The second autograph that I ever wrote away for was to Marshall Drew, a survivor of the Titanic sinking. I had read a newspaper article written on the 65th anniversary of the sinking. Since 1977 was pre-internet days I had no source for an address other than the dateline on the article and the zip code atlas at the local post office. I mailed the article to Mr. Drew and a week or so later received the article back along with a written letter in which he detailed his memories of the event. I was in my very early 20's and was more of a Titanic buff than an autograph collector so I didn't know too much about paper preservation, etc. I taped the newspaper article directly to the letter and framed them. They hung on various walls for several years before I wised up and put them in separate sleeves and an album. The letter now shows a serious paper acid stain as a result of my ignorance.
We've all been there. Being inexperienced and not knowing or thinking of the best way to get or preserve an autograph. But at least you had the idea to write to him when you did.
Back in that era the Titanic was one of the world's great mysteries. It was lost and no one knew where it was. It was quite a shock when Robert Ballard and team found it. It was almost too bad that the mystique was now gone.
I only wrote to Millvina Dean, who was the youngest and last survivor. But she had no memories of the sinking.
One possible option for you would be to have the letter and article deacidified and then rebuild your display so the article covers up the stained part of the letter.
It sure makes me feel old to dig out some of my earlier stuff that I got and see that the passage of time has left some toning or foxing on the paper.
Here is a recent acquisition that has led me to embark on a mission to study and document this specific type of autograph.
It is a hand-signed free frank from Eleanor Roosevelt (adding her real first name "Anna").
She got the franking privilege for her mail as a widowed first lady after her husband (FDR) passed away.
Eleanor Roosevelt soon changed to using a rubber stamp signature for her mail, but this is an early envelope from before she did that. I have found a couple later examples where she signed free franks for collectors but so far this the only one of her early free franks that I have been able to locate. (I am sure others exist).
What intrigues me the most, apart from its rarity, is the way she signed it. Traditionally the signature would be in the upper right-hand corner of the envelope. I am speculating that she signed her name in the upper left and added "free" in the upper right because that is how servicemen in WWII exercised their franking privilege and she was following that format that she undoubtedly had seen before.
I was excited to find (and win) on Ebay a transitional rubber-stamped free frank in the same format as this one. (It has not arrived yet). So, it seems that she implemented her rubber-stamped free frank before moving her signature to the upper right corner of the envelope.
I will look to add a few more varieties of her rubber-stamped free franks as they become available. Eventually I hope to document the evolution of Eleanor Roosevelt's free frank.
Sometimes I can't get a through-the-mail autograph because the subject is deceased. So I sometimes find other signees who had a secondhand tie to that famous person. Among my obscure baseball autographs is a pitcher named Willis Hudlin, who gave up Babe Ruth's 500th career home run back in 1929. He sent me back his autograph in this letter below. He was pretty old and his handwriting is hard to read, so I'll translate: "The Babe had his good years about the same time that I had mine. Yes he hit his 500 HR off me 8/11/29 in Cleveland. It was a sinker ball that he hit. The Babe did not have much luck vs. me. In 9 years he only got a total of 5 HR's off of me. With all good wishes, Willis Hudlin".
Hudlin's age maybe caused him to drop a stitch - he dated the letter from 1987, but it was really 1997.
@ernie11 said:
Sometimes I can't get a through-the-mail autograph because the subject is deceased. So I sometimes find other signees who had a secondhand tie to that famous person. Among my obscure baseball autographs is a pitcher named Willis Hudlin, who gave up Babe Ruth's 500th career home run back in 1929. He sent me back his autograph in this letter below. He was pretty old and his handwriting is hard to read, so I'll translate: "The Babe had his good years about the same time that I had mine. Yes he hit his 500 HR off me 8/11/29 in Cleveland. It was a sinker ball that he hit. The Babe did not have much luck vs. me. In 9 years he only got a total of 5 HR's off of me. With all good wishes, Willis Hudlin".
Hudlin's age maybe caused him to drop a stitch - he dated the letter from 1987, but it was really 1997.
These "association" pieces are great. Real history.
I seek out this sort of thing when I can.
I'll forgive his error on the date. It was 67 years after the historic HR. Hudlin must have been in his late 90s when he wrote it.
