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

Walter Winchell "King of Broadway" Autograph

Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972), an American newspaper and radio commentator, invented the gossip column at the New York Evening Graphic. He broke the journalistic taboo against exposing the private lives of public figures, permanently altering the shape of journalism and celebrity. It would be difficult to overestimate the effects Walter Winchell continues to have on American politics and popular culture. It has become a commonplace to say that America has a "culture of celebrity." Anyone contemplating a career in either entertainment or politics must assume that their every secret will be revealed and will likely be portrayed in the worst possible light. They can also count on being the subject of false gossip from time to time. Even during Winchell's lifetime, journalists were critical of his effect on the media. In 1940, Time Magazine said his biographer, St. Clair McKelway bemoaned, "the effect of Winchellism on the standards of the press. When Winchell began gossiping in 1924 for the late scatological tabloid Evening Graphic, no U.S. paper hawked rumors about the marital relations of public figures until they turned up in divorce courts. For 16 years, gossip columns spread until even the staid New York Times whispered that it heard from friends of a son of the President that he was going to be divorced. In its first year, The Graphic would have considered this news not fit to print." Laments McKelway, "Gossip-writing is at present like a spirochete in the body of journalism. ...Newspapers ...have never been held in less esteem by their readers or exercised less influence on the political and ethical thought of the times." Winchell responded to McKelway saying, "Oh stop! You talk like a high-school student of journalism."

Original Walter Winchell Autograph, Signed on Cut Paper. Dated 1931. Written: No cigars - Luckies Good Wishes Walter Winchell. Regular Price $ 500.00 / Sale Price - $ 345.00

Eddie Cantor Autograph

Eddie Cantor (January 31, 1892 - October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, singer, actor, songwriter. Known to Broadway, radio and early television audiences as Banjo Eyes, this "Apostle of Pep" was regarded almost as a family member by millions because his top-rated radio shows revealed intimate stories and amusing antics about his wife Ida and five children. Cantor was profiled on the popular program This Is Your Life, in which an unsuspecting person (usually a celebrity) would be surprised on live television with a half-hour tribute. Cantor was the only subject who was told of the surprise in advance; he was recovering from a heart attack and it was felt that the shock might harm him. In 1953 Warner Brothers, in an attempt to duplicate the box-office success of The Jolson Story, filmed a big-budget Technicolor feature film, The Eddie Cantor Story. The film found an audience, but might have done better with someone else in the leading role. Actor Keefe Brasselle played Cantor as a caricature, with high-pressure dialogue and bulging eyes wide open at all times; the fact that Brasselle was considerably taller than Cantor didn't lend realism, either. Eddie and Ida Cantor were seen in a brief prologue and epilogue set in a projection room, where they are watching Brasselle in action; at the end of the film Eddie tells Ida, "I never looked better in my life" ... and gives the audience a knowing, incredulous look! Something closer to the real Eddie Cantor story is his self-produced 1944 feature Show Business, a valentine to vaudeville and show folks that was RKO's top-grossing film that year. Probably the best summary of Cantor's career is in one of the Colgate Comedy Hour shows. The Colgate hour was a virtual video autobiography, with Cantor recounting his career, singing his familiar hits, and re-creating his singing-waiter days with his old pal Jimmy Durante (Jimmy's wearing a lavish toupee!). This show has been issued on DVD as Eddie Cantor in Person.

Original Eddie Cantor Autograph, Signed on Eddie Cantor Letterhead. Also included is the Eddie Cantor Cigar Band from one of his Cigars (my father would regularly request a cigar band with an autograph). Regular Price - $ 180.00 / Sale Price - $ 95.00

