AUTOGRAPHS
	These Autographs were collected by my Father over his lifetime! Stowe Vintage will feature Autographs of Hollywood Stars, Political Autographs, President's Autographs, Sports Autographs, Military Autographs, Entertainment Autographs, Authors Autographs, Historical Autographs, and More! Contact us at 802-253-7000 or stowevintage@pshift.com

Humphrey Bogart Autographed Photo

Humphrey DeForest Bogart (December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957) was an American actor. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Bogart the Greatest Male Star of All Time. Playing primarily smart, playful and reckless characters anchored by an inner moral code while surrounded by a corrupt world, Bogart's most notable films include The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), To Have and Have Not (1944), Key Largo (1948), The African Queen (1951) (for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor), The Caine Mutiny (1954), and The Left Hand of God (1955). Altogether, he appeared in 75 feature motion pictures. Though he started his career as Broadway stage player and B-movie actor during the 1920s and 1930s, Bogart's later accomplishments have made him a worldwide icon. French actors, such as Jean-Paul Belmondo, were deeply influenced by his work and image. India’s great national movie star, Ashok Kumar, listed Bogart as a major influence on his "natural" acting style. In the United States, Bogart is remembered in one of Woody Allen’s comic movies, Play It Again, Sam, which relates the story of a young man obsessed by his persona. In 1997, the United States Postal Service featured Bogart in its "Legends of Hollywood" series, and Entertainment Weekly magazine has named Bogart the number one movie legend of all time. Bogart was a founding member of the Rat Pack. During the spring of 1955, after a long party in Las Vegas with Frank Sinatra, Mike and Gloria Romanoff, Angie Dickinson and others, "Lauren Bacall surveyed the wreckage of the party" and declared, "You look like a god damn rat pack." Romanoff's in Beverly Hills was where the Rat Pack became "official". "Sinatra was named Pack Leader. Betty [Bacall] was named Den Mother, Bogie was Director of Public Relations, and Sid Luft was Acting Cage Manager." When asked by columnist Earl Wilson what the purpose of the group was, Bacall responded "to drink a lot of bourbon and stay up late." Even so, the Rat Pack under Bogart's presidency was pretty civilized compared to what it became later. Bogart actually got away with telling Sinatra that he had an immature attitude towards women.

Original Humphrey Bogart Autographed Photo. It has been signed: With every good wish. Humphrey Bogart Great Autographed Photo of Humphrey Bogart (push pin holes in each corner - tacked up at some point). 8 x 10 black and white photo. Regular Price - $ 8500.00 Sale Price - $ 7499.00

Bill Robinson Autographed Photo

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949) was a pioneer and pre-eminent African-American tap dance performer. Born in Richmond, Virginia on May 25, 1878, to Maxwell Robinson, a machine-shop worker, and Maria Robinson, a choir singer, Bill Robinson was brought up by his grandmother after the death of his parents when he was still a baby. He was Christened "Luther" - a name he did not like, so he suggested to his younger brother Bill that they should exchange names. When Bill objected, Luther applied his fists, and the exchange was made! (The new 'Luther' later adopted the name Percy and became a well-known drummer.) The details of Robinson's early life are known only through legend, much of it perpetuated by Bill Robinson himself. At the age of 6 he began dancing for a living, appearing as a "hoofer," or song-and-dance man, in local beer gardens. At age 7, Bill dropped out of school to pursue dancing. Two years later in Washington, DC, he toured with Mayme Remington's troupe. In 1891 (Ed: another source-1892), at the ripe age of 12, he joined a traveling company in The South Before the War, and in 1905 (Ed: another source 1902) worked with George Cooper as a vaudeville team. He gained great success as a nightclub and musical comedy performer, and during the next 25 years became one of the toasts of Broadway. Not until he was 50 did he dance for white audiences, having devoted his early career exclusively to appearances on the black theater circuit. In 1908 in Chicago he met Marty Forkins, who became his lifelong manager. Under Forkins' tutelage, Robinson matured and began working as a solo act in nightclubs, increasing his earnings to an estimated $3500 per week. The publicity that gradually came to surround him included the creation of his famous "stair dance" (which he claimed to have invented on the spur of the moment when he was receiving some honor--he could never remember exactly what-- from the King of England. The King was standing at the top of a flight of stairs, and Bojangles' feet just danced up to be honored), his successful gambling exploits, his bow ties of multiple colors, his prodigious charity, his ability to run backward (he set a world's record of 8.2 seconds for the 75-yard backward dash) and to consume ice-cream by the quart, his argot--most notably the neologism copacetic--and such stunts as dancing down Broadway in 1939 from Columbus Circle to 44th St. in celebration of his 61st birthday

Original Bill Robinson "Bojangles" Autographed Photo. Written on the photo is: To - Frank Tricker with very best wishes Bill Robinson. Dated 1933. (Frank Tricker was my father). 8 x 10 black and white photo. Price - $ 6000.00