@ernie11 said:
Sometimes I can't get a through-the-mail autograph because the subject is deceased. So I sometimes find other signees who had a secondhand tie to that famous person. Among my obscure baseball autographs is a pitcher named Willis Hudlin, who gave up Babe Ruth's 500th career home run back in 1929. He sent me back his autograph in this letter below. He was pretty old and his handwriting is hard to read, so I'll translate: "The Babe had his good years about the same time that I had mine. Yes he hit his 500 HR off me 8/11/29 in Cleveland. It was a sinker ball that he hit. The Babe did not have much luck vs. me. In 9 years he only got a total of 5 HR's off of me. With all good wishes, Willis Hudlin".
Hudlin's age maybe caused him to drop a stitch - he dated the letter from 1987, but it was really 1997.
These "association" pieces are great. Real history.
I seek out this sort of thing when I can.
I'll forgive his error on the date. It was 67 years after the historic HR. Hudlin must have been in his late 90s when he wrote it.
Another one like this that I have, I don't have an image for - it is an autographed index card I got back in 1998 from Tim Forneris, the St. Louis groundskeeper who retrieved the baseball hit by Mark McGwire as his 62nd HR, to break the single-season home run record. Last I read, Forneris was an assistant public defender in St. Louis.
Back at the time Hank Aaron broke the home run record a magazine, I believe it was SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, sent Hank Aaron autographed baseballs to many, many people involved with advertising. I received one of the balls but was always suspect as to if he had actually signed it. (I no longer have it.) Hank Aaron is a signature that needs to be authenticated.
Back in the early 1990's I sent two Series 1935 Silver Certificates (With Motto and Without Motto) to C. Douglas Dillon who graciously honored my autograph request. Here is one of those notes.
@PipestonePete said:
Back in the early 1990's I sent two Series 1935 Silver Certificates (With Motto and Without Motto) to C. Douglas Dillon who graciously honored my autograph request. Here is one of those notes.
Nice!
I got a few things signed by Dillon but never got around to getting some uncirculated silver certificates to send him.
Back in "the old days" you got your cancelled checks back in your monthly statement.
Here are a couple checks I sent to Mother Teresa (now a saint) for return postage, and donations for Habitat for Humanity where the checks were made out to Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.
Those are all fantastic!! I wish I had thought of writing Clapton. I obtained several Carter signed books when he did a signing in the Twin Cities back in the '90's. And that Armstrong is exquisite. That is a $4K+ signature. It looks pristine! How were you able to get it signed but not personalized?
I am sure that i just wrote to Armstrong and asked for a signed photo. It was his decision to not inscribe it. My guess is that by then he was either tired of all the photo signing, or perhaps he was out of town and left a stack for filling autograph requests, but that's all just speculation in my part.
Years ago I attended my one and only baseball card show because some Red Sox players, including Ted Williams, were there signing autographs.
I bought my $35 ticket to get my baseball signed by Williams, and while I was waiting for my timed entry, I bought this photo for $3. It shows Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, and Johnny Pesky.
I knew I could get all except Williams through the mail, and so I did over the course of the next year or so. That left me with only the Ted Williams signature missing. I could have had him sign it for $30 the day I bought the photo, but that day I was focused on getting my baseball signed.
When he did a private signing a few years later I had to pay $183 to get it signed. I went ahead and mailed it out since I did not want to be cursed by future owners for skipping the most valuable signature. I am not sure it is worth today all the money it cost me to complete, but I'm glad I got it done.
@ernie11 said:
Speaking of checks, an autographed check from the Three Stooges' Moe Howard.
Excellent!
As I understand it, his kids or grandkids sold off a lot of his memorabilia just a few years ago and these checks were part of that sale.
As I recall, they weren't cheap, but I am glad to see that the TS are still sought after.
I think there were six "Three Stooges" and yet I don't have any of them.
The closest I have is a check signed by Zeppo Marx, but that's not the same thing.
Actually, I got this one for free, when I bought Moe's daughter's book about Curly back in 1985 - she was giving them away with the purchase of the book.
The same thing happened when I bought Baseball Hall of Famer Edd Roush's plaque card from his estate - they sent me one of his cancelled checks as an extra.
P.S. I have no Marx Brothers' autographs, wished I did.
