Photo: Bettmann Archive
A letterMarlon Brandoonce wrote to a French dancer and actress with whom he appeared to be romantically involved is up for auction.
“He told me, ‘Why don’t you come each night so that I will be with someone to have supper after the performance?’ " Podell toldThe Timesin 2014.
Brando began spending time with Podell and her mother in New York City and even gave Podell money so she and her mother could move out of a hotel and into an apartment during their stay in the city, according to the outlet.
Courtesy RR Auction
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The letter shows Brando eventually pulled out of the relationship; he wrote that his emotions were “unfortunately unstable” at the time.
“Please accept this letter with an open heart as it is written with fourthright [sic] sincerity,” the futureGodfatherstar wrote in the letter, per RR Auction.
“I’m sorry I could not have tried harder to be less self indulgent and therewith, a little more compatable [sic],” he continued. “My intuitions were flawlessly scroupulous [sic], but my emotions, unfortunately, unstable. I will remember you with fondness, regard, and appreciation.”
“When we meet in France (perhaps in October) I trust my behavior will be a trifle more adult,” the actor added as he finished his message. In a postscript, Brando asks Podell to “please give my kind acknowledgements to your mother, if she’ll accept them.”
Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
Podell, who died in 2020, eventually worked as a photographer in Monaco, according to RR Auctions. Despite her and Brando’s apparent relationship, the actor did not mention Podell in his 1994 memoirSongs My Mother Taught Me, where he did recall “there would be seven or eight girls waiting in my dressing room” after each show during his time on Broadway, perThe Times.
The auction for the letter ends on Wednesday. Ten bids have been placed so far, with the highest bid at $3,390, according to the listing on RR Auction’s website. The auction house’s website indicates Brando’s letter is ultimately expected to sell for over $15,000.
Brandodied in 2004at age 80. In 2022,Rita Moreno, who dated Brando for nearly eight years after they met in the early ’50s,described the actoras “a bad guy when it came to women.”
source: people.com
