Description

Description: Billy Rose (1899-1966), noted lyricist, impresario, theatrical showman, and apparent shorthand enthusiast, signed this lengthy typed letter in which he espouses the merits of the skill. He says in part: “My folks were poor, very poor. Early in my high school career I realized that it would be necessary for me to learn how to do something that would pay off in dollars and cents when I graduated… Shortly after I started studying shorthand, I became fascinated by the subject. I experienced a thrill in the ability to write shorthand rapidly. It was something like playing a good game of tennis or being able to pitch a baseball across the plate… Within the first year I was writing at a speed of approximately 180 words a minute on regular matter out of the editorial page of the New York Times… I learned how to typewrite at the rate of about 100 words a minute or better. No employer was doing me a favor when he engaged me. I was so expert that I was a definite acquisition… I can think of no one subject – and I am now forty-two years of age – that has meant as much to whatever success I have enjoyed as the ability to write shorthand rapidly.”

Even though Rose had a spectacularly successful career, he is often remembered for being married to Fanny Brice (1891-1951), the celebrated comedienne and actress.

Typed on two 11″ x 8 1/2″ pages of “Billy Rose Enterprises” imprinted stationery. Item #A01569

Condition: Mailing fold lines, the pages had been stored in one of those ubiquitous “sticky” page photo albums and the glue from the page has migrated to the recto of the letter leaving light tidy stripes, otherwise very good condition with a large, bold signature.