Actually, I got this one for free, when I bought Moe's daughter's book about Curly back in 1985 - she was giving them away with the purchase of the book.
Back in the late 1980s I wrote to Woody Woodpecker creator Walter Lantz and asked if Woody had ever been portrayed in a military uniform. I knew that he had appeared in patriotic shorts during WWII but I was curious to know if he ever wore a uniform.
After Walter Lantz responded that Woody had never appeared in uniform, I wrote to ask if he would send me a sketch of Woody wearing one.
Years ago I went through a period where I actively sought authentically signed free-franked envelopes from politicians. The response rate was a little disappointing so I pretty much gave up on that project, but I did get a number of nice ones.
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1980, and as Inauguration Day on January 20, 1981 approached I wrote to the US embassy in Kabul to ask if I could have one of the photos of outgoing President Carter that had been displayed there.
A diplomat from the embassy sent me a photo, which I subsequently had Carter sign.
Over the years I have embarked on projects where I try to put together a collection of certain types of unusual signatures.
One such project was to try to get actors to sign their name as well as that of a famous character they played.
The effort was overall a miserable failure. I got a secretarial Clint Eastwood/Harry Callahan, but a great response from Jimmy Stewart, which made it very worthwhile.
Here James Stewart has added the name of his character from "It's a Wonderful Life", George Bailey.
I stumbled on this historical figure quite by accident. I got my first reply from him in response to a letter about something unrelated which I had read in the newspaper. He responded on a special postcard that highlighted his historical role on D Day.
I subsequently got a few more examples.
Major John Howard, who led the British unit that flew gliders into Normandy to capture Pegasus Bridge hours before the beach assault began.
At one time it was pretty easy to get nice 8x10 photos (real photos on photo paper) from the White House. I used to ask for them occasionally for potential use after the president left office.
Here is an official photo of Pres. George HW Bush with VP Dan Quayle. I sent it off for signatures after they left office.
Quayle signed it first and he used a big fat Sharpie. I figured it would look ridiculous with a small Bush signature, so I asked him to use a thick pen as well.
Comments
Possibly the only bubble gum card ever signed by Mack Lee Hill before he died post-surgery in 1965.
In honor of long-time Jeopardy host Alex Trebek, who passed away this past weekend:
The second autograph that I ever wrote away for was to Marshall Drew, a survivor of the Titanic sinking. I had read a newspaper article written on the 65th anniversary of the sinking. Since 1977 was pre-internet days I had no source for an address other than the dateline on the article and the zip code atlas at the local post office. I mailed the article to Mr. Drew and a week or so later received the article back along with a written letter in which he detailed his memories of the event. I was in my very early 20's and was more of a Titanic buff than an autograph collector so I didn't know too much about paper preservation, etc. I taped the newspaper article directly to the letter and framed them. They hung on various walls for several years before I wised up and put them in separate sleeves and an album. The letter now shows a serious paper acid stain as a result of my ignorance.
We've all been there. Being inexperienced and not knowing or thinking of the best way to get or preserve an autograph. But at least you had the idea to write to him when you did.
Back in that era the Titanic was one of the world's great mysteries. It was lost and no one knew where it was. It was quite a shock when Robert Ballard and team found it. It was almost too bad that the mystique was now gone.
I only wrote to Millvina Dean, who was the youngest and last survivor. But she had no memories of the sinking.
One possible option for you would be to have the letter and article deacidified and then rebuild your display so the article covers up the stained part of the letter.
It sure makes me feel old to dig out some of my earlier stuff that I got and see that the passage of time has left some toning or foxing on the paper.
Just back from PSA/DNA
Jason
Personal Collection | Willie Woodburn | Legion of Doom
Here is a recent acquisition that has led me to embark on a mission to study and document this specific type of autograph.
It is a hand-signed free frank from Eleanor Roosevelt (adding her real first name "Anna").
She got the franking privilege for her mail as a widowed first lady after her husband (FDR) passed away.
Eleanor Roosevelt soon changed to using a rubber stamp signature for her mail, but this is an early envelope from before she did that. I have found a couple later examples where she signed free franks for collectors but so far this the only one of her early free franks that I have been able to locate. (I am sure others exist).