Alla Nazimova Autograph

Alla Nazimova (Russian: Алла Назимова), born Mariam Edez Adelaida Leventon (Мириам Эдес Аделаида Левентон; May 22, 1879 – July 14, 1945) was a Russian/American theater and film actress, scriptwriter, and producer. She is often known as just Nazimova, and was also known as Alia Nasimoff. Nazimova's theater career blossomed early and by 1903 she was a major star in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. She toured Europe, including London and Berlin, with her boyfriend Pavel Orlenev, a flamboyant actor and producer. In 1905, they moved to New York City and founded a Russian language theater on the Lower East Side. The venture was unsuccessful and Orlenev returned to Russia while Nazimova stayed in New York. She was signed up by the American producer Henry Miller and made her Broadway debut in 1906 to critical and popular success. She quickly became extremely popular (a theater was named after her) and remained a major Broadway star for years, often acting in the plays of Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov. Nazimova made her silent film debut in 1916, due to her notoriety in a 35-minute 1915 play entitled War Brides. This brought her to the attention of Lewis J. Selznick. Over the next few years, she made a number of highly successful films that earned her a considerable amount of money. By 1917, she was earning as much as $30,000 per film, with a $1,000 per day bonus for every day of filming. She was also given a $13,000 per week contract. At the time, actress Mary Pickford was on a $3,000 per week contract. In 1918, at age 39, Nazimova felt confident enough in her abilities that she began producing and writing films in which she also starred. In her film adaptations of works by such notable writers as Oscar Wilde and Ibsen, she developed her own film making techniques, which were considered daring at the time. Her projects, including A Doll's House (1922) based on Ibsen, and Salomé (1923) based on Wilde, met with little popular success and lost a great deal of money. By 1925, she could no longer afford to invest in more films and financial backers withdrew their support. Left with few options, she gave up on the film industry, returning to perform on Broadway until the early 1940s when she appeared in a few more films, presumably in need of money. Two of her best known roles today is that of Robert Taylor's mother in Escape (1940) and as Tyrone Power's mother in the film Blood and Sand (1941). A breast cancer survivor, Nazimova died of a coronary thrombosis at the age of 66 on July 13, 1945, in the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, California, and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Original Alla Nazimova Autograph, Signed on Card Stock. Dated 1933. Alla Nazimova was Godmother to Nancy Reagan. Regular Price - $ 400.00 / Sale Price - $ 195.00

Fanny Brice Autograph

Fanny Brice (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951) was a popular and influential American comedian, singer, theatre and film actress and entertainer, remembered best for her many stage, radio and film appearances and her recordings. She was the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series, The Baby Snooks Show. In the decade following her death, she was portrayed on stage and film by Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl. From the 1930s until her death in 1951, Fanny made a radio presence as a bratty toddler named Snooks, a role she first premiered in a Follies skit. With first Alan Reed and then Hanley Stafford as her bedeviled Daddy, Baby Snooks premiered in The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air in February 1936 on CBS. She moved to NBC in December 1937, performing the Snooks routines as part of the Good News show, then back to CBS on Maxwell House Time, the half-hour divided between the Snooks sketches and comedian Frank Morgan, in September 1944. She was back to NBC in November 1948, in a full show of her own, first called Toasties Time but soon known as The Baby Snooks Show. Brice was so meticulous about the program and the title character that she was known to perform in costume as a toddler girl even though seen only by the radio studio audience. She was 45 years old when the character began her long radio life. In addition to Reed and Stafford, her co-stars included Lalive Brownell, Lois Corbet, and Arlene Harris playing her mother, Danny Thomas as Jerry, Charlie Cantor as Uncle Louie and Ken Christy as Mr. Weemish. She was completely devoted to the character, as she told biographer Norman Katkov: Snooks is just the kid I used to be. She's my kind of youngster, the type I like. She has imagination. She's eager. She's alive. With all her deviltry, she is still a good kid, never vicious or mean. I love Snooks, and when I play her I do it as seriously as if she were real. I am Snooks. For 20 minutes or so, Fanny Brice ceases to exist. Baby Snooks writer Everett Freeman told Katkov that Brice didn't like to rehearse the role but always snapped into it on the air, losing herself completely in the character: While she was on the air she was Baby Snooks. And after the show, for an hour after the show, she was still Baby Snooks. The Snooks voice disappeared, of course, but the Snooks temperament, thinking, actions were all there. Funny Girl and Funny Lady are examples of how plays and films take great liberties with the lives of historical figures and/or events. The Streisand film makes no mention of Brice's first husband at all. It also suggests that Arnstein turned to crime because his pride wouldn't allow him to live off Fanny; the real Nicky shamelessly sponged off her. The film suggests Nicky sold phony bonds; he was actually part of a gang that stole $5 million of Wall Street securities. Instead of turning himself in, as in the movie, Arnstein went into hiding. When he finally surrendered, he did not plead guilty, as he did in the movie, but fought the charges for four years, taking a toll on his wife's finances. Two children were born of the Brice-Arnstein marriage but only one is depicted in the film. Daughter Frances married Ray Stark, producer of both the Broadway musical and the film, while son William became an artist of note. Brice had a long and successful collaboration with Irving Berlin that is never mentioned. Many of the events depicted in Funny Lady are extreme exaggerations of the truth or outright fabrications.