Rudy Vallee Autographed Photo

Rudy Vallée (July 28, 1901 - July 3, 1986) was a popular American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer. Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, he grew up in Westbrook, Maine. In high school, he took up the saxophone and acquired the nickname "Rudy" after then famous saxophonist Rudy Wiedoeft. Having played drums in his high school band, Vallee played clarinet and saxophone in various bands around New England in his youth. In 1917, he felt that Uncle Sam needed one more brave young man in World War I, but was discharged when the Navy authorities found out that he was only 15. He enlisted in Portland, Maine on March 29, 1917, under the false birthdate of July 28, 1899. He was discharged at the Naval Training Station, Newport, Rhode Island, on May 17, 1917 with 41 days of active service (source: Maine Military Men, 1917-1918 (database online). This database was abstracted from "Roster of Maine in the Military Service of the U.S. and Allies in the World War, 1917-1919." Vol I-II. Augusta, ME, U.S.A., n.p., 1929]). From 1924 through 1925, he played with the "Savoy Havana Band" in London. He then returned to the States to obtain a degree in Philosophy from Yale and to form his own band, "Rudy Vallee and the Connecticut Yankees." With this band, which featured two violins, two saxophones, a piano, a banjo and drums, he started taking vocals (supposedly reluctantly at first). He had a rather thin, wavering tenor voice and seemed more at home singing sweet ballads than attempting vocals on jazz numbers. However, his singing, together with his suave manner and handsome boyish looks, attracted great attention, especially from young women. Vallee was given a recording contract and in 1928, he started performing on the radio. Vallee became the most prominent and, arguably, the first of a new style of popular singer, the crooner. Previously, popular singers needed strong projecting voices to fill theaters in the days before the electric microphone. Crooners had soft voices that were well suited to the intimacy of the new medium of radio. Vallee's trombone-like vocal phrasing on "Deep Night" would inspire later crooners such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Perry Como to model their voice on jazz instruments. Vallee also became what was perhaps the first complete example of the 20th century mass media pop star. Flappers (the predecessors of "bobby soxers"), mobbed him wherever he went. His live appearances were usually sold out, and even if his singing could hardly be heard in those venues not yet equipped with the new electronic microphones, his screaming female fans went home happy if they had caught sight of his lips through the opening of the trademark megaphone he sang through.

Original Rudy Vallee Autographed Photo, Approx. Size 7 3/4 x 9 1/2, black and white photo. Signed Rudy Vallee in ink. Regular Price - $ 800.00 / Sale Price - $ 649.00

Amos 'n' Andy Autograph

Amos 'n' Andy was a situation comedy popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s. The show began as one of the first radio comedy serials, written and voiced by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll and originating from station WMAQ in Chicago, Illinois. After the series was first broadcast in 1928, it grew in popularity and became a huge influence on the radio serials that followed. Amos 'n' Andy creators Gosden and Correll were white actors familiar with minstrel traditions. They met in Durham, North Carolina in 1920, and by the fall of 1925, they were performing nightly song-and-patter routines on the Chicago Tribune's station WGN. Since the Tribune syndicated Sidney Smith's popular comic strip The Gumps, which had successfully introduced the concept of daily continuity, WGN executive Ben McCanna thought the notion of a serialized drama could also work on radio. He suggested to Gosden and Correll that they adapt The Gumps to radio. They instead proposed a series about "a couple of colored characters" and borrowed certain elements of The Gumps. Their new series, Sam 'n' Henry, began January 12, 1926, fascinating radio listeners throughout the Midwest. That series became popular enough that in late 1927 Gosden and Correll requested that it be distributed to other stations on phonograph records in a "chainless chain" concept that would have been the first use of radio syndication as we know it today. When WGN rejected the idea, Gosden and Correll quit the show and the station that December. Contractually, their characters belonged to WGN, so when Gosden and Correll left WGN, they performed in personal appearances but could not use the character names from the radio show. When WMAQ, the Chicago Daily News station, hired the team and their WGN announcer, Bill Hay, to create a series similar to Sam 'n' Henry, they offered higher salaries than WGN and the rights to pursue the "chainless chain" syndication concept. Amos 'n' Andy began March 19, 1928, on WMAQ, and prior to airing each program they recorded their show on 78 rpm disks at Marsh Laboratories, Orlando R. Marsh, owner. Initially, Gosden and Correll portrayed all the male roles. Between the two, they voiced over 170 distinct characterizations in the show's first decade. With the episodic drama and suspense heightened by cliffhanger endings, Amos 'n' Andy reached an ever-expanding radio audience. It was one of the earliest success stories of radio syndication, and at least 70 stations besides WMAQ carried the program using prerecorded records.

Original Amos 'n' Andy Autograph, Signed on Cut Paper. Regular Price - $ 1899.99 / Sale Price - $ 1495.00

Bing Crosby Autographed Photo

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer and actor whose career lasted from 1926 until his death in 1977. One of the first multi-media stars, from 1934 to 1954 Bing Crosby held a nearly unrivaled command of record sales, radio ratings and motion picture grosses. He is usually considered to be among the most popular musical acts in history and is currently the most electronically recorded human voice in history. Crosby is also credited as being the major inspiration for most of the male singers that followed him, including Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Dean Martin. Yank magazine recognized Crosby as the person who had done the most for American GI morale during World War II and, during his peak years, around 1948, polls declared him the "most admired man alive" ahead of Jackie Robinson and the Pope Also during 1948, the Music Digest estimated that Crosby recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music. Crosby also exerted a massive influence on the development of the postwar recording industry. In 1947 he invested US$50,000 in the Ampex company, which developed the world's first commercial reel-to-reel tape recorder, and Crosby became the first performer in the world to prerecord his radio shows and master his commercial recordings on magnetic tape. He gave one of the first Ampex Model 200 recorders to his friend, musician Les Paul, which led directly to Paul's invention of multitrack recording. Along with Frank Sinatra, he was one of the principal backers behind the famous United Western Recorders studio complex in Los Angeles. In 1962, Crosby was the first person to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Original Early Vintage Bing Crosby Autographed Photo, Signed: with sincere appreciation Bing Crosby. Approx. Size 9 x 7 1/4 black and white autographed photo. Regular Price - $ 1000.00 / Sale Price - $ 895.00

