ANDY RUSSELL - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 08/02/1946 - HFSID 289030

ANDY RUSSELL
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Andy Russell's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Russell, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Andy Russell", 1 page, 8½x11. Los Angeles, California, 1946 August 2. Andy Russell grants to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, Inc., its successors and assigns, the exclusive right, to use his name, autograph, photographic likeness, or artist's sketch of the likeness, for reproduction on engraved, embossed or printed stamps, and in stamp albums, and in connection with the advertising and exploitation of these stamps and stamp albums for sale throughout the world. Andy Russell (1919-1992, born Andrés Rabago Pérez in East Los Angeles, California) was one of ten children born to Mexican immigrant parents. He began performing as a drummer and vocalist as a teenager. After Anglicizing his name in the 1940s, joined the bands of Johnny Richards, Gus Arnhiem, Sonny Dunham and Alvino Rey. Russell appeared on his own show, the Old Gold Show, in 1945 and briefly replaced Frank Sinatra on Your Hit Parade in 1946, which greatly increased his popularity. Russell had eight Top 10 hits between 1943 and 1948: Bésame Mucho(1944), Amor(1944), I Dream of You(1944), I Can't Begin to Tell You(1945), Laughing on the Outside (Crying on the Inside) (1946), Pretending(1946), Anniversary Song(1947) and Underneath the Arches(1948). His popularity waned in the 1950s, but found new popularity in Argentina with a popular TV variety show. Russell moved back to the United States to record a few LPs but, besides the singles It's Such a Pretty World Today and I'm Still Not Through Missing You, his heyday was largely behind him. The Motion Picture Relief Fund was founded in 1921 to assist ill and needy film industry veterans, as expressed in its motto: "We take care of our own." The fund raised money through voluntary payroll deductions and celebrity events. As President of the Fund from 1939 until his death in 1956, film and radio star Jean Hersholt conceived Hollywood Star Stamps as a fundraising method. These stamps, 468 in all, were sold at dime stores after World War II in sheets of 6-12, at 10 cents per sheet, and were an immediate hit with collectors. Now called the Motion Picture and Television Fund, the non-profit organization funds its own hospital and retirement home. It confers the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award annually at the Academy Awards ceremony to "an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry." Three filing holes at left (worn). Staple holes at top left. Paperclip indentation at top left. Normal mailing folds. Lightly creased. Pencil note (unknown hand). Otherwise, fine condition.