Sirs:

A couple of years ago [July 7, 1941] one of your reporters did an article on yours truly that burned me no end. It flattered me in reverse as only time usually does. After looking at the cover and reading the article of the Sept. 20 issue am convinced that TIME has turned sissy … Thanks.

Bob Hope, Hollywood

October 11, 1943

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: 

In her observations on the creative Coalition’s effort in Massachusetts on behalf of campaign-finance reform [AMERICAN SCENE, Nov. 10], Tamala M. Edwards drew only a partial picture and overemphasized the impact of celebrity. Edwards failed to state that for all the autograph seekers who appeared, many more Massachusetts residents listened thoughtfully to the Creative Coalition’s presentation of the important points of the issue. They listened, and they signed our petitions. The Creative Coalition, joined by several other New York-based organizations, exceeded its most ambitious projections by gathering more than 8,000 signatures in one day. A clean-elections law has moved closer to becoming a reality in the Bay State, and the Creative Coalition is pleased to be a part of that process.

- Alec Baldwin, President, The Creative Coalition, NEW YORK CITY

Sirs:

I appreciate greatly that not once was the word obscene mentioned in your article. Epithet too easily used which assailed unanimously the appearance of “interpretation of dreams” by Freud, psychologic document which is and always will remain in spite of all the most important and sensational of our epoch.

Salvador Dali, CARMEL, CALIF. 

Find more vintage letters over at TIME Ideas. 

Sir:

It has come to my attention that in your Current & Choice section, Lauren Bacall has consistently been left out of the cast of Key Largo.

Inasmuch as there are those of us in Hollywood, Miss Bacall among them, who would rather make Current & Choice than win an Academy Award or make Men of Distinction, won’t you please include her in the cast of Key Largo in Current & Choice just once, as she is my wife and I have to live with her. Miss Bacall is extremely tired of being labeled et al.

Humphrey Bogart, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF.

(Note: We’ll be featuring more letters over at our new opinion site, TIME Ideas. We’ll see you there.)