Douglas Fairbanks Autograph

Douglas Fairbanks (May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer, who became noted for his swashbuckling roles in silent movies such as The Mark of Zorro (1920), The Three Musketeers (1921), Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and The Black Pirate (1926). After he began an affair with Lady Sylvia Ashley, Fairbanks and Pickford separated in 1933. Fairbanks, Sr. and Mary Pickford divorced in 1936, with her keeping Pickfair. On March 7, 1936, in Paris, France, he and Ashley were married. He continued to be marginally involved in motion picture industry and United Artists, but his later years lacked the intense focus of his film years. His health continued to decline, and in his final years he resided at 705 Ocean Front (now Pacific Coast Highway) in Santa Monica, California, although much of his time was spent traveling abroad with Sylvia. In December, 1939, at 56, Fairbanks had a heart attack in his sleep and died a day later at his home in Santa Monica. By some accounts, he had been obsessively working-out against medical advice, trying to regain his once-trim waistline. Fairbanks famous last words were "I've never felt better." 1 His funeral service was held at the Wee Kirk o' the Heather Church at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, where he was placed in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum. He was deeply mourned and honored by his colleagues and fans for his contributions to the film industry and Hollywood. Two years following his death, he was removed from Forest Lawn by his widow, who commissioned an elaborate marble monument for him, with long rectangular reflecting pool, raised tomb, and classic Greek architecture, at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The remains of his son Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. were also interred here upon his death in 2000. There is a witty reference to him in the David Lean film A Passage to India (set in Edwardian India) in which one of the characters performs acrobatic feats on the side of a train calling, "I am Douglas Fairbanks!"

Original Douglas Fairbanks Autograph, Signed on Paper. We will also include the Vintage Cepia-tone photo of Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Bagdad (approx. size 6 1/2 x 8 1/2). Regular Price - $ 3000.00 / Sale Price - $ 2195.00

Mary Pickford Autograph

Mary Pickford (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979) was an Oscar-winning Canadian motion picture star and co-founder of United Artists in 1919. She was known as "America's Sweetheart," "Little Mary" and "the girl with the curls." She was one of the first Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and one of film's greatest pioneers. Her influence in the development of film acting was enormous. Because her international fame was triggered by moving images, she is a watershed figure in the history of modern celebrity. And as one of silent film's most important performers and producers, her contract demands were central to shaping the Hollywood industry. The American Film Institute named Pickford 24th among the greatest female stars of all time.

Original Mary Pickford Autograph, Signed on an 3 x 5 Index Card. Regular Price - $ 349.00 / Sale Price - $ 295.00

Jane Russell Autographed Photo

Jane Russell (born June 21, 1921) is an American actress and sex symbol. Born Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell in Bemidji, Minnesota, she was the only daughter of Roy William Russell (January 5, 1890 – July 18, 1937) and Geraldine Jacobi (January 2, 1891 – December 26, 1986). Her four younger brothers are Thomas Ferris Russell (born April 16, 1924), Kenneth Steven Russell (born September 2, 1925), James Hyatt Russell (born February 9, 1927) and Wallace Jay Russell (born January 31, 1929). Her parents were both born in North Dakota. Three of her grandparents were born in Canada, while her paternal grandmother was born in Germany. Her parents married in 1917. Her father was a former commissioned First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and her mother was a former actress with a road troupe. When Jane was a child they moved temporarily to Canada, then moved to the San Fernando Valley of Southern California. They lived in Burbank in 1930 and her father worked as an office manager at a soap manufacturing plant. In 1940, Russell was signed to a seven year contract by millionaire Howard Hughes and made her motion picture debut in The Outlaw (1943), a story about Billy the Kid that went to great lengths to showcase her voluptuous figure. Although the movie was completed in 1941, it was released for a limited showing two years later. There were problems with the censorship of the production code over the way her ample cleavage was displayed. When the movie was finally passed, it had a general release in 1946. During that time, Russell was kept busy doing publicity and became famous. Contrary to countless incorrect reports in the media since the release of The Outlaw, Jane Russell did not wear the specially designed bra that Howard Hughes constructed for the film. According to Jane's 1988 autobiography she was given the bra, decided it had a mediocre fit and wore her own bra on the film set with the straps pulled down. Together with Lana Turner and Rita Hayworth, Russell personified the sensuously contoured sweater girl look, though Jane Russell's measurements of 38D-24-36 and height of 5'7 were more statuesque than her contemporaries. Besides the thousands of quips from radio comedians, including Bob Hope once introducing her as "the two and only Jane Russell," the photo of her on a haystack glowering with sulking beauty and youthful sensuality as her breasts push forcefully against her bodice was a popular pin-up with Service men during World War II. Though The Outlaw was not a spectacular Western, it did well at the box-office. It appeared that Hughes was only interested in her being cast in movies that showcased her sensational figure, however, reportedly refusing an offer from Darryl Zanuck for her to play Doña Sol in Blood and Sand. She was not in another movie until 1946, when she played Joan Kenwood in Young Widow for RKO. Though her early movies did little to show her true acting abilities, they helped parlay her into a career portraying smart, often cynical, tough "broads," with a wisecracking attitude. Original Jane Russell Autographed Photo, Signed in Red: For Tim Jane Russell. Approx. Size 8 x 10 black & white Photo. Regular Price - $ 750.00 / Sale Price - $ 649.00

