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! Comes with a COA. Contact us at 802-253-7000 or stovint08@gmail.com. Powered by

ANJELICA HUSTON AUTOGRAPH

Anjelica Huston was born on July 8, 1951. Anjelica is an American actress and former fashion model. Huston became the third generation of her family to win an Oscar for her performance in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, joining her director father, John, and actor grandfather, Walter. She later was nominated in 1990 and 1991 for her acting in Enemies, a Love Story and The Grifters respectively. Among her roles, she starred as Morticia Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993), receiving Golden Globe nominations for both. After a handful of prominent roles in both television and in film, Huston stepped away from acting, following in her father’s footsteps in the Director’s chair. The first film she directed was Bastard Out of Carolina (1996); another was Agnes Browne (1999), in which she both directed and starred, and Riding the Bus with My Sister (2005). In 2007, Huston led a letter campaign organized by the US Campaign for Burma and Human Rights Action Center. The letter, signed by over 25 other high-profile individuals from the entertainment business, was addressed to the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and urged him to "personally intervene" to secure the release of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma. Huston lived with Jack Nicholson from 1973 to 1989. She married sculptor Robert Graham Jr. in 1992. She has never had children and states that she does not regret it. She owns a ranch in Three Rivers, CA, just east of Visalia, CA, which she visits often. Emmy Award Nominations 1989 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Special - Lonesome Dove, 1995 - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Special - Buffalo Girls, 1997 - Outstanding Directing In A Miniseries Or A Special - Bastard Out of Carolina, 2002 - Outstanding Supporting Actress - Miniseries or a Movie - The Mists of Avalon, 2004 - Outstanding Supporting Actress - Miniseries or a Movie - Iron Jawed Angels, and 2008 - Outstanding Guest Actress - Drama Series - Medium. Academy Award Nominations 1985 - Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Prizzi's Honor, 1989 - Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Enemies, a Love Story, and 1990 - Best Actress in a Leading Role - The Grifters. Golden Globe television nominations 1990 - Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television - Lonesome Dove, and 1994 - Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television - Family Pictures.

Original Anjelica Huston Autograph, signed on a 3 x 5 Index Card. (You will receive shown 8 x 10 Photograph along with autograph). Regular Price - $ 75.00 / Sale Price - $ 48.95.

MADELINE KAHN AUTOGRAPH

Madeline Kahn was born on September 29, 1942 – died on December 3, 1999. Madeline was an American actress, known primarily for her comedic roles. Director Mel Brooks — who directed her in four films — said of her: "She is one of the most talented people that ever lived. I mean, either in stand-up comedy, or acting, or whatever you want, you can't beat Madeline Kahn." Kahn was born Madeline Gail Wolfson in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Paula Kahn and Bernard Wolfson, who was a garment manufacturer. She was raised in a non-observant Jewish family. Her parents divorced when Kahn was two, and Kahn and her mother moved to New York City. Several years later, both of her parents remarried and gave Kahn two half-siblings: Jeffrey (from her mother) and Robyn (from her father). In 1948, Kahn was sent to a progressive boarding school in Pennsylvania and stayed there until 1952. During that time, her mother pursued her acting dream. Kahn soon began acting herself and performed in a number of school productions. In 1960, she graduated from Martin Van Buren High School in Queens, where she earned a drama scholarship to Hofstra University. At Hofstra, she studied drama, music, and speech therapy. After changing her major a number of times, Kahn graduated from Hofstra in 1964 with a degree in speech therapy. Kahn began auditioning for professional acting roles shortly after her graduation from Hofstra; on the side, she briefly taught public school in Levittown, New York. Just before adopting the professional name Madeline Kahn (Kahn was her stepfather's last name), she made her stage debut as a chorus girl in a revival of Kiss Me, Kate, which led her to join the Actors' Equity. Her part in the flop How Now, Dow Jones was written out before the 1967 show reached Broadway, as was her role as Miss Whipple in the original production of Promises, Promises. She earned her first break on Broadway with New Faces of 1968. That same year, she performed her first professional lead in a special concert performance of the operetta Candide in honor of Leonard Bernstein's 50th birthday. In 1969, she appeared off-Broadway in the revue Promenade. She appeared in two Broadway musicals in the 1970s: a featured role in Richard Rodgers' 1970 Noah's Ark-themed show Two by Two (her silly waltz "The Golden Ram," capped by a high C, can be heard on the show's cast album) and a leading lady turn as Lily Garland in 1978's On the Twentieth Century. She left (or was fired from) the latter show early in its run, yielding the role to her understudy, Judy Kaye, whose career it launched. She also starred in a 1977 Town Hall revival of She Loves Me (opposite Barry Bostwick and original London cast member Rita Moreno). Kahn's film debut was in the 1968 short De Düva: The Dove. Her feature debut was as Ryan O'Neal's hysterical fiancée in Peter Bogdanovich's screwball comedy What's Up, Doc? (1972) starring Barbra Streisand. Her film career continued with Paper Moon (1973), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Kahn was cast in the role of Agnes Gooch in the 1974 film Mame, but star Lucille Ball fired Kahn due to artistic differences. (Note: several of Ball's biographies note that Kahn was eager to be released from the role so that she could join the cast of Blazing Saddles, a film about to go into production; whether Kahn was fired or left Mame under mutual agreement is undetermined). A close succession of Kahn comedies — Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), and High Anxiety (1977) — were all directed by Mel Brooks, who many Hollywood observers claimed was able to bring out the best of Kahn's comic talents. Their last collaboration would be 1981's History of the World, Part I. For Blazing Saddles, she was again nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In the April 2006 issue of Premiere magazine, her performance as Lili von Shtupp in Saddles was selected as #31 on its list of the 100 greatest performances of all time. In 1978, Kahn's comic screen persona reached another peak with Neil Simon's The Cheap Detective, a spoof of Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon directed by Robert Moore. In the film she befuddles Peter Falk's gumshoe with an array of fake identities. Kahn's roles were primarily comedic rather than dramatic, though the 1970s found her originating roles in two plays that had both elements: 1974's In the Boom Boom Room and 1977's Marco Polo Sings a Solo. After her success in Brooks' films, she played in a number of less successful films in the 1980s (perhaps most memorably as Mrs. White in the 1985 film Clue). She also performed in the movie The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother opposite Gene Wilder. In 1983, she starred in her own short-lived TV sitcom, Oh Madeline, which ended after only one season due to poor ratings. In 1987, Kahn won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance in the ABC After School Special, Wanted: The Perfect Guy. Late in her career, Kahn returned to the stage, first in Judy Holliday's role in a 1989 revival of Born Yesterday, then as Dr. Gorgeous in Wendy Wasserstein's 1993 play The Sisters Rosensweig, a role that gained her a Tony Award. She played the corrupt mayor (Angela Lansbury's role) in a concert performance of Anyone Can Whistle that was released on CD. She also continued to appear in movies, including the holiday farce Mixed Nuts and a cameo in the 1978 "The Muppet Movie". In the early 1990s, Kahn recorded a voice for the animated movie The Magic 7. Her most notable role at that time was her recurring role on the sitcom Cosby as Pauline, the eccentric neighbor. She also voiced Gypsy the moth in A Bug's Life. Kahn received some of the best reviews of her career for her Chekhovian turn in the 1999 independent movie Judy Berlin, her final film. Kahn was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in early 1999. She underwent treatment and continued to work, even continuing her role on Cosby. Kahn married her long-time companion, John Hansbury, in October 1999. However, the disease progressed rapidly, and on December 3, 1999, Kahn died at the age of 57.

