BETTY HUTTON - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 06/12/1946 - HFSID 289036

BETTY HUTTON

Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Betty Hutton's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Hutton, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!

Document signed twice: "Betty Hutton", 1 page, 8½x11. Los Angeles, California, 1946 June 12. Betty Hutton grants to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, Inc., its successors and assigns, the exclusive right, to use her 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. Actress/singer Betty Hutton (1921-2007), born Elizabeth June Thornburg, was singing with bands at age 13. She debuted on Broadway in 1940 (Two for the Show) and in film two years later (The Fleet's In). Her best remembered film musical was Annie Get Your Gun (1950). Hutton left Hollywood after a contract dispute with Paramount in 1952, but she continued to perform on stage and make guest TV appearances. Later, she returned to college, earned a master's degree and taught acting. 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. Staple holes at top left. Normal mailing folds. Slightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.