Original Fanny Brice Autograph, Signed on the back of a 3 x 5 Index Card. Dated 1933. Regular Price - $ 200.00 / Sale Price - $ 125.00

Maurice Chevalier Autograph

Maurice Chevalier (September 12, 1888 – January 1, 1972) was a Belgian-French actor, singer, and popular entertainer. Chevalier's signature songs included "Louise", "Mimi", and "Valentine." His trademark was a casual straw hat, which he always wore on stage with his tuxedo. After the war, Chevalier went back to Paris and created several famous songs that are still known today, such as ‘Valentine’ (1924). He played in a few pictures and made a huge impression in the operetta, Dédé. He met the American composers George Gershwin and Irving Berlin and brought Dédé to Broadway in 1922. It was not a success and Chevalier returned to France where he tried to commit suicide in 1924 because of this failure. The same year he met Yvonne Vallée, a young dancer, who became his wife in 1927. Meanwhile his film potential had been spotted by Douglas Fairbanks, who offered him star billing opposite Mary Pickford. But Chevalier doubted his own talent for silent movies (in Paris, he'd made a couple that failed). When sound made its entrée in the film world, however, he returned to Hollywood in 1928 and this time he became very successful. He signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and played his first American role in Innocents of Paris. In 1930 he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for two roles, The Love Parade (1929) and The Big Pond (1930). The Big Pond garnered Chevalier his first big American hit song, "Livin' In the Sunlight - Lovin' In the Moonlight" with words and music by Al Lewis and Al Sherman, as well as 'A New Kind of Love' (or 'The Nightingales'). He collaborated with film director Ernst Lubitsch. While under contract with Paramount, Chevalier's name was so universally recognized that his passport was featured in the Marx Brothers film Monkey Business (1931), with each brother attempting to sneak off the ocean liner where they were stowaways by claiming to be the singer. In 1931, Chevalier starred in a musical called The Smiling Lieutenant along with Claudette Colbert. Despite the disdain audiences held for musicals in 1931, it proved to be a very successful film. In 1932, he starred with Jeanette MacDonald in Paramount's classic film musical, One Hour With You which became a huge box-office success and became one of the films instrumental in making musicals popular with the public once again. Due to its popularity, Paramount quickly starred Maurice Chevalier in another musical called Love Me Tonight, which was also released in 1932 and also co-starred Jeanette MacDonald. It is about a tailor who falls in love with a princess when he goes to a castle to collect a debt and is mistaken for a baron. Featuring songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, it was directed by Rouben Mamoulian, who, with the help of the songwriters, was able to put his ideas of the "integrated musical" (a musical which blends songs and dialogue seamlessly so that the songs seem to advance the plot). It has since come to be considered one of the greatest film musicals of all time. In 1934, he starred in the first sound film version of the Franz Lehar operetta The Merry Widow, one of his best-known films. He became one of the big stars in Hollywood, very rare for French artists in those days. In 1935, he signed with MGM and returned to France later that year. In 1937, he divorced his wife and married the dancer Nita Ray. He had several successes such as his revue Paris en Joie in the Casino de Paris. A year later, he performed in Amours de Paris. His songs remained big hits, such as Prosper (1935), Ma Pomme (1936) and Ça fait d'excellents français (1939) Maurice Chevalier also appeared in the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour in 1958. Maurice Chevalier died on January 1, 1972, aged 83, and was interred in the cemetery of Marnes-la-Coquette in Hauts-de-Seine, outside Paris, France.

Original Maurice Chevalier Autograph, Signed on Cut Paper. Written: Cordially Maurice Chevalier. Dated 1932. Regular Price - $ 199.00 / Sale Price - $ 125.00

