Correspondence, 1932 - 1984

Subseries 4.1 comprises letters, telegrams and mailgrams, invitations, and greeting cards primarily to or from Count, Catherine, and Diane Basie. Included in Count Basie’s correspondence is a telegram from Duke Ellington congratulating Count Basie on his 20th anniversary as a bandleader, a letter from Nancy Sinatra asking for a few words about “Daddy,” a note on Frank Sinatra’s personal stationary that reads “Swing, you Mother” and is signed “Blue Eyes,” and a 1983 birthday card signed by the members of the Count Basie Orchestra, as well as correspondence from Sammy Davis, Jr., Jesse Jackson, Bob Hope, Billy Eckstine, Jimmy McHugh, Norman Granz, Stan Kenton, Ella Fitzgerald, Earl Hines, and Joe and Martha Louis. Of special note are the telegrams, letters, and greeting cards Count Basie sent from the road to Catherine and Diane.

Catherine Basie’s correspondence concerns mostly her work with local and national civic and charitable organizations. Correspondents include Jackie Robinson, Adam Clayton Powell, Robert F. Wagner, Lyndon Johnson, Nelson Rockefeller, Thurgood Marshall, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Joe Williams. Of particular interest are notes written by Louis Armstrong on the back of “Lose Weight, the Satchmo Way!” flyers. Catherine Basie’s early career is documented by a 1932 telegram from Mabel Whitman of the Whitman Sisters vaudeville act and telegrams from 1942 discussing the possibility of her making moving pictures. In addition, the series contains numerous greeting cards from friends and the Basie extended family, which includes the “adopted children” Lamont Gilmore, Rosemary Matthews, and Aaron Woodward III, as well as Diane Basie’s longtime nurse, Dee Dee Williams.

Subseries 4.2 consists of business cards, Rolodex cards, 3 by 5 index cards, envelopes, handwritten notes, an address book, and address scraps torn from envelopes and letterhead stationery. The bulk of the series is undated. Significant items include a change-of-address scrap for “Miss Peggy Lee;” business card of Dennis E. Wilson, trombonist and arranger, on the reverse of which is written the address for “Ella” (Fitzgerald); two 3 by 5 index address cards for Henry Ford II (Ford Motor Company) and George C. Utendahl (P. Ballantine and Sons) with “SUGAR DADDY” typed in the upper right corner; and a handwritten note with the addresses of “Mrs. Leonard Bernstein” and “Mrs. Guggenheim” on Park Avenue in New York City.