Original Madeline Kahn Autograph, signed on a 3 x 5 Index Card. Written on Index Card: To Susan - Best Wishes - Madeline Kahn. (You will receive shown 8 x 10 Photograph along with autograph). Regular Price - $ 165.00 / Sale Price - $ 89.95.

STELLA STEVENS AUTOGRAPH

Stella Stevens was born Estelle Caro Eggleston; October 1, 1938. Stella is an American actress, film producer, film director and pin-up model who began her acting career in 1959. Stevens was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, the daughter of Dovey Estelle (née Caro) and Thomas Ellett Eggleston. She married electrician Noble Herman Stephens on December 1, 1954, probably in Memphis, Tennessee, with whom she had her only child, actor/producer Andrew Stevens. She and Herman Stephens divorced three years later, although she retained a variation of his surname as her own professional name. Stevens was first under contract to 20th Century Fox, then dropped after six months. After winning the role of "Appassionata Von Climax" for the musical Li'l Abner (1959), she gained a contract with Paramount Pictures (1959-1963) and later Columbia Pictures (1964-1968). She shared the 1960 Golden Globe Award for, "Most Promising Newcomer - Female," with Tuesday Weld, Angie Dickinson and Janet Munro for, Say One For Me. In 1960, Stevens was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for January (and had featured pictorials in 1965 and 1968). Stevens was listed among the 100 sexiest stars of the 20th Century (#27). During the 1960s, she was one of the 10 most photographed women in the world, along with Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Ann-Margret and Raquel Welch. In 1962, Stevens starred opposite Elvis Presley in, Girls! Girls! Girls!. Later that year, she portrayed Jerry Lewis's love interest in, The Nutty Professor. This was followed by other comic turns as the former "Miss Montana" beauty queen in Vincente Minnelli's The Courtship of Eddie's Father and as Dean Martin's inept partner in the "Matt Helm" spy spoof, The Silencers. Stevens was featured in Sam Peckinpah's, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, in 1970, with Jason Robards. In 1972, she appeared in Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure, as "Linda Rogo" (the former-hooker wife of Ernest Borgnine's character). Throughout her career, Stevens appeared in dozens of TV shows and was a regular on the 1981-1982 prime-time soap opera Flamingo Road. She teamed with the late Sandy Dennis in a touring production of an all-female version of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, playing the messy one. She produced and directed two films, The Ranch (1989) and The American Heroine (1979).

Original Stella Stevens Autograph, signed on a 3 x 5 inch Cut Card Stock. (You will receive shown 8 x 10 Photograph along with autograph). Regular Price - $ 55.00 / Sale Price - $ 36.95.

