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OLD 1927 TLS FROM HAROLD McCORMICK ABOUT GANNA WALSKA
Old TYPED LETTER SIGNED with heading of HARVESTER BUILDING Michigan Avenue and Harrison Street, Chicago & dated 12 May 1927 (full sheet folded to 5.5 x 8.5”). This letter is SIGNED in attractive blue ink by Harold McCormick of the International Harvester Trust. McCormick writes to Mrs. Aida Root of NYC about the Paris address of his opera singer wife, Madame Ganna Walska.
“Harold Fowler McCormick (1872–1941) was chairman of the board of International Harvester Company. McCormick was the youngest son of Cyrus McCormick, inventor and manufacturer of the mechanical reaper. McCormick graduated from Princeton University in 1895. Later that year on November 26, he married Edith Rockefeller, daughter of Standard Oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, in Chicago, Illinois.
In 1909, along with John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Frederick T. Gates, he became the third inaugural trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation, which was finally established in 1913. He became chairman of the board of International Harvester Company in 1935, replacing his older brother Cyrus McCormick, Jr. He was also a trustee of the Rockefeller-created University of Chicago.
After divorcing Edith, McCormick married opera singer Ganna Walska. McCormick ended up divorcing Ganna in 1931.
Orson Welles claimed that McCormick's lavish promotion of his second wife's opera career—despite her renown as a terrible singer—was a direct influence on the screenplay for Citizen Kane, wherein the titular character does much the same for his second wife.
An interesting letter in good condition (see scan) from the scion of the Chicago farm equipment company.
Price= $65.00
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