I wrote a letter to this forum's admin begging for used equipment. I included a stupid-simple marinara recipe I learned from a Bolognese chef.

That's my fan letter story.

When I was a kid I wrote to the following:

Magic Johnson
Motley Crue
Magic Johnson
Poison
Magic Johnson
Kiss
Magic Johnson
Bon Jovi
Magic Johnson

Magic never fucking responded that prick. All the bands sent the dumb fan club membership things.

We used to do this thing where you'd write to a basketball player and send them two of their recent trading cards and a SASE. One of the cards was for them to keep and the other they would sign and return. Michael Jordon and David Robinson both signed cards and sent them back. Magic didn't.

Oh yeah, I wrote to Colossamite once too when I was living in South Dakota. Ed Rodriguez responded with a friendly letter, a tape of Economy of Motion (before it was released) and a tape of some unreleased Gorge Trio stuff.

I wrote to Electric Frankenstein when I was 14 and told them I wanted to make a zine and interview them for it. I didn't think I'd get a response, but a few weeks later I got a phone call from Sal and I interviewed him. It was very fun for me. I don't know why I was so into EF at 14, but they were my favorite thing ever at the time. He also sent me two t-shirts, their new album, a poster and a single. I printed the zine, but it was pretty shabby. But that EF interview ended up going in the now-defunct Hand Carved Magazine.

In 1980 I planned to write a fan letter to my single favorite player on each of the 26 Major League Baseball teams at the time. The book which had the teams' addresses listed them in alphabetical order, so I started with Baltimore and Boston. My plan was to write to two players at a time and, when they replied (not if, in my naivete) I would write to the players on the next two teams. I started with Ken Singleton of the Baltimore Orioles and, my favorite player at that time, Jim Rice of the Boston Red Sox. Ken Singleton sent back an autographed, color photo of himself. Still to this day, Jim Rice has not written me back.

I was a simple kid and Ken Singleton became my new favorite player... until I saw Otis Nixon play in the minor leagues, but that's another story.

j_harvey wrote:To this day I still have a bad opinion of Berwyn because of him...and I've never been there.

BERWYN!???!?!?!?!??!?!?!?

j_harvey wrote: To this day I still have a bad opinion of Berwyn because of him...and I've never been there.

Berwyn? They impale cars there.

back just before this whole internet thing caught on, i wrote chris ware asking him to illustrate one of the first couple dianogah singles (c.1995). i got a really nice postcard with drawings back, politely saying no.

now that i think of it, we should have just used that postcard as the cover.

Not the same as writing a fan letter, but eight or so years ago my girlfriend at the time wrote to about 50 people asking them to send me something for my birthday. I didn't know she had done this until I got a nice inscribed photo from Elmore Leonard, a three-paragraph note from Buck Henry, a note of congratulations and motivation from Dr. Dre (on the Aftermath Records letterhead), an apologetically tardy card from Blossom Dearie (the following spring), and others, about once a week for a good three or four months.

Flaneur wrote:Not the same as writing a fan letter, but eight or so years ago my girlfriend at the time wrote to about 50 people asking them to send me something for my birthday. I didn't know she had done this until I got a nice inscribed photo from Elmore Leonard, a three-paragraph note from Buck Henry, a note of congratulations and motivation from Dr. Dre (on the Aftermath Records letterhead), an apologetically tardy card from Blossom Dearie (the following spring), and others, about once a week for a good three or four months.

That's a great idea, and an awesome story!
I have e-mailed a few of my artistic heroes in my time. In 1995 I mailed comic artist Evan Dorkin, who draws 'Milk & Cheese', asking if he was ever going to come over to the UK. I didn't know, at the time, about his intense phobia of flying. I got a really nice reply back, which I printed out and filed with my Dorkin comics.
Last year I e-mailed Mike Keneally to try and arrange a phone interview for my radio show. He was unable to do this as he was touring at the time, but he sent a courteous and apologetic reply. I responded by asking him to recommend some good albums by Gentle Giant. He obliged and I subsequently bought 'Three Friends' and 'Octopus'.

I didn't know anyone else who had even heard of Gentle Giant, so it seemed like a reasonable question. I hope to interview MK next year for the second series of my show.

(Funny coincidence - my brother has played piano and keyboards on a few Keneally records. Him being my older brother meant tagging along to record stores when I was a kid while he looked for Gentle Giant LPs.)