The Fords Theater Owner Discusses The Entertainment Business: I Will Certainly Press Her Engagement With Great Vigor And Endeavor Successfully To Make Her A Permanent Star Favorite In The Two Cities

ALS. 2pg. 5 x 8. Sunday. No Place. A rare autograph letter signed J.T. Ford to Mr. Wright, discussing theater business: Your anticipated and promised letter did not arrive. Respecting Mrs. Bowers engagement, I will give her the terms for time in January and Feb. which will be in the least profitable part of the Season. I will certainly press her engagement with great vigor and endeavor successfully to make her a permanent Star favorite in the two cities. With this much understood leave from her if she accepts my offer I will locate the precise day of the commencement in reply after I hear positively from her. Mr. Tayleune has written a most admirable new version of East Lyme and is now engaged on some other dramatizations which I think will be very popular. Mrs. B. have them to read at an early period. Write me immediately. It is likely this was written to John B. Wright, the stage manager at the Ford Theater when Lincoln was shot. Ford was discussing an appearance by Elizabeth Crocker Bowers (1830-1895), a popular American actress in the mid-Nineteenth Century. Other than a paper clip impression on the top margin, the letter is in fine condition and has a bold signature in black ink.