BARRY NELSON - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 10/31/1946 - HFSID 289272

BARRY NELSON
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Barry Nelson's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Nelson, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Barry Nelson", 1 page, 8½x11. No place, 1946 October 31. Nelson Barry grants to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, Inc., its successors and assigns, the exclusive right, until December 31, 1947 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. Stage, screen and television actor Barry Nelson (1920-2007) earned a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for The Act (1978). He was also seen on the stage in The Moon is Blue (1951), Mary, Mary (1964), Cactus Flower (1965), Seascape (1975) and The Norman Conquests (1976). Nelson also starred in three short-lived TV series in the 1950s, including Hudson's Bay. He is best known, however, for being the first actor to portray James Bond (in the 1954 TV presentation of Casino Royale). Ironically, Nelson played him as Jimmy Bond, an American! He was also seen on the big screen as the hotel manager in The Shining (1980). 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. Lightly creased. Lightly soiled. Lightly toned. Otherwise, fine condition.