Ethel Barrymore Autograph

Ethel Barrymore (August 15, 1879 – June 18, 1959) was an Academy Award-winning American actress and a member of the famous Barrymore family. Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew. She spent her childhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended Catholic schools while there. Ethel Barrymore was highly regarded as a charming and charismatic stage actress in New York City and a major Broadway performer. Her first appearance in Broadway was in 1901, in a play called Captain Jinks of the Horses Marines. She was a great Nora in A Doll's House by Ibsen (1905), and a passionate Juliet in Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare (1922). She was also a strong supporter of the Actors' Equity Association and had a high-profile role in the 1919 strike. In 1926, she scored one of her greatest successes as the sophisticated spouse of a philandering husband in W. Somerset Maugham's comedy, The Constant Wife. In July 1934 she starred in the play Laura Garnett, by Leslie and Sewell Stokes, at Dobbs Ferry, New York State. She made her first motion picture in 1914 and in the 1940s, she moved to Hollywood, California and started working in motion pictures. The only two films that featured Ethel with her two brothers, John and Lionel, were National Red Cross Pageant(1917) & Rasputin and the Empress (1932). She won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 1944 film None but the Lonely Heart opposite Cary Grant, but made plain that she was not overly impressed by it. On March 22, 2007, her Oscar was offered for sale on eBay. She made such other classic films as The Spiral Staircase (1946), a wonderful thriller directed by Robert Siodmak, Pinky (1949), and Kind Lady (1951). Her last film appearance was in Johnny Trouble (1957). She also made a number of television appearances in the 1950s. Her later roles were usually that of a kindly but sophisticated, and wise, older woman. She was the sister of actors John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore, the aunt of actor John Drew Barrymore, and the great-aunt of actress/producer Drew Barrymore.

Original Ethel Barrymore Autograph, Signed on 3 x 5 Card. Dated 1933. Regular Price - $ 2000.00 Sale Price - $ 1595.00

Al Jolson Autograph

Al Jolson (May 26, 1886–October 23, 1950) was a highly acclaimed American singer, comedian and actor of Jewish heritage whose career lasted from 1911 until his death in 1950. He was one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century whose influence extended to other popular performers, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis, Jr., Eddie Fisher, Jerry Lewis, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, Rod Stewart and Michael Jackson. Al Jolson was the first popular singer to make a spectacular "event" out of singing a song. Prior to Jolson, popular singers such as John McCormack and Henry Burr would stand still with only very minimal gesturing as they sang. Jolson, in comparison, had tremendous energy displayed in his performances by way of dynamic gestures and other physical movement. Jolson was the first entertainer to ever utilize a ramp extending out into the audience from the center of the stage. Jolson insisted on having a ramp so he could be closer to the audience. It was very common for Jolson to sit on the end of the ramp and have personal one-on-one conversations with audience members which is something that had also never been done prior to Jolson. Jolson was known to stop major Broadway productions in which he was involved, turn to the audience and ask them if they would rather hear him sing instead of watching the rest of the play. The answer from the audience was always a resounding "yes" and Jolson would spend at least the next hour singing an impromptu concert to an ecstatic audience. George Burns, the popular American comedian and friend of Al Jolson probably described Jolson best when he said, "...Jolson was all Show Business!" Performing in blackface was a theatrical convention used by many entertainers at the beginning of the 20th century, having origins in the tradition of the minstrel show. Al Jolson was the most famous entertainer who appeared in blackface, but his performances were not meant to be insulting to people of African American heritage. In fact, there were actual African American entertainers of the period who also performed in blackface. Jolson had many fans who were African American; he was the only white man permitted into a "black" only nightclub in Harlem during the 1920s and '30s, and he numbered among his close friends many African Americans, including the famed ragtime pianist and composer Eubie Blake. In the first part of the 20th century, Al Jolson was without question the most popular performer to appear in Broadway productions and in vaudeville. His popularity was so overwhelming that show-business historians regard him as a legendary institution. Yet for all his success in live venues, Al Jolson is possibly best remembered today for his numerous recordings and for starring in the landmark motion picture The Jazz Singer, the first nationally distributed feature film with sound. The Jazz Singer was produced by Warner Brothers, using its revolutionary Vitaphone sound process. Vitaphone was originally intended for musical renditions, and The Jazz Singer follows this principle, with only the musical sequences using live sound recording. Much of the film is a silent drama, telling the sentimental story of a Jewish boy who loves to sing popular songs. He becomes a cabaret and stage star, much to the disgust of his estranged father (Warner Oland), a cantor in the synagogue.

Original Al Jolson Autograph, Signed on Cut Paper. Dated 1931. Regular Price - $ 1300.00 / Sale Price - $ 995.00

Ed Wynn Autographed Photo

Ed Wynn (November 9, 1886 - June 19, 1966) was a popular American comedian and actor. The distinctive giggly wavering voice which Wynn created for his "Perfect Fool" character remains much imitated, especially by voice actors of animated cartoons. Hanna-Barbera's Wally Gator's voice is probably the nearest to an exact impersonation of the Perfect Fool. Born Isaiah Edwin Leopold in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he ran away from home in his teens and eventually adapted his middle name "Edwin" into his new stage name, "Ed Wynn", to save his family the embarrassment of having a low comedian as a relative. In his youth, Wynn worked as an onstage assistant to W. C. Fields. Fields caught him "mugging" for the audience during his "Pool Room" routine and knocked him unconscious with his cue. Wynn became a headliner in vaudeville in the early-1910s, and was a star of the Ziegfeld Follies starting in 1914. He was best known as a comedian, billed as The Perfect Fool (and starring in a musical revue of that name on Broadway in 1921). Wynn also wrote, directed, and produced many shows. He was famous for his silly costumes and props, and always worked "clean," making his shows suitable for the entire family. He hosted a popular radio show for most of the 1930s, heard in North America on Tuesday nights, sponsored by Texaco gasoline. He was often seen wearing a fireman's helmet, as the "Texaco Fire Chief". During this time, Wynn was offered the part of The Wizard in MGM's adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, but he turned down the role. The part later went to Frank Morgan. Wynn founded his own short-lived radio network, the Amalgamated Broadcasting System, which lasted only five weeks in 1933. In the late-1940s and early-1950s, he hosted a television show, and won an Emmy Award in 1949. After the end of his television show, Wynn reluctantly began a career as a dramatic actor in television and movies. His son, actor Keenan Wynn, had encouraged him to make the career change rather than retire. The two appeared in the 1957 Playhouse 90 broadcast of Rod Serling's play Requiem for a Heavyweight. Ed was terrified of "straight" acting and kept goofing his lines in rehearsal. When the producers wanted to fire him, star Jack Palance said he would quit if they fired Ed. On live broadcast night, Wynn surprised everyone with his pitch-perfect performance, and his quick ad libs to cover his mistakes. Requiem established Wynn as serious dramatic actor who could easily hold his own with the best. His role in The Diary of Anne Frank won him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor in 1959. Also in 1959, Wynn appeared on Serling's TV series The Twilight Zone in "One for the Angels". Serling, a longtime admirer, had written that and another episode especially for him, and Wynn later starred in the episode "Ninety Years Without Slumbering". For the rest of his life, Ed skillfully moved between comic and dramatic roles. He appeared in feature films and anthology television, endearing himself to new generations of fans. Wynn provided the voice of the Mad Hatter in Walt Disney's film, Alice in Wonderland and appeared as the Fairy Godfather in Jerry Lewis' Cinderfella. In the movie, That Darn Cat!(1965) Ed played Mr. Hofstedder, the watch jeweler. One of his best-known performances during later years was as "Uncle Albert" in Mary Poppins. In addition to Disney films, Wynn was a popular character in the Disneyland production The Golden Horseshoe Review. The last movie that he appeared in was The Gnome-Mobile (1967) in which he plays the character Rufus. Ed Wynn died June 19, 1966 in Beverly Hills, California of throat cancer, aged 79.

