Description

Description: Stage actor Francis Wilson compliments Heggie and his Company:

“Dear Sir Peter Heggie,

I saw today’s performance. Kindly say to the Company, with my compliments that I thought it beautiful and distinguished.

Cordially/Francis Wilson”

Autograph letter signed on a sheet of  7” x 5 ¼” letterhead from Harvard Club of Boston, dated November 25, 1925.  Item #A01989

Francis Wilson (1854-1935) was an American stage actor, producer, writer, and a founding President of the Actors’ Equity Association (1913-20). As a teenager he performed in minstrel shows, then with the Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, before his affiliation with comic operas. He founded the Francis Wilson Comic Company in 1899.

Oliver Peters Heggie (1877-1936), an Australian theater and film actor, began in amateur theater productions in Sydney and London. He gained prominence on Broadway (NYC), playing the lead in Androcles and The Lion, Old Man Minick in Minick, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Diggory in She Stoops to Conquer and others. He moved to Hollywood in 1928 and appeared in 27 films, including: The Count of Monte Cristo, The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu, etc.

Condition: Mailing fold line, otherwise in very good condition.