1927 Chicago & North Western Continental Limited Letterhead, Letter Signed by One of the Vaudevillian Kitaro Brothers
First, the stationery angle:
Nice linen-textured single sheet as shown in scan; includes envelope, which also bears the raised lettering "Continental Limited / Chicago & North Western Ry. / Union Pacific System". On the site streamlinermemories.info, someone wrote "The Continental Limited was the Union Pacific’s secondary train from Chicago to the Pacific Coast. . . by going to all three of Union Pacific’s coastal cities, with the Portland section splitting off at Green River, Wyoming and the San Francisco and Los Angeles sections splitting up in Ogden. . . [T]he Continental Limited isn’t in Wikipedia’s list of named passenger trains. I don’t see it in a 1910 Official Railway Guide, but it is listed in the 1921 guide with westbound trains numbered “Second No. 19 for Los Angeles,” “2d No. 19 for Portland,” and “2d No. 19-S for San Francisco.”
Second, the entertainment-memorabilia angle:
I have several other letters to the same recipient in Los Angeles; they are all from entertainment-industry types, like big-time radio producer Dorothy McCann and vaudevillian Pee Wee LeBeau. This letter is from one of "The Three Kitaros," a family troupe of "equilibrists" that (based on what I read in a number of contemporary articles on newspapers.com) performed dazzling feats of juggling and balancing; they toured the U.S. for a couple of decades, it seems. The other piece is a screen grab from an online archive of a 1927 news article that mentions the writer of the letter. I am also posting here on Flickr next to this in my photostream a letter from another Kitaro brother, whose ailing wife was evidently left in the care of the recipient in L.A. As you can see from the manuscript letter, it was written on the train, with a final destination of the Orpheum Theatre in Denver, Colorado.
Third, the postal history angle:
Apart from the cool railroad cover, it bears a February 4, 1927, duplex postmark; it has CHEYENNE, WYO TERM[inal] R.P.O. circular date stamp and an RMS (Railway Mail Service) killer.
1927 Chicago & North Western Continental Limited Letterhead, Letter Signed by One of the Vaudevillian Kitaro Brothers
First, the stationery angle:
Nice linen-textured single sheet as shown in scan; includes envelope, which also bears the raised lettering "Continental Limited / Chicago & North Western Ry. / Union Pacific System". On the site streamlinermemories.info, someone wrote "The Continental Limited was the Union Pacific’s secondary train from Chicago to the Pacific Coast. . . by going to all three of Union Pacific’s coastal cities, with the Portland section splitting off at Green River, Wyoming and the San Francisco and Los Angeles sections splitting up in Ogden. . . [T]he Continental Limited isn’t in Wikipedia’s list of named passenger trains. I don’t see it in a 1910 Official Railway Guide, but it is listed in the 1921 guide with westbound trains numbered “Second No. 19 for Los Angeles,” “2d No. 19 for Portland,” and “2d No. 19-S for San Francisco.”
Second, the entertainment-memorabilia angle:
I have several other letters to the same recipient in Los Angeles; they are all from entertainment-industry types, like big-time radio producer Dorothy McCann and vaudevillian Pee Wee LeBeau. This letter is from one of "The Three Kitaros," a family troupe of "equilibrists" that (based on what I read in a number of contemporary articles on newspapers.com) performed dazzling feats of juggling and balancing; they toured the U.S. for a couple of decades, it seems. The other piece is a screen grab from an online archive of a 1927 news article that mentions the writer of the letter. I am also posting here on Flickr next to this in my photostream a letter from another Kitaro brother, whose ailing wife was evidently left in the care of the recipient in L.A. As you can see from the manuscript letter, it was written on the train, with a final destination of the Orpheum Theatre in Denver, Colorado.
Third, the postal history angle:
Apart from the cool railroad cover, it bears a February 4, 1927, duplex postmark; it has CHEYENNE, WYO TERM[inal] R.P.O. circular date stamp and an RMS (Railway Mail Service) killer.