Fan Mail

This is the last known address for those who want to send a greeting to Deanna Durbin:

Deanna Durbin
B.P. 3315
Cedex 03
Paris 75123
France



Please keep in mind that Deanna Durbin re-retired soon after the death of Charles David back in 1999. Because of the tremendous resurgence of Deanna's popularity, the volume of mail she is getting is way too much for her to handle, so at the strong urging of her family, she has stopped answering much of her fan mail. It was a difficult decision Deanna had to make because she loves her fans and she knows that her fans love her, too. As you can imagine at Deanna's age, it's not easy to do the many things she would like to do which sadly includes opening and answering her huge amount of fan mail.

Deanna got plenty of mail (9000 each week) when she was at the height of her career.



And in the 21st century, Deanna's fans haven't forgotten her!!!

Deanna has fan mail sent to her from all over the world and she still gets gifts like she did in the 1930s and 1940s.

In those days, Deanna would receive things like watches, jewels, rare stamps, and gadgets by the hundred. When Deanna was still living with her parents, they had a room packed with all the gifts, but were running out of space. Ada thought about renting a warehouse because Deanna was reluctant to throw anything away!

Some of the other gifts included one from a miner who sent a five pointed star fashioned from a gilded hollow frame filled with concrete set with scores of ore samples grouped about a picture of Deanna. The "trinket" weighed 50 pounds!

A 16-year-old Hungarian boy sent a drink canteen covered with genuine calf skin and native beadwork.

Someone sent a plaque made of real mahogany about 15" x 24" x 3" thick surrounded by a hammered brass frame. Meticulously carved on the wood was a picture of Deanna in a singing pose. A real gold chain and cross was attached, as though encircling her neck. On the bottom of the brass frame was a copper plate etched with scrolls of music, and in the middle of that was a tiny gold book. By lifting the cover, a music box inside started to play a tune!!!

And there was the requests for money letters that all stars get like the following example:

"Dear Miss Durbin, please send me $500 at once so I can pay my bills and won't have to mortgage the old homestead.''

Another fan mailed Deanna a beautiful Cecil Brunner Sweetheart Rose EVERYDAY for about 5 months!

Everyday Deanna would receive pictures of herself either painted, drawn, or etched. One picture had to be seen to be believed. It was a picture of a fully rigged ship complete with waves and blended sky tones. But the amazing part was that there wasn't a single line in the whole picture. It was done, instead, with almost microscopic printing with the name "Deanna Durbin" about 12,000 times!

Deanna Durbin receives a load of fan mail:

Deanna Durbin autographing photos for her fans:

The huge amount of fan mail just kept on coming:



Kathleen Ehlen was the lady in charge of Fan Mail at Universal Studios.

The record for the longest fan letter to Deanna Durbin goes to a young man from Massachusetts. It was 89 pages long and took weeks to write!!

A Deanna Durbin fan recently commented on the Internet that in 2007 he wrote a letter to Deanna and actually received a reply written on her own PERSONAL stationery. Now that's amazing considering that Deanna receives a huge amount of mail and that at her age she is re-retired.

This is part of the comment:

"I wrote and received a very sweet note from Deanna last year. I told her how her fandom was even greater now than before. She thanked me and said she was very happy living outside of Paris, as she has for nearly 50 years. She said she was thrilled that she was still remembered after all these years."

Deanna Durbin wrote this letter to a fan:

This is a 1995 letter that Deanna wrote to a fan: