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Ronald Reagan autograph
Futureman
Posts: 135 ✭✭
Thumbing through a book sale, I found this postcard, with a note, and "signatures" of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. I'm not sure about the Ronald, it doesn't completely match some of what I've seen online. "Nancy's" signature looks way off. The handwriting in the note doesn't match up with what I could find online. I'm guessing it was written and signed by a secretary? The lack of personalization I think makes it less likely to be real too. Nonetheless, I'd be interested to hear what others think.
And it brings up a discussion of how often were secretaries sending out notes (more often than not, I would guess)? And who did you need to be to get a real response?
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
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In 1940 my mother, then 14, starting gathering in-person autographs from entertainment personalities. In those days the studios took their stars on tours and made them available to the fans. Ronald Reagan was one of the first to sign her autograph book. I recall looking through this autograph book in the late 1950s and 1960s. Unfortunately, the autograph book was thrown out when my grandparents moved in 1973.
Today, if you tried to get an in person autograph from many celebrities you would more likely just get manhandled by a 325 pound security guard.
Interesting story. I imagine it was a way of getting publicity for the actors and their work at the time. Now there are giant media campaigns.
Another interesting story.
At one of these studio sponsored events in Downtown Chicago in the early 1940s (at the Chicago Theater) a group of people had gathered outside to wait for the arrival of the stars. My mother noticed a familiar face in the crowd. That familiar face was Red Skelton who was appearing at a theater nearby. My mother asked why he was there and he replied that he wanted to see the stars as well ... he had never met any of them. Yes, she did get his autograph.
I assume it is a preprint (all handwritten but not addressed to anyone?). I am not sure any of it was originally written by RR or NR. That writing doe snot really look like his and as you suggest, that NR looks nothing like what I have seen or got from her myself.