What intrigues me the most, apart from its rarity, is the way she signed it. Traditionally the signature would be in the upper right-hand corner of the envelope. I am speculating that she signed her name in the upper left and added "free" in the upper right because that is how servicemen in WWII exercised their franking privilege and she was following that format that she undoubtedly had seen before.
I was excited to find (and win) on Ebay a transitional rubber-stamped free frank in the same format as this one. (It has not arrived yet). So, it seems that she implemented her rubber-stamped free frank before moving her signature to the upper right corner of the envelope.
I will look to add a few more varieties of her rubber-stamped free franks as they become available. Eventually I hope to document the evolution of Eleanor Roosevelt's free frank.
In honor of statesman George P. Shultz, who passed away at 100 yesterday.
My last response from him, from last October:
dropping off at PSA in N.J. tomorrow 3 of 15 total, I was there when all were signed in early/mid 60's
Sweet Berto's!
Sometimes I can't get a through-the-mail autograph because the subject is deceased. So I sometimes find other signees who had a secondhand tie to that famous person. Among my obscure baseball autographs is a pitcher named Willis Hudlin, who gave up Babe Ruth's 500th career home run back in 1929. He sent me back his autograph in this letter below. He was pretty old and his handwriting is hard to read, so I'll translate: "The Babe had his good years about the same time that I had mine. Yes he hit his 500 HR off me 8/11/29 in Cleveland. It was a sinker ball that he hit. The Babe did not have much luck vs. me. In 9 years he only got a total of 5 HR's off of me. With all good wishes, Willis Hudlin".
Hudlin's age maybe caused him to drop a stitch - he dated the letter from 1987, but it was really 1997.
These "association" pieces are great. Real history.
I seek out this sort of thing when I can.
I'll forgive his error on the date. It was 67 years after the historic HR. Hudlin must have been in his late 90s when he wrote it.
Another one like this that I have, I don't have an image for - it is an autographed index card I got back in 1998 from Tim Forneris, the St. Louis groundskeeper who retrieved the baseball hit by Mark McGwire as his 62nd HR, to break the single-season home run record. Last I read, Forneris was an assistant public defender in St. Louis.
picture signed by Milt Pappas, Jack Fisher & Jerry Walker
IMF
remember when Upper Deck would give these away at games?
IMF
Found in a junk shop. Damaged, I know, but because the Duprees were one of my favorite harmony groups, I couldn't resist.
Hank Aaron signed ball
IMF
Back at the time Hank Aaron broke the home run record a magazine, I believe it was SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, sent Hank Aaron autographed baseballs to many, many people involved with advertising. I received one of the balls but was always suspect as to if he had actually signed it. (I no longer have it.) Hank Aaron is a signature that needs to be authenticated.
Sharing a few my Dad passed down and I had slabbed
placemat signed by the entire 1982 Orioles team (including rookie Cal Ripken Jr.)
IMF
I was emailing some photos to someone so I figured I'd also post here.
A two dollar bill with an ink signature of Mary Ellen Withrow who was Treasurer when the note was issued.
Back in the early 1990's I sent two Series 1935 Silver Certificates (With Motto and Without Motto) to C. Douglas Dillon who graciously honored my autograph request. Here is one of those notes.
Nice!
I got a few things signed by Dillon but never got around to getting some uncirculated silver certificates to send him.
Great day yesterday picking up my Autograph submissions at PSA in N.J.---these are the 4 I got graded
Nice sigs, in top grades!
Just found this in an old stash:
One more change of pace.
Mr. Monk and Ms. Dunbar. Very nice items!
My Neil Armstrong from the early 1990s, near the end of his signing days.
In the late 1990s Eric Clapton was easy to get. Just send a SASE and he would send a postcard-sized photo. He added the year after his name.
Gerald Ford taking the oath of office in 1974 and Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter walking to the White House after their 1977 inauguration.
Back in "the old days" you got your cancelled checks back in your monthly statement.
Here are a couple checks I sent to Mother Teresa (now a saint) for return postage, and donations for Habitat for Humanity where the checks were made out to Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.
Those are all fantastic!! I wish I had thought of writing Clapton. I obtained several Carter signed books when he did a signing in the Twin Cities back in the '90's. And that Armstrong is exquisite. That is a $4K+ signature. It looks pristine! How were you able to get it signed but not personalized?
