BILLY DE WOLFE - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 06/12/1946 - HFSID 288917

BILLY DEWOLFE
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Billy DeWolfe's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by DeWolfe, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Billy DeWolfe", 1 page, 8½x11. Hollywood, California, 1946 June12. Billy DeWolfe 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. DeWolfe (1907-1974) was an actor of vaudeville, stage, film and TV. He got his start in vaudeville and musical revues in the late 1930s; his best known act was "Mrs. Murgatroyd", with a mustachioed De Wolfe in spectacles and a flowered hat impersonating a middle-aged woman. His best known persona, though, was as a lisping, effeminate man with the catchphrace "Busy, busy, busy!" He first appeared on film in 1943, the first of his 30 movies and TV shows. His career enjoyed a renaissance in the 1960s and 1970s. Evidently, something in his campy performance struck a chord with audiences of that era, and he was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show (1970-1972). He also landed recurring roles as Jules Benedict on That Girl (1966-1969), as Roland B. Hutton, Jr. on Good Morning, World (1967) and as Willard Jarvis on The Doris Day Show (1969-1973). 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 edge. Staple holes at top left corner. Lightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.