MAE WEST AUTOGRAPH

Mae West was born on August 17, 1893 – died on November 22, 1980. Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and sex symbol. Known for her bawdy double entendres, West made a name for herself in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to Hollywood to become a comedian, actress and writer in the motion picture industry. One of the more controversial stars of her day, West encountered many problems including censorship. When her cinematic career ended, she continued to perform on stage, in Las Vegas, in the United Kingdom, on radio and television, and recorded Rock and Roll albums. West became a legendary American entertainment personality. She was born Mary Jane West in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City. During her childhood, West moved to various parts of Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Brooklyn, and attended Erasmus Hall High School. She was the daughter of John Patrick West and Matilda "Tillie" Doelger (also spelled Delker). Her sister and brother were Mildred Katherine "Beverly" West (December 8, 1898 – March 12, 1982) and John Edwin West (February 11, 1900 – October 12, 1964). Her father was a prizefighter known as "Battlin' Jack West" who later worked as a "special policeman" and then as a detective who ran his own agency. Her mother was a former corset and fashion model. The family was Protestant, although West's mother has been reported as being Jewish, German immigrant. Her Roman Catholic paternal grandmother, who was Irish, as well as other relatives who were Roman Catholic, and the aunt who helped deliver her, disapproved of her career and its choices. By some accounts, West's paternal grandfather, John Edwin, may have been an African American who passed for white. West was only five years old when she started appearing in amateur shows and many times she won prizes for her performances. She began performing professionally in vaudeville in 1905 at the age of twelve. Her trademark walk was said to have originated in her early years as a stage actress after she saw female impersonators Bert Savoy and Julian Eltinge perform. West had special eight-inch platforms attached to her shoes to increase her height and enhance her stage presence. Her first appearance in a legitimate Broadway show was in her former dancing teacher, Ned Wayburn's, 1911 revue A La Broadway. The show folded after just eight performances. Appearing with West in the cast was another newcomer, Al Jolson. West first performed under the stage name Baby Mae, and unsuccessfully tried various personas including a male impersonator, Sis Hopkins, and a blackface coon shouter. Her photograph appeared on an edition of the sheet music for the popular number "Ev'rybody Shimmies Now" in 1918. She was encouraged as a performer by her mother, who, according to West, always thought that whatever her daughter did was fantastic. In 1918, after exiting several high-profile revues, West finally got her break in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, opposite Ed Wynn. As La Petite Daffy, she appeared in a "shimmy" courtroom skit. Eventually, she began writing her own risqué plays using the pen name Jane Mast. Her first starring role on Broadway was in a play she titled Sex, which she also wrote, produced, and directed. Though critics hated the show, ticket sales were good. The notorious production did not go over well with city officials and the theater was raided with West arrested along with the cast. She was prosecuted on morals charges and, on April 19, 1927, was sentenced to ten days for "corrupting the morals of youth". While incarcerated on Welfare Island (now known as Roosevelt Island), she was allowed to wear her silk underpants instead of the scratchy prison issue and the warden reportedly took her to dinner every night. She served eight days with two days off for good behavior. Media attention to the case enhanced her career. Her next play, The Drag, was about homosexuality and alluded to the work of Karl-Heinrich Ulrichs. It was a box office success but it played in New Jersey because it was banned from Broadway. West regarded talking about sex as a basic human rights issue and was also an early advocate of gay and transgender rights. West's theatrical treatments of gender and gender performativity were advanced, considering the times, and she deftly poked fun at society's strictures. West continued to write plays including The Wicked Age, Pleasure Man and The Constant Sinner. Her productions were plagued by controversy and other problems. The controversy ensured that West stayed in the news and most of the time resulted in packed performances. Her 1928 play, Diamond Lil, about a racy, easygoing lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit. This show enjoyed an enduring popularity and West would successfully revive it many times throughout the course of her career. "Diamond Lil" returning to New York from Hollywood, 1933 In 1932, West was offered a motion picture contract by Paramount Pictures. She was 38, unusually advanced for a first movie, especially for a sex symbol (though she kept her age ambiguous for several more years). West made her film debut in Night After Night starring George Raft. At first, she did not like her small role in Night After Night, but was appeased when she was allowed to rewrite her scenes. In West's first scene, a hat check girl exclaims, "Goodness, what lovely diamonds." West replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie." Reflecting on the overall result of her rewritten scenes, Raft is said to have remarked, "She stole everything but the cameras." She brought her Diamond Lil character, now renamed Lady Lou, to the screen in She Done Him Wrong (1933). The film is also notable as one of Cary Grant's first major roles, which boosted his career. West claimed she spotted Grant at the studio and insisted that he be cast as the male lead. The film was a box office hit and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. The success of the film most likely saved Paramount from bankruptcy. Her next release, I'm No Angel (1933), paired her with Grant again. I'm No Angel was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was a tremendous financial blockbuster. By 1933, West was the eighth largest U.S. box office draw in the United States, and by 1935, the second highest paid person in the United States (after William Randolph Hearst). However, the frank sexuality and steamy settings of her films aroused the wrath of moralists. On July 1, 1934, the censorship of the Production Code began to be seriously and meticulously enforced, and her screenplays were heavily edited. Her tactical response was to increase the number of double entendres