In the late 1970s, when I began researching and writing about early television, I asked my mother if I could take a lot of what she had stored away, from her New York television career: scripts, recordings, newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, letters. She didn't mind at all.
The envelope below--one of the items I took, at the time--contains a fan letter she received in January of 1952, while she was singing on the Hit Parade television show, on NBC. The letter was from a woman in Dallas, Texas.
I have been watching you on T.V. ever since we got our set. At the time you were on Kay Kyser's program. I have watched you on every program you've been on since.
The writer told her how much she enjoyed her Hit Parade performances, and said she wished she would sing more duets with fellow Hit Parade singer Russell Arms. At the end of the letter, she asked if my mother would send her a photograph.
The letter is an enjoyable artifact from early television, yet it is the front of the envelope that I find especially interesting. It had on it my mother's name (her surname appearing to be misspelled, by the way--using only one "t"--as was the case in the salutation of the letter itself), and was sent care of "Your Hit Parade T.V." in New York. The television show's network, and its address, were not included on the envelope.
The letter, as noted, is from 1952, when television was still in its relative infancy. No doubt a great many such letters, at the time, were sent to television performers, or to network programs in general--and I am guessing that, due to the newness of the medium, it was perhaps not unusual that the addressing of the envelopes did not (as above) always contain complete information.
I wonder if, during this time, the Postal Service--particularly in New York City, where so much of early TV was based--had a system in place for sorting television-oriented mailings, to insure their proper delivery. (At this time, network radio--referred to today as Old-Time Radio--had
begun its decline as a medium; maybe Postal Service procedures had existed for years, for similar radio mailings.)