I am sure that i just wrote to Armstrong and asked for a signed photo. It was his decision to not inscribe it. My guess is that by then he was either tired of all the photo signing, or perhaps he was out of town and left a stack for filling autograph requests, but that's all just speculation in my part.
Years ago I attended my one and only baseball card show because some Red Sox players, including Ted Williams, were there signing autographs.
I bought my $35 ticket to get my baseball signed by Williams, and while I was waiting for my timed entry, I bought this photo for $3. It shows Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, and Johnny Pesky.
I knew I could get all except Williams through the mail, and so I did over the course of the next year or so. That left me with only the Ted Williams signature missing. I could have had him sign it for $30 the day I bought the photo, but that day I was focused on getting my baseball signed.
When he did a private signing a few years later I had to pay $183 to get it signed. I went ahead and mailed it out since I did not want to be cursed by future owners for skipping the most valuable signature. I am not sure it is worth today all the money it cost me to complete, but I'm glad I got it done.
Speaking of checks, an autographed check from the Three Stooges' Moe Howard.
Excellent!
As I understand it, his kids or grandkids sold off a lot of his memorabilia just a few years ago and these checks were part of that sale.
As I recall, they weren't cheap, but I am glad to see that the TS are still sought after.
I think there were six "Three Stooges" and yet I don't have any of them.
The closest I have is a check signed by Zeppo Marx, but that's not the same thing.
Actually, I got this one for free, when I bought Moe's daughter's book about Curly back in 1985 - she was giving them away with the purchase of the book.
The same thing happened when I bought Baseball Hall of Famer Edd Roush's plaque card from his estate - they sent me one of his cancelled checks as an extra.
P.S. I have no Marx Brothers' autographs, wished I did.
When did you make that purchase?
That was the deal of the century!
An observation on the Red Sox photo I posted above...
It still amazes me that the ink on all the signatures matches - blue extra fine print Sharpie. They all used the same type of pen.
That is amazing since they all signed it separately when mailed to each one.
Back in the late 1980s I wrote to Woody Woodpecker creator Walter Lantz and asked if Woody had ever been portrayed in a military uniform. I knew that he had appeared in patriotic shorts during WWII but I was curious to know if he ever wore a uniform.
After Walter Lantz responded that Woody had never appeared in uniform, I wrote to ask if he would send me a sketch of Woody wearing one.
Years ago I went through a period where I actively sought authentically signed free-franked envelopes from politicians. The response rate was a little disappointing so I pretty much gave up on that project, but I did get a number of nice ones.
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1980, and as Inauguration Day on January 20, 1981 approached I wrote to the US embassy in Kabul to ask if I could have one of the photos of outgoing President Carter that had been displayed there.
A diplomat from the embassy sent me a photo, which I subsequently had Carter sign.
Presidential autograph cards with printed signatures were easy to get from the White House and provided a good host for adding real signatures.
Oliver North and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on Reagan cards, and a genuine Gerald Ford added above his printed signature.
Over the years I have embarked on projects where I try to put together a collection of certain types of unusual signatures.
One such project was to try to get actors to sign their name as well as that of a famous character they played.
The effort was overall a miserable failure. I got a secretarial Clint Eastwood/Harry Callahan, but a great response from Jimmy Stewart, which made it very worthwhile.
Here James Stewart has added the name of his character from "It's a Wonderful Life", George Bailey.
I stumbled on this historical figure quite by accident. I got my first reply from him in response to a letter about something unrelated which I had read in the newspaper. He responded on a special postcard that highlighted his historical role on D Day.
I subsequently got a few more examples.
Major John Howard, who led the British unit that flew gliders into Normandy to capture Pegasus Bridge hours before the beach assault began.
Damn.....you're killing me. These are super!!
At one time it was pretty easy to get nice 8x10 photos (real photos on photo paper) from the White House. I used to ask for them occasionally for potential use after the president left office.
Here is an official photo of Pres. George HW Bush with VP Dan Quayle. I sent it off for signatures after they left office.
Quayle signed it first and he used a big fat Sharpie. I figured it would look ridiculous with a small Bush signature, so I asked him to use a thick pen as well.
Aside from maybe a book plate for one of his books, I was only ever able to get one autograph from Ronald Reagan.
But what a success it was.