William S. Hart Autograph

William Surrey Hart (6 December 1864 in Newburgh, New York – 23 June 1946 in Newhall, California) was a silent film actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. A successful Shakespearian actor on Broadway who had worked with Margaret Mather and other stars, William S. Hart went on to become one of the first great stars of the motion picture western. Hart appeared in original 1899 stage production of Ben Hur. He entered films in 1914 where, after playing supporting roles in two short films, he achieved stardom as the lead in the feature, The Bargain. Hart was particularly interested in making realistic western films. His films are noted for their authentic costumes and props, as well as Hart's extraordinary acting ability, honed on Shakespearian theatre stages in the US and England. In 1917, he accepted a lucrative offer from Adolph Zukor to join Famous Players-Laskey. In 1925, he starred in King Baggot's film Tumbleweeds which was his last and probably most famous for United Artists. Hart's popularity waned when the public began to be attracted to “larger than life” Western stars such as Tom Mix. He retired to his ranch home, “La Loma de los Vientos” in Newhall, California, which was designed by architect Arthur R. Kelly. Hart was fascinated by the Old West. He acquired Billy the Kid's “six shooters”, and was a friend of legendary lawmen Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. Hart married young Hollywood actress, Winifred Westover. Although their marriage was short-lived, they had one child, William S. Hart Jr. (1922-2004). On his passing in 1946, William S. Hart was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, William S. Hart has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6363 Hollywood Blvd. In 1975, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. As part of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, California, Hart's former home and 260 acre ranch in Newhall is now "William S. Hart Park". The William S. Hart Union High School District as well as William S. Hart Senior High School, both located in the Santa Clarita Valley in the northern part of Los Angeles County, were named in his honor.

Original William S. Hart Autograph, Signed on Cut Paper. Dated 1932. Regular Price - $ 800.00 / Sale Price - $ 595.00

Tom Mix Autograph

Thomas Edwin Mix (born Thomas Hezikiah Mix; January 6, 1880 – October 12, 1940) was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but 9 of which were silent features. He was Hollywood’s first Western megastar and is noted as having defined the genre for all cowboy actors who followed. He went on to make more than 160 escapist matinee cowboy films throughout the 1920s. These featured action oriented scripts which contrasted with the documentary style of his work with Selig. Heroes and villains were sharply defined and a clean-cut cowboy always "saved the day." Millions of American children grew up watching his films on Saturday afternoons. Mix did his own stunts and was frequently injured. Mix's salary at Fox reached $17,500 a week. His performances weren't noted for their realism but for screen-friendly action stunts and horseback riding, attention-grabbing cowboy costumes and showmanship. At the Edendale lot Mix built a 12 acre shooting set called Mixville. Loaded with western props and furnishings, it has been described as a "complete frontier town, with a dusty street, hitching rails, a saloon, jail, bank, doctor's office, surveyor's office, and the simple frame houses typical of the early Western era." Near the back of the lot an Indian village of lodges was ringed by miniature plaster mountains which on screen were said to be "ferociously convincing." The set also included a simulated desert, large corral and a ranch house with no roof, to facilitate interior shots. During 1929, Mix's last year in silent pictures, he worked for Film Booking Office, a small movie production and project packaging company run by Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. Mix was 49 and by most accounts he was ready to retire from the movies. On the afternoon of October 12, 1940 Mix was driving his 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton near Florence, Arizona (between Tucson and Phoenix) on a two-lane road when he came upon construction barriers at a bridge previously washed away by a flash flood. A workcrew watched as he was unable to brake in time and his car slid into a gully. A large, polished aluminium suitcase he had put on the seat behind him flew free and struck Mix in the back of the head, shattered his skull, broke his neck and killed the 60 year old actor almost instantly. Accounts vary as to whether Mix was speeding before the accident, along with the role alcohol consumption may have played. The site of his death is located on what is now Arizona State Route 79. There is an historical marker and the gully is named Tom Mix Wash. Mix is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Tom Mix was "the King of Cowboys" when both Ronald Reagan and John Wayne were pre-teens, and Mix's on-screen persona can certainly be seen in their approach to portraying cowboys. When an injury caused football player John Wayne to drop out of USC, it was Tom Mix who personally helped him get a job moving props in the back lot of Fox Studios. By most accounts, Tom Mix made 336 movies throughout his career. In 2007 only about 10% of these were reportedly available for viewing, although it was unclear how many Mix films had been irretrievably lost. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Tom Mix has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1708 Vine Street. His cowboy boot prints, palm prints and his famous horse Tony's hoof prints are at Grauman's Chinese Theatre at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1958 he was inducted posthumously into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. There is a Tom Mix museum in Dewey, Oklahoma and another in Mix Run, Pennsylvania. Between 1980 and 2004, 21 Tom Mix festivals were held during the month of September, most of them in DuBois, Pennsylvania.