in her films, expecting the censors to delete the obvious lines and overlook the subtle ones. West's next film was Belle of the Nineties (1934). It was originally titled It Ain't No Sin but the title was changed due to the censor's objection. Other tentative working titles were That St. Louis Woman, Belle of St. Louis, and Belle of New Orleans. Her next film, Goin' To Town (1935), revealed the hypocrisy of the privileged rich class. It was another big financial hit. Her next film, Klondike Annie (1936), concerned religion and hypocrisy and was very controversial. Many critics have called this film her screen masterpiece. That same year, West played opposite Randolph Scott in Go West, Young Man. In this film, she adapted Lawrence Riley's Broadway hit Personal Appearance into a screenplay. The film, directed by Henry Hathaway, was one of the rare times when West starred in a role not originally conceived for her. This was another financial success for West. After this film, West starred in Every Day's a Holiday (1937) for Paramount before their association came to an end. In 1939, Universal Pictures approached West to star in a film opposite W. C. Fields. The studio was eager to duplicate the success of Destry Rides Again starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart with a vehicle starring West and Fields. Having left Paramount eighteen months earlier and looking for a comeback film, West accepted the role of Flower Belle Lee in the film My Little Chickadee (1940). Despite onset tension between West and Fields (West, who was a teetotaler, disapproved of Fields drinking) and fights over the screenplay, My Little Chickadee was a box office success outgrossing Fields' previous films You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) and The Bank Dick (1940). Universal was delighted with its success and offered West two more movies to star with Fields, but she refused, citing the difficulty of working with Fields. West's next film was The Heat's On (1943) for Columbia Pictures. She initially didn't want to do the film but after producer and director Gregory Ratoff pleaded with her and claimed he would go bankrupt if she didn't, West relented. The film opened to bad reviews and failed at the box office. West would not return to films until 1970. Mae West remains notable for a large number of quips, some firmly tied to herself and her characters, and others widely borrowed for very different settings. A famous Mae West quip, "Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?". She made this remark in February 1936, at the railway station in Los Angeles upon her return from Chicago, when a Los Angeles police officer was assigned to escort her home. She first delivered the line on film in She Done Him Wrong, and again to George Hamilton in her last movie, Sextette. Another line allegedly seducing a prospective boyfriend: "My left leg is Christmas; my right leg is Easter; why don't you come up and visit me between the holidays?" Likewise, "When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better," from I'm No Angel, is generally quoted with its original, faintly disreputable meaning. Conversely, however, some quips have been widely adapted to very different settings and meanings. For example, "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful" has been applied to many settings, including Warren Buffett (as a sound principle of informed financial investing). On December 12, 1937, West appeared in two separate sketches on ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's radio show The Chase and Sanborn Hour. Appearing as herself, West flirted with Charlie McCarthy, Bergen's dummy, utilizing her usual brand of wit and risqué sexual references. West referred to Charlie as "all wood and a yard long" and commented that his kisses gave her splinters. Even more outrageous was a sketch written by Arch Oboler that starred West and Don Ameche as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. She told Ameche in the show to "get me a big one...I feel like doin' a big apple!" Days after the broadcast, NBC and received letters calling the show "immoral" and "obscene". Women's clubs and Catholic groups admonished the show's sponsor, Chase & Sanborn Coffee Company, for "prostituting" their services for allowing "impurity [to] invade the air". The FCC later deemed the broadcast "vulgar and indecent" and "far below even the minimum standard which should control in the selection and production of broadcast programs. NBC personally blamed West for the the incident and banned her (and the mention of her name) from their stations. West would not perform in radio for another twelve years until January 1950, in an episode of The Chesterfield Supper Club hosted by Perry Como. West was married on April 11, 1911, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Frank Wallace, a fellow vaudevillian whom she first met in 1909. She was 17, he was 21. In 1935, Wallace showed up in Hollywood with a marriage certificate seeking a share of "their" community property. An affidavit was also uncovered that West made in 1927, during the Sex trial, in which she had declared herself married. At first, West denied ever marrying Wallace but finally admitted in July 1937, in reply to a legal interrogatory, that they had been married. Even though the marriage was a reality, she never lived with Wallace as man and wife. She insisted they have separate bedrooms and she soon sent him away in a show of his own in order to get rid of him. She obtained a legal divorce on July 21, 1942, during which Wallace withdrew his request for separate maintenance, and West testified that she and Wallace had lived together for only "several weeks." The final divorce decree was granted on May 7, 1943. West may have also had another secret marriage. In August 1913, she met an Italian-born Vaudeville headliner and star of the piano-accordion, Guido Deiro. Her affair went "very deep, hittin' on all the emotions. You can't get too hot over anybody unless there's somethin' that goes along with the sex act, can you?" Deiro fell in love with West and arranged his bookings so that the two traveled together. They became engaged late in 1913 or perhaps early in 1914. Some sources reported the pair were married. During a 1935 radio broadcast Walter Winchell incorrectly reported that Mae West had been married to Guido's brother, Pietro. Walter Wincher, a writer for Accordion News magazine, corrected the error: "In a recent radio broadcast, Walter Winchell conveyed the information that Pietro Deiro had been married to Mae West for four years. As one Walter to another, I must set him right. Pietro was never married to the 'come up and see me sometime' girl. Guido Deiro, his brother, was