Letter from William S. Hart Estate re: Divorce and Unborn Baby (1922)
Item #025134
One of the great divorce scandals in the early 1920's following that of Chaplain, Fairbanks, and Pickford was this between Winifred (Westover) Hart and her husband, William S. Hart, the legendary cowboy of the early silents. In the Washington Times of September 3, 1922 on page 5, there is a eight column story of the divorce, the charge of extreme cruelty, and the fact of the unborn child. In this letter signed by Amanda Truett of 6th Kingsley Drive, Los Angeles, she states her outrage in a four page autographed letter: "A surprise spectacle that you now present to the people who once admired you....do you realize what you have done in separating from the woman who is soon to become the mother of your child? You have rendered her unhappy and wretched at the time of all times...so that your child that she was to bring forth should not be stained and marked....a man that is any kind of a man worthy of the name will have some respect for his offspring. Charley Chaplin stood by his wife so long as there was a baby in question...Think not your money will leave you above the reproach and contempt you so richly deserve. As a cowboy it may pass by unnoticed but not as a man….. No longer are you a hero. [but instead] an unmanly bluffer." The original envelope is addressed to William Hart (Bill Hart, actor. Postmarked August 10, 1922. In pencil across the face of the envelope are the words "bad". The collection also contains a bill from the Irwin's Drug Store of Santa Monica and is dated Sept. 10, 1922 to Mrs. Wm. Hart, 307 Washington St. Santa Monica. {note: the child, William S. Hart, Jr. was born September 6, 1922). Somehow this envelope and its contents ended up in Bainbridge Washington in the estate of William S. Hart Jr, who died in 2004. It would seem that the mother kept this information as proof that she had been wronged by the fabled actor. A fuller picture can be seen by accessing LOC online and searching the article in the Washington Times.
Price: $150.00