Typed cover letter from “Frank Zappa” to “All Journalists Concerned with 200 Motels,” one page, 8.5 x 11, no date (circa 1971), signed at the conclusion in black ink, “F. Zappa.” The letter reads, in full: “We are proud to announce the release of an unusual film called 200 MOTELS. So that you and your readers do not misconstrue its intent, and to provide a few clues to the film’s somewhat mysterious continuity, I have taken the time to answer some hypothetical questions and describe from a personal point of view the development of the project. I hope this will prove useful to you, and that it will save me the trouble in personal interviews of endlessly re-phrasing and regurgitating the same data.” Stapled to the letter is the 7-page press release of which Zappa mentions; it contains a discography for The Mothers, a Zappa biography, and a sequence of notional questions and answers related to 200 Motels, which Zappa describes as a “SURREALISTIC DOCUMENTARY” that deals with “Groupies, Life on the Road, Relationship to Audience, Group Personality-Chemistry, Macrobiotic Food & Tie-Die Shirts, Etc.” One of the final questions asks: “What’s Ringo Starr doing in a Mothers movie?” Zappa’s response: “I asked him to play the role of Larry The Dwarf. He accepted because he said he was getting ‘…a bit browned-off’ with his good-guy image.” In fine condition.
Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from Recordmecca's Jeff Gold, who notes that this "came from the estate of his longtime manager, Herb Cohen."
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