Arts and Artists

These two fan mail covers to Miss Katherine Hepburn in the mid 1930s predate the interesting Australian  connection in the title of this paper by two decades.  The first cover is addressed to her at Radio Pictures Studio, 780 Gower Street, Hollywood, California and the blue 3d Aboriginal stamp is cancelled VICTORIA ESTATE/ 14 OC 34/ QUEENSLAND (Figure 1). The second cover is addressed to her at R.K.O. Studios, Hollywood,

First Day Covers (F.D.C.) are not usually interesting to me, but these three (of more than ten covers by the same artist) were of interest on account of the water colour illustrations by a South Australian artist, that they range from 1948 until 1971, and they were all self-addressed. The first was postmarked KAROONDA/ 9A 15 NO 48/ STH.AUST. on the 2½d red Scout stamp, and was addressed to Mr

This postcard, with photo by Eden, Melb, probably shows Bert Bailey as a man of 39, and it has a ms. 16/8/07. I use ‘probably’ that this was ‘The Bert Bailey’ for it hardly resembles the picture of the man presented to Australians in his heyday, and the National Library of Australia had no other ‘out-of-character’ pictures, with which to compare it (Figure 1). The reverse shows it was published

This July 12 1852 entire to England ‘pr Andromache’ has the ‘Half-Length’ 3d blue QV stamp of Victoria [SG 7] with an illegible Barred Numeral, and it has a rating in black ink of ‘8′. It is addressed to E.M. Barrett who was of a family with a large land holding in Jamaica, and was a rum merchant, but more importantly the father of the English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Figure

A very ordinary cover, with no postal history value, has a pair of red 1½d KGV heads cancelled with an ADELAIDE/ 5 AM/16 JLY/1928/ SOUTH AUSTRALIA postmark (Figure 1). The addressee is Miss Dolores Costello, Warner Studios, Hollywood, California who was once known as the “Goddess of the Silent Screen”. She was born 17 September 1903 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Maurice and May Costello and she died 1 March 1977

The postcard had been produced from a photograph taken by W. Vincent Kelly of Bendigo, Victoria shows a demure Dolly Parsons as Phyllis in Iolanthe (Figure 1). The reverse has a red 1d ‘Shield’ stamp of N.S.W. postmarked with a Type 1D (i) DALTON/ DE 24/ 1906/ N.S.W and there was a transit Type 2 (i) of GUNNING/ 24 DE 1906/ N.S.W presumably prior to its onward journey to Narrandera on Christmas