supposed to be the fortunate accordionist." West never publicly admitted that she had been married to Deiro, referring to him simply as "D" in her autobiography. Some West biographers state that the two never married. ]If they were married, this would have constituted bigamy as West was legally married to Frank Wallace at the time. West and Deiro split in 1916. According to Deiro's biographer, West filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery on July 14, 1920. The divorce was granted by the Supreme Court of the State of New York on November 9 of that year. West later said, "Marriage is a great institution. I’m not ready for an institution yet." After appearing in The Heat's On in 1943, West remained active during the ensuing years. Among her stage performances was the title role in Catherine was Great (1944) on Broadway, in which she spoofed the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an "imperial guard" of tall, muscular young actors. The play was produced by Mike Todd and ran for 191 performances. In the 1950s, she also starred in her own Las Vegas stage show, singing while surrounded by bodybuilders. Jayne Mansfield met and later married one of West's muscle men, a former Mr. Universe, Mickey Hargitay. When casting the role of Norma Desmond for the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder offered West, then nearing 60, the role. West turned down the part. Wilder later said, "The idea of [casting] Mae West was idiotic because we only had to talk to her to find out that she thought she was as great, as desirable, as sexy as she had ever been." Gloria Swanson was eventually cast in the role. In 1958, West appeared at the Academy Awards and performed the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Rock Hudson. In 1959, she released her autobiography entitled Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It, which went on to become a best seller. West made some rare appearances on television, including The Red Skelton Show in 1960. In 1964, she guest starred on the sitcom Mister Ed. In order to keep her appeal fresh with younger generations, she recorded two rock and roll albums, Way Out West and Wild Christmas in the late 1960s. She also recorded a number of parody songs including "Santa, Come Up and See Me Sometime," on the album Wild Christmas. Arriving in diamonds at the Cinerama Dome for the opening of her last film After a 26-year absence from motion pictures, West appeared as Leticia Van Allen in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge (1970) with Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, Farrah Fawcett, and Tom Selleck in a small part. The movie was a deliberately campy sex change comedy that was both a box office and critical failure. Vidal later called the film "an awful joke", and noted that the film's director, Michael Sarne, never directed another film. Despite Myra Breckinridge's mainstream failure, it did find an audience on the cult film circuit where West's films were regularly screened and West herself was dubbed "the queen of camp". West recorded another album in the 1970s on MGM Records titled Great Balls of Fire, which covered songs by The Doors among others, and her autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, was updated and republished. In 1976, she appeared on the The Dick Cavett Show and that same year began work on her final film, Sextette (1978). Adapted from a script written by West, daily revisions and disagreements hampered production from the beginning. Due to the numerous changes, West agreed to have her lines fed to her through a microphone concealed in her wig. Despite the daily problems, West was, according to Sextette director Ken Hughes, determined to see the film through. In spite of her determination, Hughes noted that West sometimes appeared disoriented and forgetful and found it difficult to follow his directions. Her now failing eyesight also made navigating around the set difficult. Hughes eventually began shooting her from the waist up to hide the out-of-shot production assistant crawling on the floor, guiding her around the set. Upon its release, Sextette was a critical and commercial failure. In August 1980, West tripped while getting out of bed. After the fall, West was unable to speak and was taken to the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles where test revealed that she had suffered a stroke. She remained in the hospital where, seven days later, she had a diabetic reaction to the formula in her feeding tube. On September 18, she suffered a second stroke which left her right side paralyzed and developed pneumonia. By November, West's condition had improved, but the prognosis was not good and she was sent home. She died there on November 22, 1980 at age 87. West is entombed with her family in Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York City. For her contribution to the film industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street in Hollywood. During World War II, Allied soldiers called their yellow inflatable, vest-like life preserver jackets "Mae Wests" partly from Cockney rhyming slang for "breasts" and partly because of the resemblance to her curvaceous torso. A "Mae West" is also a type of round parachute malfunction which contorts the shape of the canopy into the appearance of an extraordinarily large brassiere, presumably one suitable for a woman of West's generous proportions. West has been the subject of songs, such as in the title song of Cole Porter's Broadway musical Anything Goes and in "You're the Top", from the same show. West's name has been incorporated into nomenclature for a number of items. A Mae West slot canyon is one that is too narrow at the bottom to traverse on foot. Instead, one uses chimneying techniques to negotiate above the floor. A "Mae West Hold" is a term used to describe a United States Senate procedure that in effect stops a bill dead in its tracks, usually in secret. The Mae West version of the Senate hold occurs when the senator behind the objection is open to negotiation, inviting the author to "come up and see me sometime." MAE-West was also the name of the Metropolitan Area Exchange West, one of the first Internet tier-one hubs to connect all the major TCP/IP networks that made up the Internet in 1992. It is not documented whether the founders of MAE-West named this early Internet Exchange after the actress. One of the most popular objects of the surrealist movement was the Mae West Lips Sofa, which was completed by artist Salvador Dalí in 1938 for Edward James. Original Mae West Autograph, signed on Clipping of Mae West. Approx. 3 3/4 inches(at the widest point) x 8 1/8 inches (length). Regular Price - $ 425.00 / Sale Price - $ 235.00.

