Fan Mail From Some Flounder

Does anyone send fan mail anymore?

In this age of social media, where stars communicate with their fans, maybe fan mail is obsolete. Or it’s changed into something else.

I’ve stumbled across a couple of newspaper columns from the same time frame in Hollywood talking about fan mail. The first one is from the North American Newspaper Alliance, December 5, 1937.

Fan Mail No Longer Awes Film Chiefs
Producers Like to Collect Cash, Not Stamps, From Stars’ Rooters.
By Harold Heffernan.
HOLLYWOOD (N.A.N.A.).—One of the sprouting buds on the contract list of a leading studio confided proudly to an intimate a short time ago that 17 “fan clubs” were sponsoring her throughout the country and that her fan mail total had leaped some 500 letters within a month. “My fans are my protection," she boasted. “If my contract were not renewed my clubs would start a young revolution.”
Fan clubs and a heavy letter total were promising omens to this starlet—an open sesame to better roles, richer financial rewards. Yet, when her contract came up for renewal a few days ago the bosses passed her up. Her mail count, one of the heaviest on the lot, didn’t mean a thing in her favor. The fellow wearing the brass hat didn’t inquire about her letter total. He merely sent word to the legal department to pass the option because the girl had no drawing power at the box office. And, to date, there has been no hint of a fan revolution.
A few years ago, under the same conditions, the young lady’s contract would have been renewed and boosted long before it had a chance to expire and she might have received a nice expensive gift from the boss to make her even happier. But studio attitude toward fan mail has undergone a radical change in recent years. Producers no longer scan their players’ letter totals with the avid interest once manifested. They’ve come to the conclusion that gate receipts, rather than the mail man’s load, is the most accurate measure of a player's popularity. What’s more, the Hollywood postman doesn’t groan today under the staggering pack he once lugged through studio gates. Inquiries at all fan mail departments reveal a reduction of approximately 40 per cent over the number of letters received five years ago.
NO STAR ever has or probably ever will approach Clara Bow's record-breaking total of 10,560 letters received in a month. That mark was established by the “It” queen back in 1929, when she was at the apex of her career. Extravagant claims are made for many of today’s favorites, but inasmuch as studios now refuse to release official figures, most can be written off as plain bunk. The truth is that most of the fan mail nowadays comes from children. Comparatively few adults write to the stars and those who do are usually asking for something—if not money, then photographs, autographs or trinkets and wearables seen in pictures. Bing Crosby still pays more attention to his fan correspondence than any other player in Hollywood. He encourages folks to write by maintaining an expensive organization that peruses each missive and offers an individualized answer in each instance.
Crosby’s signature appears at the bottom of each note; at least it’s a beautiful imitation of Crosby’s scrawl because three secretaries have been trained to relieve him of this arduous job. Otherwise, Bing would have no time to make pictures, perform his radio chores and look after the horses.
Claudette Colbert, Carole Lombard, Mae West and Marlene Dietrich are not so high as you’d suppose their popularity would warrant in the list of Paramount letter recipients. A young man named Ray Milland, who seldom gets out of “B" pictures, but who nevertheless has inspired a widening interest among correspondents, is found trailing close behind Crosby in letter totals. Shirley Temple is conceded to be the leading letter-getter of all the stars, her vast mail accumulation, reported in the neighborhood of 8,000 a month, coming from all parts of the world. Mrs. Temple estimates about 95 per cent of the writers are children of about Shirley’s age.
At Warner Bros., Errol Flynn has slowly taken first place, pushing Dick Powell out of the spot he held for more than three years. Oddly, the player receiving third largest amount of mail at that studio is Marie Wilson, an actress whose name seldom makes the marquee lights. Robert Taylor is still head man in a correspondence way at M-G-M, although he has fallen off somewhat during the past year. And since her marriage to Arthur Hornblow, Jr. a year and a half ago, Myrna Loy is not attracting nearly the number of letters she once did from admiring and lonesome males.
GINGER ROGERS remains far out in front at R-K-O. Fred Astaire and Jack Oakie lead the men there, although Wheeler and Woolsey, who are usually unmercifully panned by the critics and not particularly favoured by producers, draw a heavy load, especially from foreign countries. Katharine Hepburn's few fan writers are either very much for or equally against her, but she seldom asks to see any of her mail. Fan clubs seem to help fan mail totals, but it is all "repeat” business, the same “members” writing again and again. Many important stars whose box office ratings are higher than fan mail favorites receive scant attention from writers. Leslie Howard is one who doesn’t excite many letters. Jack Benny and Edward G. Robinson are others. However, they are established stars. It is the young players just getting started who really clog the Hollywood mails.

