up, and although I am an adult now, I tune in to reruns whenever I am home sick from work.
I actually got an email reply from Mr Rogers, thanking me for the birthday wishes. The phrasing was so right I don’t think it was from a staffer, and he didn’t seem the sort of guy to wave that off for an underling to do. He was so kind and genuinely appreciative of my message.
Sadly, that email disappeared with some long-dead email account. I know I printed a copy and I hope I still have it somewhere.
When I was a kid, Roald Dahl was my absolute favorite. At about nine, so maybe 1994 or 1995, I wrote Roald Dahl a letter talking about how much I loved his books. A month or so went by, and I got a big folder in the mail including a word search and crossword puzzles about the various books…as well as a biography telling me he had died a few years back.
None of his book biographies on the back cover mentioned he had died! I was so sad, it meant no more new books.