Original Tom Mix Autograph, Signed on Cut Paper. Dated 1932. Regular Price - $ 550.00 / Sale Price - $ 295.00

Roy Rogers Autograph

Leonard Franklin Slye (November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998), who became famous as Roy Rogers, was a singer and cowboy actor. He and his third wife Dale Evans, his golden palomino Trigger, and his German shepherd, Bullet, were featured in over one hundred movies and The Roy Rogers Show. The show ran on radio for nine years before moving to television from 1951 through 1957. His productions usually featured two sidekicks, Pat Brady, (who drove a jeep called "Nellybelle"), and the crotchety Gabby Hayes. Roy's nickname was "King of the Cowboys". Dale's nickname was "Queen of the West." For many Americans (and non-Americans), he was the embodiment of the all-American hero.

Original Roy Rogers Autograph, signed on cut paper. Approx. size of paper 1 3/4 x 3 1/2 inches. Regular Price - $ 295.00 / Sale Price - $ 125.00.

Buck Jones Autograph

Buck Jones (December 4, 1889 – November 30, 1942) was an American motion picture star of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, best known for his work starring in many popular western movies. In his early film appearances, he was billed as Charles Jones. Jones had more than 160 film credits to his name, in a career that began in 1918. By the 1920's, Jones joined Hoot Gibson, Tom Mix, and Ken Maynard as the top cowboy actors of the day.

Original Buck Jones Autograph, signed on cut paper. Approx. size of paper 3 x 5. Hand written: To my friend Harry Fitzmier From Buck Jones. Regular Price - $ 295.00 / Sale Price - $ 145.00.

Sally Rand Autographed Photo

Sally Rand (January 2, 1904 – August 31, 1979) was born Harriet Helen Gould Beck in Hickory County, Missouri. She also performed under the name Billy Beck. She was an exotic dancer and actress. During the 1920s, she acted on stage and appeared in silent films. Cecil B. DeMille gave her the name Sally Rand. She was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1927. After the introduction of sound film, she became a dancer, known for the fan dance, which she popularized starting at the Paramount Club. Her most famous appearance was at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair entitled Century of Progress. She had been arrested a few times due to indecent exposure while dancing, but the nudity was only an illusion. She also conceived and developed the bubble dance, in part to cope with wind while performing outdoors. She died in 1979 in Glendora, California, aged 75. She performed the fan dance on film in Bolero, released in 1934. In 1936, she purchased the club that would become the Great American Music Hall. She is portrayed by actress Peggy Davis in the 1983 film, The Right Stuff, fan-dancing for the first American astronauts and other dignitaries. That episode had also been discussed in the book, wherein author Tom Wolfe referred to the astronauts observing this sixtyish woman's "ancient flanks". She and her 1933 World's Fair fan-dance were mentioned in the 1972 episode of "The Waltons" entitled "The Carnival". A fictionalized version of her also appears in Toni Dove's interactive cinema project Spectropia, played by Helen Pickett of the Wooster Group. Original Sally Rand Autographed Photo, Signed: Best Wishes Sally Rand. Approx. Size 5 x 7 Black and White Photo. Regular Price - $ 700.00 / Sale Price - $ 495.00

Clyde Beatty Autographed Photo

Clyde Beatty (born June 10, 1903 in Bainbridge, Ohio, USA; died July 19, 1965) was a big game hunter who became famous as a lion tamer and animal trainer. He also was a circus impresario who owned his own show that later merged with the Cole Bros. Circus to form the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus. Beatty became famous for his "fighting act", in which he entered the cage with wild animals with a whip and a pistol strapped to his side. The act was designed to showcase his courage and mastery of the wild beasts, which included lions, tigers, cougars, and hyenas, sometimes brought together all at once in a single cage in a potentially lethal combination. At the height of his fame, the act featured 40 lions and tigers of both sexes. There is some indication that Beatty was the first lion tamer to use a chair in his act. Such was Beatty's fame that he appeared in films from the 1930s through the 1950s and on television until the 1960s. His "fighting act" made him the paradigm of a lion tamer for more than a generation. He is one of the caricatures at Sardi's restaurant in New York City created by Alex Gard which is now part of the Billy Rose Theatre Collection at the New York Public Library. In one of his most famous episodes, Clyde Beatty was attacked by one of his tigresses and saved by one of his lions, an episode that was reported internationally. He maintained that male lions would often dominate tigers, and would usually come out on top in fights against tigers of both sexes. In the 1997 film Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, the lion tamer Dave Hoover cites Beatty as a major influence on his career. The director Errol Morris uses several clips from Beatty's films during his interviews with Hoover. Clyde Beatty died of cancer in 1965 at the age of 62 in Ventura, California and was interred in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills. Original Clyde Beatty Autographed Photo, Signed: Best Wishes Clyde Beatty. Approx. Size 4 3/4 x 6 3/4, Black and White Photo. Regular Price - $ 3000.00 / Sale Price - $ 2000.00