Original Ed Wynn Autographed Photo, Signed Sincerly Ed Wynn 1931. Size 8 x 10 Black and White Photo. Also included is a cigar band(my father regularly asked for a cigar band along with an autograph - this is a cigar band from one of Ed Wynn's Cigars). Regular Price - $ 1500.00 / Sale Price - $ 1195.00

Vincent Price Autographed Sketch

Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American film actor. He is remembered for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of distinctive horror films, his tall 6' 4" (1.93 m) stature and polished urbane manner made him something of an American counterpart to the older Boris Karloff. Price accepted a cameo part in the children's television program The Hilarious House of Frightenstein (1971) in Hamilton, Ontario Canada, on a local station. In addition to the opening and closing monologues, his role in the show was to recite poems about the show's various characters, sometimes wearing a cloak or other costumes. He has also appeared in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Theatre of Blood (1973), in which he created a series of campy, tongue-in-cheek villains. Price also recorded dramatic readings of Poe's short stories and poems, which were collected together with readings by Basil Rathbone. He greatly reduced his film work from around 1975, as horror itself suffered a slump, and increased his narrative and voice work, as well as advertising Milton Bradley's Shrunken Head Apple Sculpture. Price's voiceover is heard on Alice Cooper's first solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare from 1975, as well as the TV special entitled Alice Cooper-The Nightmare. He also starred for a year in the early 1970s in a syndicated daily radio program, Tales of the Unexplained. He also made a guest appearance in a 1972 episode of The Brady Bunch, in which he played a deranged archaeologist. In the summer of 1977, he began performing as Oscar Wilde, in the one man stage play Diversions and Delights. Written by John Gay and directed by Joe Hardy, the play is set in a Parisian theatre on a night about one year before Wilde's death. In an attempt to earn some much-needed money, he speaks to the audience about his life, his works and, in the second act, about his love for Bosie, Lord Alfred Douglas, which led to his downfall. The original tour of the play was a success in every city that it played, except for New York City. In the summer of 1979, Price performed it at the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, Colorado on the same stage that Wilde had spoken to the miners about art some 96 years before. Price would eventually perform the play worldwide and to many, including his daughter Victoria, it was the best acting that he ever did. In 1982, Price provided the narrator's voice in Vincent, Tim Burton's six-minute film about a young boy who flashes from reality into a fantasy where he is Vincent Price. That same year, he performed a sinister "rap" on the title track of Michael Jackson's monumental "Thriller" album. In addition to the album being a mega-seller, the video was a huge hit for MTV. It included a stunning sequence in which Jackson transforms into a werewolf and was a major landmark for music videos. One of his last major roles, and one of his favorites, was as the voice of Professor Ratigan in Walt Disney Pictures' The Great Mouse Detective from 1986. From 1981 to 1989, he hosted the PBS television series Mystery!. Also, in 1985, he was voice talent on the Hanna-Barbera series The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo as the mysterious Vincent Van Ghoul who aided Scooby-Doo and the gang in capturing thirteen evil demons into an ancient chest. His last significant film work was as the inventor in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990). Price was a lifelong smoker. Price had long suffered from emphysema and Parkinson's disease, which had forced his role in Edward Scissorhands to be much smaller than intended. His illness also contributed to his retirement from Mystery, as his condition was becoming noticeable on-screen. He died of lung cancer on October 25, 1993. The Arts & Entertainment Network aired an episode of Biography highlighting Price's horror career the next night, but because of its failure to clear copyrights, the show was never aired again. Four years later, A&E produced its updated episode, a show titled Vincent Price: The Versatile Villain, which aired on October 12, 1997; it is often rebroadcast and is available on DVD. The script was by Lucy Chase Williams, author of The Complete Films of Vincent Price (Citadel Press, 1995). In early 1991, Tim Burton was developing a personal documentary with the working title Conversations With Vincent (footage of the director interviewing Price was shot at the Vincent Price Gallery) but the project was never completed and eventually was shelved.

