A Letter To David..

-

During his lifetime David Cassidy got..how many letters?..a million? 2 or 3 million.. More? When one of the teen mags in the autumn of 1970 wrote that DC shopped at the Canyon Country Store, thousands of letters were sent there. Letters for David. I even once (in May) wrote a short story about it, maybe a little bit naive..

https://talkingaboutdavid.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-escape.html

At the height of his fame he received 20,000 to 30,000 letters a week. It's difficult to imagine. In the early 70s. each  girl first had to choose a nice stationary, (like Petra in Allison Pearson's book, who'd thought  that DC's favourite colour was brown, so she sent him a letter in a brown envelope),  think about the content, write carefully, get a stamp and at last post it. A labour of love.. 

And later  they were waiting..for an answer from David. 

DC :' So many of the fans actually seemed to expect me to write back to them personally.(..) One fan wrote - ' I hope my letters have been getting to you. I'm just wondering because I haven't gotten any back from you. If you think I have a boyfriend, I don't..'..In another part of his autobiography he wrote :''The Laufer Company, which was licenced to handle my fan mail recorded the names and adresses of everyone who wrote to me so they could be added to their mailing lists. And the mail disappeared. I never saw any of it..' (David Cassidy : Could It Be Forever?, 2007)

Fans wrote about their love for him, about their problems, at school and at home, they asked for his pics, sent poems wrote for him ,  presents, for David, for his family, for his animals. Here is DC receiving letters and gifts from his British fans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxJq6BJguZ4&t=22s

It was a huge business, teen mags were portraying a very squeaky-clean image of David, and he hated it. A lot of people worked very hard writing those articles, and also letters from David. Like those talking records with 'Words of Love'. Of course he could change something, but someone else wrote the script first. It was another acting task for him. I know that even now a lot of fans believe he wrote some articles himself, for example those letters from  the column called 'David's Personal Letter To You' which appeared in 'The Official David Cassidy Magazine'..

Of course David cared for his fans and he signed a lot of his photos. And he personalised every autograph, not just signed his name. He knew how much it meant to fans, he liked to connect with the person, he really cared..

When DC had his own website he wrote letters to his fans himself. On November 12, 1998 a scan of a hand written message appeared on the DC's website..

http://www.davidcassidy.com/fansite/InPrintPages/Letter1998.pdf

And later David wrote to his fans from time to time about his new music, concerts, plans, sending words of love and best wishes for Christmas, and  words of support, he shared with fans his pain after September 11, or Katrina's disaster or London's bombing in 2005. Of course fans kept sending him letters too..And there is a very special page on the DC Official Website. A page for fans who wrote birthday greetings for David's  67st birthday, nearly 1000 of them..

I never wrote a letter to David Cassidy. For many different reasons ..I have no idea if I would have written him a letter if I had a chance in the 70s or later..I don't think so...But I think I will write now, on November 21st ..I even know how this letter will start..

'Dearest David,..'







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Robyn Millan

-
Image
  I learnt yesterday that Robyn Millan died last year. Someone published a post about the TPF's episode where she'd appeared as a guest star, 'Dora, Dora, Dora', Season 2 episode 1, aired 50 years ago, on September 17, 1971..And there was a comment about that episode that the script was poorly written, sexist etc. Maybe, no one would dare write something like that now, but the world looked different half a century ago..And I really felt sad yesterday because of Robyn. She started her short career in 1965, 33 credits, mostly tv roles - Mission:Impossible, The F.B.I, Hawaii 5.0, Ryan's Hope..But we would remember her as Dora, the girl Keith fell in love with, and Robyn, the girl David dated for a while.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmZnk9RFKm0&t=1s  In December 1971 on Photoplay Magazine an interview with Robyn was published :' He is just marvellous and really knows how to handle his success.(..) We hit it off from that first day six months ago.(..) I resp...
Read more

Love Is All That I Ever Needed. A David Cassidy Biography. Chapter 1

-
Image
  Chapter 1 The Divorce David Bruce Cassidy was born on April 12, 1950 in New York City. He was born into show business, it was running in his blood. His parents were young and glamorous working actors. Jack Cassidy was 23 years old, Evelyn Ward 3 years older, both very busy with their career, frequently touring and absent. David spent his early years with his maternal grandparents in West Orange, New Jersey, just 20 miles from New York. He felt he was different from other kids, didn’t exactly fit in, his school friends’ parents didn’t look like his, they had ordinary jobs, like his grandfather, Frederic Ward, who all his life worked as a utility meter reader. David was a small child, slightly built, and had to wear glasses. During his life he underwent 5 eye operations. It wasn't easy to be the youngest, and not to have a brother or a sister. Someone to fight with, but also to play with, and to share love, good and bad experiences. He was a lonely child, brought up by honest,...
Read more

'He Was So Pretty You Couldn't Look Away..'

-
Image
'and sexy in a way that is timeless.' It's from Kevin Fallon's article published on www.thedailybeast.com on November  22, 2017.  Maybe it's not the smartest thing to do, but the newest article about David Cassidy on Record Collector Magazine, and first of all different pointsview of it, made me have a look on some articles published after this horrible day,  November 21, 2017. But first a song. We experience another heat wave here in Poland, I haven't seen a rain in many days, which is scary, so maybe a song about a rainy day. We miss David on any day, and this is one of his best songs. And amazing, very moving tribute video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ6qjfK72L8 We have 42 web articles from November and December 2017, on the website, and I can't see Kevin Fallon's on the list, even that I'm sure I sent it Jane last year, because this is not the first time I'm writing about this article. I'm a former librarian, I believe everything sho...
Read more