JACK PAAR AUTOGRAPH

Jack Harold Paar was born on May 1, 1918 – died on January 27, 2004. Jack Paar was an American radio and television talk show host most noted for his stint as host of The Tonight Show. He moved with his family to Jackson, Michigan, 30 miles south of Lansing, Michigan, as a child. Paar left school at 16, and worked first as a radio announcer at WIBM in Jackson, Michigan and later as a humorous disc jockey at Midwest stations, including WJR in Detroit, WIRE in Indianapolis, WGAR in Cleveland and WBEN in Buffalo. In his book P.S. Jack Paar, he recalled doing utility duty at WGAR on the night Orson Welles broadcast his infamous War of the Worlds over the CBS network (and affiliate WGAR). Attempting to calm possible panicked listeners, Paar announced, "The world is not coming to an end. Trust me. Have I ever lied to you?" During World War II, as part of a special services company entertaining troops in the South Pacific, Paar was a clever, wisecracking master of ceremonies. More than once, his pointed jibes at officers nearly got him into trouble. Paar became renowned among servicemen, who thought he was even better than professional comedians. Jack Paar came to the attention of RKO Radio Pictures in Hollywood, which hired him to emcee Variety Time (1948), a compilation of vaudeville sketches. Paar later recalled that RKO didn't know what to do with him. His producers, trying to decide what kind of screen characters he could play, compared Paar with other RKO stars. Finally, Paar said, one of the executives had an inspiration, and figured out who Jack Paar really was: "Kay Kyser, with warmth." Paar projected a pleasant personality on film, and RKO called him back to emcee another filmed vaudeville show, Footlight Varieties (1951). Paar was featured in a few films, including a role opposite Marilyn Monroe in Love Nest (1951). Like fellow humorists Steve Allen and Henry Morgan, Jack Paar dabbled in motion pictures but was much more comfortable behind a studio microphone, broadcasting. Paar found loyal listeners nationally as the 1950-51 host of radio's The $64 Question on NBC. He appeared as a standup comic on The Ed Sullivan Show and hosted two TV game shows, Up To Paar (1952) and Bank on the Stars (1953), before hosting The Morning Show (1954) on CBS. In 1956 he hosted The Jack Paar Show on the ABC Radio network. An impressive stint as a guest host on Jack Benny's radio show caught the attention of NBC officials, who eventually offered him his best known role as host of The Tonight Show. Paar was the program's host from 1957 to 1962; The show was officially entitled "Tonight Starring Jack Paar," then after 1959 it was known as The Jack Paar Show. The series became, on September 19, 1960, one of the first regularly scheduled videotaped programs in color. Only a few minutes of video of Paar's talk host career in color are known to exist today; NBC's policy at the time was to preserve programming on black-and-white kinescopes but even so, the videotapes of most of Paar's Tonight Show appearances were taped over and no longer exist, a policy that continued through the first ten years of Johnny Carson's subsequent hosting of the same series. It was during Paar's stint as host that The Tonight Show became the entertainment juggernaut that it remained for the next five decades. Of all the the program's hosts, Paar generated the most obsessive fascination and curiosity from both the press and the public. The Tonight focus was always on compelling conversation and Paar's guests tended to be literate raconteurs such as Peter Ustinov rather than actors selling their current films, while Paar himself was a superb storyteller. Further, Paar surrounded himself with a memorable group of regulars and semi-regulars, including Cliff Arquette (as the homespun "Charlie Weaver"), author-illustrator Alexander King, Tedi Thurman (NBC's sultry "Miss Monitor") and comedy actresses Peggy Cass and Dody Goodman. In 1959, Paar's gagwriter Jack Douglas became a bestselling author (My Brother Was an Only Child, A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the Way to the Grave: An Autobiography) after his regular appearances with Paar. Douglas's pretty Japanese wife Reiko often appeared, as did Hungarian sexpot Zsa Zsa Gabor, French comedienne Genevieve and several Brits as well; Paar enjoyed conversing with foreigners and knew their accents would spice up the proceedings. During this time, Paar also made occasional appearances on the television game shows Password and What's My Line? On episode 215 of the latter, Paar filled in as guest panelist for Steve Allen, his predecessor at The Tonight Show. In 1959, he was criticized for his interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Later that year, during the show's regular swing through the West Coast, Paar again made the front pages of the national newspapers by asking a visibly-inebriated Mickey Rooney to leave the program during the December 1st telecast. Two years later, he broadcast his show from Berlin just as the Berlin Wall was going up. Paar also engaged in a number of public feuds, one of them with CBS luminary Ed Sullivan, and another with Walter Winchell. The latter feud "effectively ended Winchell's career", beginning a shift in power from print to television. Paar was often unpredictable and emotional. The most salient example of this kind of on-screen behavior was demonstrated on the February 10, 1960 show, when one of his jokes was cut from a broadcast by studio censors. The joke in question involved a woman writing to a vacation resort and inquiring about the availability of a "W.C." The woman used that term to mean "water closet" (i.e., bathroom), but the gentleman who received the letter misunderstood "W.C." to mean "wayside chapel" (i.e., church). The full text of the joke reveals multiple double entendres that are tame by today's standards, but too much for the network to bear in 1960. NBC censors replaced that section of the show with news coverage and failed to inform Paar of their decision. The decision to censor the joke so angered Paar that the next night, February 11, he announced on the air that he was leaving the show, saying "I've made a decision about what I'm going to do. I'm leaving The Tonight Show. There must be a better way to make a living than this, a way of entertaining people without being constantly involved in some form of controversy. I love NBC [...] But they let me down."After finishing this monologue, Paar abruptly walked offstage, leaving