Joe Penner Autographed Photo

Joe Penner (11 November 1904 - 10 January 1941), a 1930s-era vaudeville, radio and film comedian, was born Josef Pinter in Nagechkereck, Hungary. He passed through Ellis Island as a child when his family emigrated to New York City. He was launched on his successful radio career by Rudy Vallée, appearances which led to his own Sunday evening half-hour, The Baker's Broadcast, which began on the Blue Network October 8, 1933. Penner was a zany comic, noted for his famed catchphrase, "Wanna buy a duck?", and his low hyuck-hyuck laugh. Penner's other memorable catchphrase, often triggered by someone else's double entendre remark, was, "You naaaasss-ty man!" He was voted radio's top comedian in 1934, but a 1935 dispute with the ad agency over the show's format resulted in Penner quitting The Baker's Broadcast on June 30, 1935. A year later, he returned with The Joe Penner Show which began airing October 4, 1936 on CBS, sponsored by Cocomalt. His films include College Rhythm (1934), New Faces of 1937 (1937), The Day the Bookies Wept (1939) and Millionaire Playboy (1940). He was caricatured by Tex Avery and Friz Freleng in the musical cartoon, "My Green Fedora" and several pictures starring the bumbling stooge Egghead. But the ultimate Depression-era zany was Joe Penner. A forgotten performer today to most, and little more than a footnote to the average OTR fan, Penner was a national craze in 1933-34. There is no deep social meaning in his comedy, no shades of subtlety -- just utter slapstick foolishness, delivered in an endearingly simpering style that's the closest thing the 1930s had to Pee-wee Herman. An added attraction was Penner's in-character singing each week of a whimsical novelty song, especially written to suit his style. Like Pearl, however, Penner was doomed to early decline by the sheer repetitiveness of his format, even though he remained very popular with children right up to the end of his radio career. Penner died of heart failure in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1941. Original Joe Penner Autographed Photo, Signed: To Frank Tricker Sincerely Joe Penner. Approx. Size 8 x 10, Black and White Photo. Regular Price - $ 50.00 / Sale Price - $ 25.00

Anna Jarvis Autograph

Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis (September 30, 1832 - May 9, 1905) was born in Culpeper, Virginia. Jarvis worked around what is now West Virginia to promote worker health and safety concerns. During the American Civil War she organized women to tend to the needs of the wounded of both sides. After the war she became active in the promotion of Mother's Day, a holiday at that time involved with the causes of pacifism and social activism. She organized meetings of mothers of soldiers of both sides of the late war. By the 1920s, Anna Marie Jarvis had become soured on the commercialization of the holiday. She incorporated herself as the Mother’s Day International Association, claimed copyright on the second Sunday of May, and was once arrested for disturbing the peace. She and her sister Ellsinore spent their family inheritance campaigning against the holiday. Both died in poverty. Jarvis, says her New York Times obituary, became embittered because too many people sent their mothers a printed greeting card. As she said, "A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother--and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment!"

Original Anna Jarvis Autograph, Signed on 3 1/3 x 5 1/2 Card Stock. Written on the Card: Anna Jarvis, Founder Mother's Day - 11/07/(sorry can't read the year). Regular Price - $ 249.00 / Sale Price - $ 175.00

Roy Chapman Andrews Autograph

Roy Chapman Andrews (January 26, 1884–March 11, 1960) was an American explorer, adventurer and naturalist who became the director of the American Museum of Natural History, primarily known for leading a series of expeditions through the fragmented China of the early 20th century into the Gobi Desert and Mongolia. The expeditions made important discoveries and brought the first-known fossil dinosaur eggs in the world to the museum. Many of Andrews's encounters and narrow escapes from death have been reported, including incidents with whales, sharks, pythons, and armed Chinese bandits. He was erroneously reported dead at least once. Douglas Preston of the American Museum of Natural History wrote: Andrews is allegedly the real person that the movie character of Indiana Jones was patterned after. Andrews was an accomplished stage master. He created an image and lived it out impeccably—there was no chink in his armor. Roy Chapman Andrews: famous explorer, dinosaur hunter, exemplar of Anglo-Saxon virtues, crack shot, fighter of Mongolian brigands, the man who created the metaphor of 'Outer Mongolia' as denoting any exceedingly remote place.