The next story is from the International News Service, January 12, 1938.

Fan Mail For Stars Comes Principally From Children
Importance of Players Has Little Bearing On Amount of Letters.
By Carlisle Jones
HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 12. (INS)—Although fan mail is no longer considered an absolutely accurate measure of a star's popularity, it is regarded as important by the studios, and much time and money is spent in seeing that the writers are supplied with the information and pictures they desire.
The truth is that most of the fan mail that floods the mail bags addressed to Hollywood comes from children. When schools start the amount of fan mail drops off. When vacations start, it picks up again. But all told, the quantity now is much less than it was eight or nine years ago when Colleen Moore was receiving, on an average, more than 15,000 letters each week an amount generally considered the high spot in fan mail received by any motion picture star.
Flynn Ahead of Powell.
At the Warner studios, Errol Flynn has slowly taken first place in the fan mail rating, pushing Dick Powell out of the spot he has held for more than four years. Flynn's mail averages some 4,000 letters and cards each month now, and was much higher than that before the public schools started this fall. Dick Powell now trails this figure, his average being about 3,500.
Oddly enough, the player receiving the third largest amount of mail at Warners is now Marie Wilson. She had better than 3,000 letters in December. The Mauch twins are fourth and Bette Davis is fifth. From there on the players rank as follows: Anita Louise, Olivia de Havilland, Dick Foran, Joan Blondell, Kay Francis and Wayne Morris.
The importance of the player has little bearing on the amount of fan mail addressed to him. A new star collects an enormous amount of fan mail the first few weeks or months after his initial appearance; and then this invariably drops off to a steady flow that maintains an average over a long period of time.
The fan mail of Wayne Morris and Fernand Gravet followed this average "curve." Wayne received more mail than any other player on his lot for many weeks after his first appearance in “Kid Galahad.” Now he gets about 1,200 each week since the release of “Submarine D-l,” with the prospects of another boost in reading matter with the forthcoming “The Kid Comes Back.”
Gravet got a good deal of attention right from the first, and his allotment has not fallen off as much as might have been expected with a personality who has made only one American picture. “Food For Scandal” should send his rating up again.
Fan Clubs Help.
Fan clubs help fan mail, but it is all "repeat" business, the same "members" writing again and again. However, it boosts the totals.
Many important stars, whose box office ratings are higher than that of the fan mail favorites, receive comparatively small amounts of mail. Leslie Howard is one who does not evoke many letters, and Edward G. Robinson is another. However, they are established stars. It is the younger players, just getting started, who really clog the Hollywood mails.
The care a star gives his fan mail is always reflected in the amount he receives and the way the "curve" keeps up. Dick Powell has undoubtedly taken more care with his mail than almost any other Hollywood star of recent years, and the result has been that he is still the second ranking favorite on the lot.
Probably 80 per cent of the fan mail received by any other star is made up of requests for a picture together with a brief complimentary note. A smaller proportion of the letters praise or complain about the sort of pictures the player is making. There are some begging letters, mostly asking for clothes. Even these have fallen off, however, because the public is gradually learning that stars will not (in fact they cannot) answer such requests.
A very small amount of the fan mail is objectionable as to content. This is occasionally turned over to the postal authorities, but is usually destroyed by the studio before the player sees it. Christmas invariably brings many presents, some of them of considerable value, to the more popular players.
The depression years brought about a severe drop in fan mail totals, but this is new being slowly rebuilt back toward the old records. Studios do not pay their stars by the amount of fan mail each receives, but in the long run the popularity that fan mail indicates is important to a player's career.

The funny thing is you can find pretty much the same story before this. The headline in one paper in 1930: “Fan Mail No Longer Governs Producers.” Of course, it was the producers who supplied fan mail numbers to the columnists.

Still, I wonder if a general tweet to a K-Pop fan equals the thrill in 1960 of a cartoon lover getting an autographed picture in the mail of Bullwinkle J. Moose.