his flustered announcer Hugh Downs to finish the show for him. Less than a month later, Paar was convinced to return; on March 7 he opened his monologue with the now-famous line, "As I was saying before I was interrupted...I believe the last thing I said was 'There must be a better way to make a living than this.' Well, I've looked...and there isn't." He then went on to explain his departure with typical frankness: "Leaving the show was a childish and perhaps emotional thing. I have been guilty of such action in the past and will perhaps be again. I'm totally unable to hide what I feel. It is not an asset in show business, but I shall do the best I can to amuse and entertain you and let other people speak freely, as I have in the past." Paar's emotionality made the everyday routine of putting together a 90-minute program difficult to continue for long. Paar made it clear that he was not planning to continue with The Tonight Show because, as a TV Guide item put it, he was "bone tired" of the grind, and he signed off for the last time on March 29, 1962. Paar then began hosting a prime-time Friday night show on NBC, entitled The Jack Paar Program. Popular belief holds that The Ed Sullivan Show introduced the Beatles to American television audiences; In fact, on January 3, 1964 the group made their prime time debut on Paar's hour in film clips Paar had leased from the BBC, with Paar gently making fun of the band (the Beatles first U.S. television appearance was in a feature story on The Huntley-Brinkley Report on November 18, 1963). Paar's show had a world view, debuting acts from around the globe and showing films from exotic locations; most of the films were made on travels made by guests such as Arthur Godfrey or Paar himself (e.g., several visits with Albert Schweitzer at his compound in Gabon, West Africa and Mary Martin at her home in the jungles of Brazil). During the first half of 1964, another running feud pitted Paar against the show immediately preceding his program, David Frost's satire series That Was The Week That Was. A typical exchange would have That Was the Week That Was "signing off" the NBC Television Network just before the Paar program, with Paar responding that the show immediately preceding his was Henry Morgan's Amateur Hour (Morgan was a frequent guest on the earlier show). The mock feud suddenly evaporated when NBC moved That Was the Week That Was to a Tuesday night time slot for the 1964-65 season. Paar's prime time show aired for three years, including guests such as Brother Dave Gardner, Peter Ustinov, Lawrence of Arabia's brother, Richard Burton, Oscar Levant, Lowell Thomas, Cassius Clay reciting his poetry to piano accompaniment by Liberace, an occasionally inebriated Judy Garland, Jonathan Winters, Woody Allen, Bill Cosby (whose nickname for Paar was "The Boss"), Bette Davis, Robert Morley, Cliff Arquette (as Charlie Weaver), Dick Gregory and many others. The final closing segment of the series, broadcast on June 25, 1965, featured him sitting alone on a stool, sharing a discussion that he had with his daughter Randy, who called Paar's departure a sabbatical. Noting the origins of the term, he said that his own field was, though not completely used up, "a little dry recently." Then he called to his German shepherd, who came to him from the seats of what was, for once, an empty studio, and walked out. Johnny Carson precisely copied this format of hosting a clip show from a stool for his own farewell episode of The Tonight Show in 1992. Paar came back for another late night show in January 1973 on ABC; this time, as one of a group of rotating hosts (including Dick Cavett, a former Paar writer) on ABC's Wide World of Entertainment, he appeared one week out of each month, which was the most Paar was willing to appear. (Paar later claimed he would not have appeared at all unless ABC committed itself to keeping Cavett's show on the schedule in some manner.) His announcer for this series was Peggy Cass, and perhaps the most notable aspect of the series was the fact that comic Freddie Prinze made his national television debut on it. He later expressed discomfort with what the medium had developed into. While Cavett had no problem interviewing young rock acts, Paar once expressed the view he had trouble interviewing people dressed in "overalls." The show, which was in direct competition with Tonight, lasted one year before he quit. Dissatisfied with the one-week-per-month formula, he complained that even his own mother didn't know when he was on. In 1986, NBC aired a special featuring Paar, titled Jack Paar Comes Home; the following year, a second special Jack Paar Is Alive and Well was broadcast by the network. Both of these specials were largely made up of kinescoped clips from Paar's prime time program, to which he maintained the copyright. In the course of promoting the first special, Paar guested on Johnny Carson's version of Tonight for the first time on November 18, 1986. He appeared again to promote the next one on December 17, 1987. PBS television devoted an edition of the American Masters series to Paar's career in 1997, and in 2003 revisited the topic with another hour-long examination of the Paar phenomenon, appropriately entitled Smart Television. The program features clips of Paar with guests including Jonathan Winters, Woody Allen, Judy Garland, Bill Cosby (in his first network appearance), Peter Ustinov, Richard Burton, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy (in his first interview after his brother's assassination), Richard Nixon, Barry Goldwater, and many others compiled from the 1950s and 1960s, as well as more recent interviews with people who worked with Paar. Paar, who enjoyed many years of relatively good health and made rare guest appearances on The Tonight Show (hosted by Johnny Carson and Jay Leno) and Late Night with David Letterman, as well as Charles Grodin's CNBC talk show, died at his Greenwich, Connecticut home in January 2004, with his wife Miriam (nee Wagner) and daughter Randy by his side. He had long been in ill health, having undergone triple-bypass heart surgery in 1998. He also suffered a stroke a year before he died. As Richard Corliss noted in Time's obituary, Jack Paar had divided television talk show history into two eras: Before Paar and Below Paar. Original Jack Paar Autograph, signed on a 3 x 5 inch Index Card. Written on the card: Best Wishes Jack Parr. The Index Card has a Rust mark where a paper clip had been. Regular Price - $ 75.00 / Sale Price - $ 34.95.