Original Vincent Price Personal Sketch & Autograph, Signed on Cut Paper. Regular Price - $ 700.00 / Sale Price - $ 595.00

Evelyn Nesbit Autograph

Evelyn Nesbit (December 25, 1884 – January 17, 1967) was an artists' model and chorus girl, noted for her entanglement in the murder of her ex-lover, architect Stanford White, by her first husband, Harry K. Thaw. As a Florodora chorus girl on Broadway, Nesbit caught the eye of acclaimed architect—and notorious womanizer—Stanford White, then 47 to her 16. The fact that he was married, and made a hobby "befriending" teenage girls, was overlooked by Evelyn's mother, who encouraged White's patronage. In his lavish tower apartment at Madison Square Garden (which he designed), he had installed numerous strategically placed mirrors, as well as a soon-to-be infamous red velvet swing from which he derived sexual pleasure by watching countless young women—including Evelyn—cavort (Nesbit would later be sensationalized in the 1955 movie The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing.) When her mother was temporarily out of the city, White allegedly took Evelyn's virginity—after getting her to pose for a number of suggestive photographs in a yellow silk kimono, and plying her with champagne (a claim she later repeated to her first husband, although at the end of her life she claimed that the charismatic "Stanny" was the only man she had ever loved). As White moved on to other, young, "virginal" women, Evelyn was courted by the young John Barrymore, by whom she became pregnant twice. She turned down his marriage proposal, however, due to her continued emotional involvement with White (in addition to her mother's dim view of the 22-year-old Barrymore's financial prospects), and White arranged to send her away to a New Jersey boarding school run by the mother of film director Cecil B. DeMille, where she had an abortion (or, possibly, the baby)—under cover of being treated for "appendicitis". Stanford White and John Barrymore were subsequently supplanted in Evelyn's life by Harry Kendall Thaw (1871–1947) of Pittsburgh, the son of a coal and railroad baron. Thaw was extremely possessive of Nesbit (he reportedly carried a pistol), and obsessive about the details of her relationship with White (whom he referred to as "The Beast"). Thaw was a cocaine addict and sexual sadist who subjected women—including Nesbit—to severe whippings. However, following a trip to Europe, Evelyn finally accepted Thaw's repeated marriage proposal. They were wed on April 4, 1905, when Nesbit was twenty. On June 25, 1906, Evelyn and Harry saw White at the restaurant Cafè Martin and ran into him again later that night in the audience of the Madison Square Garden's roof theatre at a performance of Mam'zelle Champagne, written by Edgar Allan Woolf. During the song, "I Could Love A Million Girls", Thaw fired three shots at close range into White's face, killing him instantly and reportedly exclaiming, "You will never see that woman again!" Following the death of Stanford White, there were two murder trials. At the first, the jury was deadlocked; at the second, (in which Nesbit testified on his behalf), Thaw pled temporary insanity. Thaw's mother (usually referred to as "Mother Thaw") promised Nesbit that if she would testify that Stanford White had raped her and that Harry had only tried to avenge her honor, she would receive a quiet divorce and a one million dollar divorce settlement. Nesbit got the divorce—but not the money, and was cut off financially by Thaw's mother. Thaw was incarcerated at the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Beacon, New York, but enjoyed almost total freedom. In 1913, he strolled out of the asylum and was driven over the Canadian border into Sherbrooke, Quebec. He was extradited back to the U.S., but in 1915 was released from custody after being judged sane. The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (movie) was released in 1955. It was a Cinema Scope film, distributed by Twentieth Century Fox. It was a highly romaticized telling of the infamous 1906 murder of renowned architect Stanford White by Pittsburg playboy, Harry K. Thaw. The key players were Ray Milland as Stanford White, Farley Granger as Harry K. Thaw and Joan Collins as Evelyn Nesbit Thaw. This was Collins' first major American film. The production also included a performance by theatrical legend Cornelia Otis Skinner as Harry K.'s mother. The film was originally written as a musical to be called The Girl in the Pink Tights. The role of Evelyn was to be played by Marilyn Monroe, White by Dan Dailey and Mitzi Gaynor was to have played the part of Gwen Arden, another chorus girl who supposedly introduced White and Nesbit.

Original Evelyn Nesbit Autograph, Signed on the Back of a Club Continental Card ( Friday & Saturday Only $ 1.00 per person Minimum No cover charge). Signed Sincerely Evelyn Nesbit, Dated 1936. Regular Price - $ 1000.00 / Sale Price - $ 895.00

George Jessel Autograph

George Jessel (April 3, 1898 – May 23, 1981) was a U.S. actor, singer, songwriter, and movie producer. He was famous in his lifetime as a multitalented comedic entertainer, achieving a level of recognition that transcended his limited roles in movies. He was widely known by his nickname, the "Toastmaster General of the United States" (a parody of Postmaster General) for his frequent role as the master of ceremonies at political and entertainment gatherings. In the middle 1940s he began producing musicals for 20th Century Fox, producing 24 films in all in a career that lasted through the 1950s and 1960s. At the same time he became known as a host on the banquet circuit, famous for his good-natured wit aimed at his fellow celebrities. In 1946 he was one of the founding members of the California branch of the Friars Club. (A recording exists of an example of his "blue" work in front of a stag audience, although it was actually recorded at a roast hosted by the Friars' rival, the Masquers Club.) He also traveled widely overseas with the USO entertaining troops. As he grew older, he wrote eulogies for many of his contemporaries in Hollywood. He wrote two volumes of memoirs, So Help Me in 1943 and This Way, Miss in 1955. In the early 1950s he performed on the radio in The George Jessel Show, which became a television show of the same name from 1953 to 1954. In 1968 he starred in Here Come The Stars, a syndicated variety show. His attempt to extend his career was undermined, however, by a perception that his style of comedy was outdated, as well as by his outspoken support of the Vietnam War and of conservative political causes, though he often crossed the era's stereotypical political lines with his support for the Civil Rights movement and criticism of racism and anti-Semitism. This outspokenness regarding his political opinions could sometimes get him into trouble. In 1971, while being interviewed by Edwin Newman on The Today Show on NBC, he repeatedly referred to The New York Times as "Pravda", the house organ of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, and was ejected from the show. By the late 1960s he had gained a reputation as being overly indulgent in reminiscing about former companions who were little known by younger audiences. Walter Winchell once said of him, "That son of a bitch started to reminisce when he was eight years old." He had achieved a somewhat iconic status, representing a Hollywood of yore, such that he extended his career by playing himself, rather than characters, as in the 1967 camp classic Valley of the Dolls. Famous in his youth for his affairs with starlets, he also became known for keeping company with a wide assortment of younger show girls, even into his old age. In 1969 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored him for his charity work by awarding him the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, a Special Academy Award. His last movie role was in Diary of a Young Comic in 1979. He also appeared as himself as an interviewed witness in the 1981 movie Reds. Jessel died of a heart attack in 1981 at the age of 83 in Los Angeles and was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, George Jessel has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1777 Vine Street. In the 1980s, long after Jessel's passing, his last name was mentioned repeatedly on the NBC TV series "Night Court" in reference to Judge Harry Stone's mother; a character would say "Harry, remember your mother's last words," to which Harry would reply "Anyone but Jessel."

