Letters of Note - Cool blog

[billybob476]

Not sure how I came across this site but I'm enjoying browsing it. The author finds scans or copies of interesting old letters and telegrams. The site can be found at http://www.lettersofnote.com/

here's an interesting one:

Early-1983: Steven Spielberg writes a short note to Forrest Ackerman — editor of film magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland — and speaks briefly of the "insane" casting process on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Transcript follows. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

Transcript
Dear Forry,

Thank you for your kind and very amusing note the other day.

Things are going very well over here in Burbank — the next RAIDERS movie is in full prep. and casting is insane — I need a monkey, a great kid and hundreds of fruit bats!!

And they said filmmaking was easy in college!!

Please start another movie mag. I grew up with you - now I want to grow old with you!

Best of everything,

(Signed, 'Steven')

STEVEN SPIELBERG

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/07/i-need-monkey.html

[MARKO]

That is awesome!  I love this kind of stuff, i am always looking for old letters and stuff like that. I have many year books from Colleges from the early 20th Century each has personal notes in them.... its sort of traveling back in time. People had better grammar back then much better :)

Marko 

[billybob476]

Here's another cool one:

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/07/internet-tidal-wave.html

May 26th, 1995: Bill Gates sends a memo, entitled "The Internet Tidal Wave," to all executive staff within Microsoft. In it, he makes clear his intention to focus the company's efforts online with immediate effect and "assign the Internet the highest level of importance," going on to call it, "the most important single development to come along since the IBM PC was introduced in 1981."

[billybob476]

and this one is for Al:

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/06/there-is-no-way-to-replace-walt-disney.html

Transcript
December 15, 1966

TO: ALL EMPLOYEES
FROM: ROY DISNEY

The death of Walt Disney is a loss to all the people of the world. In everything he did Walt had an intuitive way of reaching out and touching the hearts and minds of young and old alike. His entertainment was an international language. For more than forty years people have looked to Walt Disney for the finest in family entertainment.

There is no way to replace Walt Disney. He was an extraordinary man. Perhaps there will never be another like him. I know that we who worked at his side for all these years will always cherish the years and the minutes we spent in helping Walt Disney entertain the people of the world. The world will always be a better place because Walt Disney was its master showman.

As President and Chairman of the Board of Walt Disney Productions, I want to assure the public, our stockholders and each of our more than four thousand employees that we will continue to operate Walt Disney's company in the way that he has established and guided it. Walt Disney spent his entire life and almost every waking hour in the creative planning of motion pictures, Disneyland, television shows and all the other diversified activities that have carried his name through the years. Around him Walt Disney gathered the kind of creative people who understood his way of communicating with the public through entertainment. Walt's ways were always unique and he built a unique organization. A team of creative people that he was justifiably proud of.

I think Walt would have wanted me to repeat his words to describe the organization he built over the years. Last October when he accepted the "Showman of the World" award in New York, Walt said, "The Disney organization now has more than four thousand employees. Many have been with us for over thirty years. They take great pride in the organization which they helped to build. Only through the talent, labor and dedication of this staff could any Disney project get off the ground. We all think alike in the ultimate pattern."

Much of Walt Disney's energies had been directed to preparing for this day. It was Walt's wish that when the time came he would have built an organization with the creative talents to carry on as he had established and directed it through the years. Today this organization has been built and we will carry out this wish.

Walt Disney's preparation for the future has a solid, creative foundation. All of the plans for the future that Walt had begun -- new motion pictures, the expansion of Disneyland, television production and our Florida and Mineral King projects -- will continue to move ahead. That is the way Walt wanted it to be.

[Jobydrone]

I saw this great one today.  Wil Wheaton sure seems like a nice guy.  You should try for an interview with him for the podcast, Rico!

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/08/dear-8-year-old-teresa.html

Dear 8 year-old Teresa

In 1988, aged just 8 but already a fan of the teen actor due to Stand By Me, Star Trek: The Next Generation and his 'awesome smile', an excited Teresa Juniso saved up the $12.00 membership fee and applied to join 'WilPower', then-15-year-old Wil Wheaton's official fan club. She then waited. And waited some more. And then gave up waiting altogether. The membership kit never materialised, and before long the initial disappointment was forgotten.

In 2009, Teresa Juniso, now a 29 year-old writer, received - along with a package containing the very items she had waited patiently for 21 years previous - the following letter; an incredibly endearing apology and belated welcome to Wheaton's now defunct fan club, written by Wil Wheaton himself after being alerted to her story.

Said Teresa:

He gets a big thank you from Twenty-Nine Year Old Me. Don't get me wrong. Eight Year Old Me is very, very pleased. But Twenty-Nine Year Old Me better knows the importance of a kind gesture, and hopes that her gratitude carries more weight.
Transcript follows.

Dear 8 year-old Teresa,

I wanted to apologize to you for making you wait so long to get your official WilPower fanclub membership kit. You see, 15 year-old me is very busy with work and school, and the people who were responsible for getting your membership kit mailed back to you must have made a mistake.

It's been a long time since the fan club did anything, but I've enclosed a membership card for you, as well as a wallet photo, and a picture that shows you how much I love Batman (HINT: It's a lot.)

WilPower members got updates about me and my work a few times a year, but the fan club stopped sending those out a long time ago. My latest update, though, goes like this: I got married, I have two boys who I love more than anything in the world, and I'm a writer now, just like you!

And now, 8 year-old Teresa, I want to tell you something very important before I sign off, so listen closely: When you grow up, you're going to be a great writer. I can't tell you how I know, but I hope you'll trust me; I just do. So stay in school, always do your best, and treat people the way you want to be treated.

Thank you for being part of my fan club,

(Signed, 'Wil Wheaton')

Wil Wheaton