ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL MOVIE CAST - AUTOGRAPHED INSCRIBED PHOTOGRAPH CO-SIGNED BY: WILLIAM "BILLY" BENEDICT, FRANK COGHLAN JR., LOUISE CURRIE - HFSID 292541

THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL MOVIE CAST
Signed by 3 stars of the first movie serial featuring a superhero. Benedict and Coghlan have added their character names.
Photograph inscribed and signed: "Best Wishes/Allan/William/Benedict/'Whitey'", Best to Allan/from/Billy Barton/Frank Coughlan, Jr" "and/Louise Currie". B/w, 10x8. Movie still from Republic Pictures serial The Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941). This 12-part serial was the first film to feature a superhero, as Republic successfully fended off a lawsuit from National Comics. (Negotiations for an earlier production of Superman had broken down.) FRANCIS COGHLAN, JR (1916-2009), started appearing in films at the tender age of 3 to help pay his father's tuition for chiropractic college. His first appearances were bit roles in two-reel comedies until he caught the eye of Cecil B. DeMille, who called Coghlan "the perfect example of a homeless waif". He began appearing as Junior Coghlan in major silents like The Yankee Clipper (1926), Let 'Er Go Gallegher (1927) and Slide, Kelly, Slide (1927) and as the juvenile versions of Leon Janney in Penrod and Sam (1930) and James Cagney in Public Enemy (1931). In The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Coughlin played Billy Batson, Captain Marvel's alter ego. In all, Coghlan had almost 130 film and TV appearances between 1920 and 1974, as well as a 23-year career as a US Navy aviator. WILLIAM "BILLY" BENEDICT (1917-1999), shown here as "Whitey Murphy", was "Skinny" in the East Side Kids (1930s) films and "Whitey" in the Bowery Boys (1940s & 1950s) series . Other early films were Way Down East (1935) with Henry Fonda, and My Little Chickadee (1940) the W.C. Fields-Mae West hit. With more than 100 film credits before 1950, Benedict transitioned to television as a bit player, amassing more than 100 credits there. A few of his TV credits are: Dick Tracy (1951), Dragnet (1956-1957), Tales of Wells Fargo (1958), Maverick (1958-1959), Route 66 (1960), Lassie (1960-1962), Petticoat Junction (1963), Gunsmoke & Hondo (1967), Adam 12 and All in the Family (1971), Mannix (1970-1973), Barnaby Jones (1975-1977), Little House on the Prairie (1981) and Bonanza (1988). LOUISE CURRIE (1913-2013) specialized in playing heroines in B-movies and serials (including the standout Republic serial shown here, where she played Batson's friend Betty Wallace). Currie also appeared with Bela Lugosi in three of his lesser efforts: You'll Find Out (1940), The Ape Man (1943) and Voodoo Man (1944) and in an unaccredited role as a reporter in Citizen Kane. All in all, she appeared in over 40 movie and TV shows between 1940 and 1956. Ink note (unknown hand) on verso. Fine condition.