FAN MAIL STARTS A NEW PROFESSION

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21156, 1 October 1938, Page 16

FAN MAIL STARTS A NEW PROFESSION

Film stars’ fan mail, the handling of which keeps a large number of people busy throughout the year in the Hollywood studios, is developing a new profession for men and women W’ho are good both as stenographers and correspondents. Many of the bigger stars have their fan mail forwarded direct to the office of a person who has no connection with the studios. He or she opens and reads all the mail, makes notes of constructive criticisms, prepares replies and sends off photographs of the star when requested. Any points which may assist the producers are forwarded to the studio publicity manager for consideration. Strangely enough, it is not an established star who receives most fan mail in Hollywood. That distinction belongs to a young Englishman, Bruce Lester.

Bruce is making his first film with James Cagney and Pat O'Brien, but he has travelled all over the world and developed a huge correspondence to which he attends personally. Many of his correspondents do not know that Bruce is an actor and, if he ever attains stardom, he may require an army of secretaries, or be forced to place his fan mail in the hands of more than one of the new fan mail agencies to be found on Beverley Boulevard, just outside Hollywood.