FRED ASTAIRE AND GINGER ROGERS. Legendary Hollywood dance team. Full-length Photograph of the duo, each posing with their right hand on their right knee and their left hand on their left hip, Signed by each in the light portion of their corresponding image. Astaire’s signature appears in red ink. The black and white photograph measures … [ Read More ]
Movie Star Autographs, Signatures and Signed Movie Scripts
Movie stars seem to be synonymous with autograph signatures and autograph seekers. Before the days of paparazzi waiting for movie stars everywhere they went, actors and actresses were very willing to sign autograph books for fans. Usually, the fans turned the page each time they asked someone to sign their book, so the examples found today are very well-placed on a page. In-person autograph signatures are the only ones that can generally be trusted not to have been written by an assistant in recent years. The volume of requests that movie stars receive for their autograph signatures and signed photographs is so enormous that no one could keep up with it – and they don't. Unless there is a direct personal relationship between the movie star and the person a photograph is inscribed to, it must be assumed that it was signed by someone else on the star’s behalf. This was not as true decades ago, and because of the cost of photographs only a few movie stars sent them out to people they did not know.
Autographed movie memorabilia of the early movie stars is not in significant demand today, but beginning in the 1930s and 1940s, movie stars’ autographs were, and are, very popularly collected. Judy Garland has always been in great demand and is one of the scarcest movie star autographs to find. Others of her same period of time, such as Clark Gable, Cary Grant, and Fred Astaire, are much more available, all in the form of autograph signatures obtained in person on album pages. Lawrence Olivier had a long life and career, and he signed letters more often than others, and these, as well as in-person autograph signatures, are available. Vivien Leigh, the star of “Gone with the Wind” along with Clark Gable, had a career cut short by illness and, as a result, is nowhere near as commonly available as her fame might indicate. Due to Humphrey Bogart's shortened life span, his autograph signature is much scarcer, and he continues to be in great demand among fans of his many iconic movie roles. The interest and demand for autograph signatures of the director Alfred Hitchcock rivals that of any of his contemporary movie stars. His image was well-known, and he was happy to sign autograph albums, but the demand for his autograph signature has always been greater than the supply. The most popular movie star of this era, and the most expensive to acquire, is Marilyn Monroe. She very willingly signed autographs for admirers, but demand has always far outstripped the number of pieces that people are willing to part with, and only the emergence on the market of a group of her signed checks has made her available in the last decade or so. Elvis Presley, more of a singer than movie star, has been in tremendous demand since his death. Presley's autograph signatures are all that he ever wrote, with the exception of a few signed documents, but he was very willing to sign autographs for fans in person.
Please browse our selection of autographed movie memorabilia or you may search our entire inventory alphabetically, by name or by category.
Coward, Noel
“…THE BIGGEST SMASH HIT IN NEW YORK.” English actor, playwright, and composer best known for highly polished comedies of manners. Typewritten Letter Signed, May 21, 1958, octavo, on stationary with the address 404 East 55th Street, New York. To “My dear Bink” (Hugh Beaumont). “Thanks ever so for your letter. “Yes, I am very keen … [ Read More ]
Gone With the Wind
A copy of the final mimeographed shooting script, dated on the front cover, January 24, 1939, and stamped copy number 137. Starring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland. Screenplay by Sidney Howard. Produced by David O. Selznick. Directed by Victor Fleming. 273 pages. Folio. Enclosed in a full blue morocco clamshell box. … [ Read More ]
Greene, Graham
English writer. Collection of 8 Mimeograph Manuscripts for the motion picture, The Third Man, based on the novel by Graham Greene, comprising the Treatment, the Screenplay, the Second Draft Script, the Synopsis and Dialogue Screenplay, Dialogue Cutting Continuity Script, Release Script Reels 1 – 12, Narrator Portuguese Script, and Spanish Script. The 1949 London Film … [ Read More ]
Leigh, Vivien
VIVIEN LEIGH’S CONTRACT FOR ‘GONE WITH THE WIND’ VIVIEN LEIGH. Motion picture actress. Four Typewritten Documents, forty-two pages, legal folio, January 16 to November 8, 1939. Concerning Vivien Leigh’s role in the production of Gone With The Wind. Together with an Autograph Letter Signed. Typewritten Document, seventeen pages, legal folio, Culver City, California, January 16, … [ Read More ]
Rodgers, Richard
RICHARD ROGERS. Composer and librettist of film and Broadway musicals. Mimeograph Document Signed in ink, 52 pages, quarto, May 4, 1940. The agreement between Rodgers and Hart and RKO Radio Pictures for exclusive motion picture rights to the musical comedy Too Many Girls. The agreement contains clauses regarding advertising, musical recording rights and distribution rights. … [ Read More ]