Original George Jessel Autograph, Signed on Cut Paper. Dated 1931. Regular Price - $ 129.00 / Sale Price - $ 95.00

Edwin Booth Autograph

Edwin Thomas Booth (November 13, 1833 – June 7, 1893), was a famous 19th century American actor. He was born near Bel Air, Maryland into the British-American theatrical Booth family. Some theatre historians call him the greatest American actor and Hamlet of the 19th century. In his early appearances he usually performed alongside his father, making his stage debut as Tressel in Richard III in Boston in 1849. Two years later, Edwin had his first starring role, standing in for his supposedly ailing father as Richard. After his father's death in 1852, Booth went on a worldwide tour, visiting Australia and Hawaii, and finally gaining acclaim of his own during an engagement in Sacramento, California in 1856. Before his brother murdered the president, Edwin had appeared with his two brothers John Wilkes and Junius Brutus Booth Jr. in Julius Caesar in 1864. John Wilkes played Marc Antony, Edwin played Brutus, and Junius played Cassius. It was a benefit show and the first and last time that the brothers would appear together on the same stage. From 1863 to 1867, Booth managed the Winter Garden Theater in New York City, mostly staging Shakespearean tragedies. In 1865, Booth purchased the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. After Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, the infamy associated with the Booth name forced Booth to abandon the stage for many months, a period dramatized in the 1955 Richard Burton movie Prince of Players, which was adapted from the biography of the same name by Eleanor Ruggles. He made his return to the stage at the Winter Garden in January 1866, playing the lead in Hamlet. Hamlet would eventually become Booth's signature role. In 1867, a fire damaged the Winter Garden Theatre, resulting in the building's subsequent demolition. Booth then built the Booth Theatre (completed in 1869) and continued a renowned acting career. The panic of 1873 caused the bankruptcy of the Booth Theatre in 1874. After the bankruptcy, Booth went on another worldwide tour, eventually regaining his fortune. Booth was married to Mary Devlin from 1860 to 1863, the year of her death. He later remarried, wedding Mary McVicker in 1869, and becoming a widower again in 1881. In 1869, Edwin acquired his brother John's body after repeatedly writing to the president begging for it. The president finally released the remains, and Edwin had them buried, unmarked, in the family plot at Green Mount Cemetery near Baltimore. In 1888 Booth founded the Players in New York, a club for actors and others associated with the arts, and dedicated his home to it. His final performance was, fittingly, in his signature role of Hamlet, in 1891 at the Brooklyn Academy. He died in 1893 at the Players, and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery next to his first wife, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Original Edwin Booth Autograph, Signed on Cut Paper. Written on Paper: Edwin Booth and what looks like Mar '82. Regular Price - $ 600.00 / Sale Price - $ 399.00

Ethel Merman Autograph

Ethel Merman (January 16, 1908 – February 15, 1984) was a Tony Award- and Grammy Award-winning American star of stage and film musicals, well known for her powerful voice, often hailed by critics as "The Grande Dame of the Broadway stage". Merman was known for her powerful, belting mezzo-soprano – alto voice, precise enunciation, and pitch. Because stage singers performed without microphones when she began singing professionally, she had great advantages in show business, despite the fact that she never received any singing lessons. In fact, Broadway lore holds that George Gershwin warned her never to take a singing lesson after seeing her opening reviews for Girl Crazy. Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the lyrics for Merman's Gypsy, remembered that she could become "mechanical" after a while. "She performed the dickens out of the show when the critics were there," he said. He added, "or if she thought there was a celebrity in the audience. So we used to spread a rumor that Frank Sinatra was out front. That whoever, Judy Garland was out front. I'll tell you one thing [Merman] did do, she steadily upstaged everybody. Every night, she would be about one more foot upstage, so finally they were all playing with their backs to the audience. I don't think it was conscious. Ethel was not big on brains. But she sure knew her way around a stage, and it was all instinctive."

Original Ethel Merman Autograph, signed on a Page from a Playbill. Top right corner is torn as well as a tear on the left side of playbill page. Approx. Size 6 1/2 x 9 inches. Regular Price - $ 295.00 / Sale Price - $ 225.00.

Henry Fonda Autograph

Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American Academy Award-winning film and stage actor, best known for his roles as plain-speaking idealists. Fonda's subtle, naturalistic acting style preceded by many years the popularization of Method acting. Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor, and made his Hollywood debut in 1935. Fonda's career gained momentum after his Academy Award-nominated performance as Tom Joad in 1940s The Grapes of Wrath, an adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel about an Oklahoma family who moved west during the Dust Bowl. Throughout six decades in Hollywood, Fonda cultivated a strong, appealing screen image in such classics as The Ox-Bow Incident, Mister Roberts, and 12 Angry Men. Later, Fonda moved toward both more challenging, darker epics as Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (portraying a villain who kills, among others, a child and a crippled person) and lighter roles in family comedies like Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball. Fonda was the patriarch of a family of famous actors, including daughter Jane Fonda, son Peter Fonda, granddaughter Bridget Fonda, and grandson Troy Garity; his family and close friends called him "Hank". In 1999, he was named the sixth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.