VIRGINIA MAYO AUTOGRAPH

Virginia Mayo was born on November 30, 1920 – died on January 17, 2005. Mayo was an American film actress. Born Virginia Clara Jones in St. Louis, Missouri. Tutored by a series of dancing instructors engaged by her aunt, she appeared in the St. Louis Municipal Opera chorus and then appeared with six other girls at an act at the Jefferson Hotel. There she was recruited by vaudeville performer Andy Mayo to appear in his act (as ringmaster for two men in a horse suit), taking his surname as her stage name. She appeared in vaudeville for three years in the act, appearing with Eddie Cantor on Broadway in 1941's Banjo Eyes. Mayo continued her career as a dancer, then signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn and appeared in several of Goldwyn's movies. With Danny Kaye she played the dream-girl heroine in comedies including Wonder Man (1945), The Kid from Brooklyn (1946) and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947). In 1949's White Heat she took on the unsympathetic role of the cold and treacherous "Verna Jarrett," opposite James Cagney. Mayo later claimed in interviews that she was occasionally genuinely frightened by Cagney during the filming of the picture, because Cagney's acting was so realistic and natural. She was also cast against type as a shallow golddigger in The Best Years of Our Lives, in which she gave a performance that garnered much acclaim. Her film career continued through the 1950s and 1960s, frequently in B-movie westerns and adventure films. While she also appeared in musicals, Mayo's singing voice was always dubbed. Mayo has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine. In 1996 she received a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. In 1947, she married actor Michael O'Shea, who died in 1973. They had one child, Mary Catherine O'Shea (born in 1953). The O'Shea family lived for several decades in Thousand Oaks, California. In the 1990s, Mayo donated her extensive collection of Hollywood memorabilia to the Thousand Oaks Library. She died of natural causes in Los Angeles in 2005 at the age of 84. Follies Girl (1943), Jack London (1943), Up in Arms (1944), Seven Days Ashore (1944), The Princess and the Pirate (1944), Wonder Man (1945), The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Out of the Blue (1947), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), Smart Girls Don't Talk (1948), A Song Is Born (1948), Flaxy Martin (1949), Colorado Territory (1949), The Girl from Jones Beach (1949), White Heat (1949), Red Light (1949), Always Leave Them Laughing (1949), Backfire (1950), The Flame and the Arrow (1950), The West Point Story (1950), Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951), Along the Great Divide (1951), Painting the Clouds with Sunshine (1951), Starlift (1951) (Cameo), Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Night Life (1952), She's Working Her Way Through College (1952), The Iron Mistress (1952), She's Back on Broadway (1953), South Sea Woman (1953), Devil's Canyon (1953), King Richard and the Crusaders (1954), The Silver Chalice (1954), Pearl of the South Pacific (1955), Great Day in the Morning (1956), The Proud Ones (1956), Congo Crossing (1956), The Big Land (1957), The Story of Mankind (1957), The Tall Stranger (1957), Fort Dobbs (1958), Westbound (1959), Jet Over the Atlantic (1959), Revolt of the Mercenaries (La Rivolta dei mercenari) (1961), Young Fury (1965), Castle of Evil (1966), Fort Utah (1967), Fugitive Lovers (1975), Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976), French Quarter (1977), The Haunted (1979), Evil Spirits (1990), Midnight Witness (1993), and The Man Next Door (1997).

Original Virginia Mayo Autograph, signed on a 3 x 5 inch Index Card. Written: Sincerely Virginia Mayo. (You will receive shown 8 x 10 Black and White Photograph along with autograph) Regular Price - $ 245.00 / Sale Price - $ 124.95.