ARTHUR ASHE - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: DON AMECHE - HFSID 59334

ARTHUR ASHE and DON AMECHE
Both pen their signatures on this green album leaf for a fan
Autograph Note Signed: "For Dina/'Peace',/Arthur Ashe". 4½x6. Co-signed: "Don Ameche" on verso. Ink note (unknown hand): "Don Ameche 7-28-77." ASHE was the first Black American player named to the U.S. Davis Cup team (1963-1970, 1975-1976, 1978). Still an amateur, he won the 1968 U.S. Open. Ashe also won the 1970 Australian Open and defeated Jimmy Connors to win the 1975 Wimbledon singles title. In 1988, tests showed that Ashe had HIV, probably from a blood transfusion during his 1983 bypass surgery. He died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1993 at the age of 49. Richmond, Virginia, the city that banned young Arthur Ashe from its whites-only tennis courts, dedicated a 12-foot bronze statue on Monument Avenue to the late athlete in 1996. The U.S. Open is now played at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City.Don Ameche (1908-1993) played mostly second leads until 1939, when he memorably played the title role inThe Story of Alexander Graham Bell. (For years afterward a telephone was often called an "ameche". That same year he portrayed D'Artagnan in a musical comedy version of The Three Musketeers, and he had major starring roles throughout the 1940s. (He also co-starred with Frances Langford in the long-running radio series, The Bickersons. Much less active in the next three decades, despite some low budget films and TV guest roles, he made a big comeback in the 1980s. In 1985, Ameche starred in Cocoon and won the 1986 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. It was his only Oscar nomination. He followed up that role to even more acclaim in 1988's concoction Things Change. Before his death in 1993, Ameche rounded out his career with short but acclaimed performances in Oscar (1991) and Corrina, Corrina (1994). File holes on left edge. Ink notes (unknown hand) on each side. Signatures on opposite sides show through faintly. Otherwise, fine condition.