I am just curious. I’m a bit old for fan mail writing, but I stumbled onto an extensive list of my favorite people on the Internet, downloaded it and, eventually decided to send in a few snail mail letters. As kid, I recall reading about how kids sent in fan mail to stars and they got nice letters back, or signed photographs and I have read of people who have been corresponding with stars for years and have something like a pen pal relationship with them.
As I grew older, I read the disappointing facts that some guy dreamed up an answering service for the stars, where he answers most of their mail for them, sends out copies of response letters run off of a copy machine, and signs pictures of them to ship out to the poor, unsuspecting fan. (I would like to kick him in the butt for deliberately deceiving thousands of hopeful people just so he can get some bucks.)
I also heard how the stars secretaries often respond to letters in the stars name and even sign pictures of them that they send out.
But, being a dreamy optimist, I decided, what the heck, and sat down and did something I never did as a kid, … wrote fan letters and mailed them out. I expected that I would at least get one reply from these famous people out of the cluster I shipped off and … I got nothing.
Not even a form letter saying Thank You.
Nada.
Zip.
Zero!
The child in me is crushed. The sarcastic, battle scarred adult knew it was going to happen and is just mildly annoyed. Another childhood fantasy down the drain.
A few years ago, I started writing to celebrities and asking for autographed photos. Some sent photos that appeared to be hand-signed, some sent photos that had the signature pre-printed on the photo, and some sent … nothin’! Sending a self-addressed, stamped, 9x12 envelope with your request will improve your chance of getting a reply. Patience is also a virtue, because some people took over a year and a half to reply. Good luck!
I wrote Ang Lee (director of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) after the Acadamy Awards last year. I wanted to let him know that although he didn’t win Best Director and his film didn’t win Best Picture, I thought he should have won. I told him how much his movie moved me and that I really appreciated how CTHD was able to touch parts of me that are rarely touched by movies.
Nada on the reply. I was disappointed. I mean, how much fan mail does a director get?
A couple of years ago I found myself shooting craps in Atlantic City with Drew Barrymore. We exchanged small talk about craps (she had never played before), and she even touched my arm in a playful manner. However, I didn’t want to ruin her time by playing the “awed fan” and I never even mentioned movies of anything-just let her have her fun with her date for the evening (Gerald McRaney [sp?]–you know, the Major Dad guy.)
Now, I’m not one who follows the Hollywood scene too much or gets all googly-eyed over starlets, but I think Miss Barrymore is damned cute. I guess I should have asked for an autograph then and there, because I sure didn’t get one when I wrote her afterwards! Got the big fat IGNORE.
Slightly different circumstance…for my 11th or 12th Birthday I received a letter from Tony Dorsett! Wow, what a thrill! Everyone in my family knew I was a big Dallas Cowboys fan. In fact, my younger sister knew so well that she wrote the letter herself as a prank. Who knew a 9-year-old could be so devious? I had to admire her cleverness even when I wanted to strangle her for setting me up and dashing my spirits like that.
when i was a kid i wrote a letter to ranger rick and got a reply back! but since ranger rick is a raccoon i’m guessing maybe someone else was at the typewriter.
then when i was in junior high i wrote to someone in that band skid row (i can’t believe i admit such things). i don’t think i expected a reply anyways so i wasn’t suprised that i didn’t get one.
Let’s hope all that “proto-pedophile” talk about him is just talk.
Funny this thread should appear today. I was just thinking on my way home from school about the valentine I sent Dorothy Hammill after she won her gold medal. My brother sent one too. he got an autographed picture back with a letter. Oh, imagine the trauma that ensued until I got mine a few days later.
I wrote a fan letter to Mercedes McCambridge a few years ago after I saw her on that Oscar broadcast that had that tableau of Oscar winners. I didn’t get a response. I figure it was either because, having no other address, I mailed to her in care of AMPAS and it didn’t get forwarded or because I started the letter by saying that I had thought she was dead and was pleasantly surprised to learn that she wasn’t.
Back in my school days, we did a project on Australian music. My friend and I wrote letters to 10 Australian musicians and mailed them out, each asking for biographic info and anything else that would help our project. This being the olden days, we hand-wrote the letters. No computers for us!
Anyway, of the ten we sent out, we got 3 replies. Two thanked us for our interest in joining their fan club, and enclosed an entry form, and the third sent us pictures, a biography, and a lovely letter.
I wish I could remember who that was now! D’oh!
Oh, and one of the ones that replied with a form letter was Jimmy Barnes. A few years later, his fan club became free to join, and they signed me up because of that letter I’d written that they’d never read!
Oh, and once I wrote to Laurie Anderson and Richard O’Brien on the same day. I got a nice postcard back from Mr O’Brien, handwritten that responded to the specific question I asked him. Never heard anything from Laurie Anderson. I think shortly after that she started dating Lou Reed and I lost all respect for her (not really, but kind of).
Hey! I got a letter from Ranger Rick, too! The old Ranger Rick, not the newfangled one with the cartoonish looking artwork. I think I asked him a question about some fish I owned and he wrote back saying he had talked to a fish scientist guy (ic-whatever) and they had come to a joint conclusion that my fish had ick. Bummer for my fish, but at least they had the news broken to them by a magazine owning raccoon which is kind of how I’d like to go when it’s my time.
After seeing Irene Mollot and Davis Gaines star in the ill-fated DC debut of Whistle Down the Wind, I wrote each of them a fan letter - the only two in my life.
Mr. Gaines replied, enclosing an autographed picture and a brief note about the show and his future plans.
Ms. Molloy did not. Since then, she’s gone on to L.A. and starred in the ill-fated Grosse Pointe of W.B. fame.
As a 9- or 10-year-old, I got a letter back from Stan Lee (then-editor of Marvel Comics).
Much later, I got a handwritten response from Steve Vai. Included advice on guitar tone, answered a question about religion (he’s one of those space-ranger interplanetary, up-to-quasi-spiritual-mischief kind of guys, but I think he’s sincere).