?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(WOMEN'S HISTORY--BEAUTY.) Annie Turnbo Malone. Letter describing her company's retrenchment and a proposed new school in Atlanta. Typed Letter Signed as "Annie Malone" with long manuscript postscript, to Ella Ramsey of Atlanta, GA. 2 pages, 11 x 8½ inches; mailing folds, minor staining. Chicago, 11 May 1935
This letter was written at a time when Malone's Poro College hair-care empire was under threat from the Great Depression and a crippling divorce settlement. She writes to an Atlanta agent: "These days, I am writing letters more or less on the fly, so to speak, as I am shuttling back and forth between cities, with Chicago and St. Louis as a combination base, in an effort to re-vitalize the business." She discusses the vision needed for "the expansion of our business in Atlanta which is truly one of the most outstanding cities in the South. We recognize the potential value of having a school in that section and there is no questions but that it would be advantageous." She then addresses details: cost of rent, how many booths would be available, where to find qualified teachers. She hopes to visit Atlanta soon: "We're booked till July now. Just in from Kansas City, Sedalia, Columbia and Jefferson City, Missouri, leaving now for Memphis, Tenn." We trace no other Malone letters at auction.