Original Roy Chapman Andrews, Signed on Cut Paper (mounted on Cut Black Card Stock). Regular Price - $ 249.00 / Sale Price - $ 175.00

Rabindranath Tagore Autograph

Rabindranath Tagore - Born 7 May 1861 – Died 7 August 1941), also known by the sobriquet Gurudev,and was a Bengali poet, Brahmo Samaj philosopher, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became Asia's first Nobel laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. A Pirali Bengali Brahmin from Calcutta, Tagore first wrote poems at age eight. He published his first substantial poetry under the pseudonym Bhanushingho ("Sun Lion") and wrote his first short stories and dramas in 1877, at age sixteen. His home schooling, life in Shilaidaha, and travels made Tagore a nonconformist and pragmatist. Tagore strongly protested against the British Raj and gave his support to the Indian Independence Movement and Mahatma Gandhi. Tagore's life was tragic—he lost virtually his entire family and was devastated to witness Bengal's decline—but his life's work endured, in the form of his poetry and the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University. Tagore's works included numerous novels, short-stories, collection of songs, dance-drama, political and personal essays. Some prominent examples are Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World). His verse, short stories, and novels, which often exhibited rhythmic lyricism, colloquial language, meditative naturalism, and philosophical contemplation, received worldwide acclaim. Tagore was also a cultural reformer and polymath who modernised Bengali art by rejecting strictures binding it to classical Indian forms. Two songs from his rabindrasangeet canon are now the national anthems of Bangladesh and India: the Amar Shonar Bangla and the Jana Gana Mana.

Original Rabindranath Tagore Autographed Picture, Signed on a Black & White Page from a Magazine. Regular Price - $ 649.00 / Sale Price - $ 525.00

John Muir Autograph

John Muir (April 21, 1838 – December 24, 1914) was one of the first modern preservationists. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, and wildlife, especially in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, were read by millions and are still popular today. His direct activism helped to save the Yosemite Valley and other wilderness areas. The SIERRA CLUB, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. His writings and philosophy strongly influenced the formation of the modern environmental movement. Two John Muir Trails (in California and Tennessee), the John Muir Wilderness, the Muir Woods National Monument, John Muir High School, John Muir College (a residential college of the University of California, San Diego), John Muir Country Park in Dunbar and the John Muir Way in East Lothian are named in his honor, as is the asteroid 128523 Johnmuir. An image of John Muir, with the California Condor and Half Dome, appears on the California state quarter which was released in 2005. A quote of his appears on the reverse side of the Indianapolis Prize Lilly Medal for conservation. On December 6, 2006, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted John Muir into the California Hall of Fame located at The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts.

Original John Muir Autographed Stamp Imprinted Envelope. Approx. Size 3 1/2 x 6. Hand written on envelope: Hon. Edward R. Taylor Mayor of San Francisco, 2326 California St San Francisco. The Postmark is Dated Aug 6 Martinez. John Muir's signature is in the Upper Left Corner of envelope. Imprinted Stamp is two cents. Regular Price - $ 599.00 / Sale Price - $ 499.00

George Amos Dorsey Autograph

George Amos Dorsey was Born in Hebron, Ohio on February 6,1868. Died - March 29, 1931. American anthropologist and early U.S. ethnographer of North American. George Amos Dorsey authored many books: The Cheyenne, Indians of the Southwest, Traditions of the Skidi Pawnee, The Pawnee, A Bibliography of the Anthropology of Peru, Why We Behave Like Human Beings, Traditions of the Caddo, The Mythology of the Wichita, Hows and Whys of Human Behavior, Traditions of the Arikara, The Nature of Man, Traditions of the Osage, Traditions of the Arapaho, and Several more.

Original G. A. Dorsey Autograph, Signed on Cut Paper. Approx. Size 3 x 4 1/2. Dated 1931. Regular Price - $ 400.00 / Sale Price - $ 299.00