[Letterhead: Mike Douglas]

As someone whose business is asking questions, I know that it’s refreshing when a new one comes along. I mean I have been asked more than a few times who my favorite cohost has been, and that’s always a tough one because over the past 18 years there have been many.

This matter of my most memorable letter, though, is something else. I’m intrigued by the question. We are talking about thousands of letters having to do with my personal life and my career - notes from family and friends, fan mail I have written to especially gracious guests and have been lucky enough to receive from kind viewers, letters saying I got the job.

There have been a lot and yet one stands out. It came - back in the ‘40s - from William F. Purnell of Oklahoma City, whose daughter Genevive I had married in 1942 and, thank God, I am still married to these 36 years later. Dad Purnell, a truly fine gentleman, had loaned me $500 I needed to buy a car and I had said I would repay him $100 a month. Which I did. THat prompted him to write a letter that went well beyond thanking me for being a man of my word. Dad Purnell beautifully expressed his acceptance of - more than that, love for - the struggling young singer from Chicago who married his teenage daughter during the uncertainties of a World War. Because of my great love for Gen, nothing could have been more important to me than getting her family’s stamp of approval. We had a wonderful relationship right up to Dad Purnell’s death last year at the age of 97 and it continues to this day with Gen’s Mom.

Thanks for asking me. I think I’ll try out the question on some of my guests and, if the responses are good, yours may turn out to be the second most memorable letter I’ve received.

Best wishes, [handwritten: “Mike Douglas”] Mike Douglas

[envelope - back]

Mike Douglas 7800 Beverly Boulevard Los Angeles, California 90036

[stamp in black ink, horizontal lines] [stamp in red ink: “H5”]