Original Henry Fonda Autograph, signed on a Page from a Playbill. Approx. Size 6 1/2 x 9 inches. Regular Price - $ 185.00 / Sale Price - $ 125.00.

Ralph Bellamy & James Earl Jones Autographs

Ralph Rexford Bellamy (June 17, 1904 – November 29, 1991) was an American actor with a career spanning sixty-two years. Bellamy has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6542 Hollywood Boulevard. In a 2007 episode of Boston Legal, footage of a 1957 episode of Studio One was used. The episode featured Bellamy and William Shatner as a father-son duo of lawyers. This was used in the present-day to explain the relationship between Shatner's Denny Crane character and his father in the show. Films by Ralph Bellamy: The Secret Six (1931), West of Broadway (1931), Surrender (1931), Forbidden (1932), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1932), Wild Girl (1932), Airmail (1932), Below the Sea (1933), Picture Snatcher (1933), Headline Shooter (1933), Ace of Aces (1933), Ever in My Heart (1933), Spitfire (1934), Once to Every Woman (1934), This Man Is Mine (1934), The Wedding Night (1935), Hands Across the Table (1935), The Awful Truth (1937), Fools for Scandal (1938), Boy Meets Girl (1938), Carefree (1938), Trade Winds (1938), Let Us Live (1939), His Girl Friday (1940), Brother Orchid (1940), Dance, Girl, Dance (1940), Footsteps in the Dark (1941), Affectionately Yours (1941), Dive Bomber (1941), The Wolf Man (1941), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Guest in the House (1944), Lady on a Train (1945), The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955), Sunrise at Campobello (1960), The Professionals (1966), Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Missiles of October (1974), Murder on Flight 502 (1975), The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976), Once an Eagle (1976) (TV miniseries), Oh, God! (1977), The Winds of War (1983), Trading Places (1983), Space (1985), Disorderlies (1987), Amazon Women on the Moon (1987), Coming to America (1988), The Good Mother (1988), War and Remembrance (1988) (TV miniseries),and Pretty Woman (1990).

James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American Academy Award-nominated, Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actor of film and stage well known for his deep basso voice. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), The Comedians in Africa (1967), The Comedians (1967), End of the Road (1970), King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970,) The Great White Hope (1970), Malcolm X (1972), The Man (1972), Claudine (1974), The Cay (1974), The UFO Incident (1975), The River Niger (1976), The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976), Swashbuckler (1976), Deadly Hero (1976), The Greatest (1977), Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) (voice), Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977), A Piece of the Action (1977), Jesus of Nazareth (1977), Black Theatre: The Making of a Movement (1978), Star Wars Christmas Special (1978) (voice), Roots: The Next Generations (1979), Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (voice), Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980), The Creation (1981), The Bushido Blade (1981), The Flight of Dragons (1982) (voice), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Blood Tide (1982), Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983) (voice), Allen Boesak: Choosing for Justice (1984), City Limits (1985), Soul Man (1986), Gardens of Stone (1987), Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1987), My Little Girl (1987), Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987) (voice), Matewan (1987), Terrorgram (1988) (voice), Coming to America (1988), Three Fugitives (1989), Field of Dreams (1989), Best of the Best (1989), By Dawn's Early Light (1990), Convicts (1990), The Hunt for Red October (1990), A World Alive (1990), The Ambulance (1990), Grim Prairie Tales (1990), True Identity (1991)[As Himself], Scorchers (1991), The Second Coming (1992), Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama (1992), Patriot Games (1992), Freddie the Frog (1992), Sneakers (1992), Dreamrider (1993), Sommersby (1993), The Sandlot (1993), Excessive Force (1993), The Meteor Man (1993), Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994), Africa: The Serengeti (1994), Clean Slate (1994), The Vernon Johns Story (1994), The Lion King (1994) (voice), Clear and Present Danger (1994), Countdown to Freedom: 10 Days That Changed South Africa (1994), Jefferson in Paris (1995), Judge Dredd (1995), Cry, The Beloved Country (1995), A Family Thing (1996), Looking for Richard (1996), Good Luck (1996), Gang Related (1997), What the Deaf Man Heard (1997), New York... Come Visit the World (1998), Primary Colors (1998) (voice), The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998) (voice), Summer's End (1999), Our Friend, Martin (1999) (voice), On the Q.T. (1999), Undercover Angel (1999), The Annihilation of Fish (1999), Fantasia 2000 (1999), Tiberian Sun (1999), Ennis' Gift (2000), Antietam: A Documentary Drama (2000), The Papp Project (2001), Black Indians: An American Story (2001), Finder's Fee (2001), Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street (2001), Muhammad Ali: Through the Eyes of the World (2001), The Great Year (2004), Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2004), Robots (2005) (voice), The Reading Room (2005), The Sandlot 2 (2005), Malcolm X: Prince of Islam documentary (2006) (narration only), Kingdom Hearts II (2006), The Benchwarmers (2006) (voice), Scary Movie 4 (2006), Click (2006) (voice) (As Himself), The Trail of Tears: Cherokee Legacy (2006), and Welcome Home Roscoe.

Original Autographs of Ralph Bellamy & James Earl Jones, signed on a Page from a Play Bill. Cort Theatre Sunrise at Campobello Premier, Jan. 30 1958. Approx. Size 6 1/8 x 9 inches. Regular Price - $ 255.00 / Sale Price - $ 175.00.