BILLY ECKSTINE - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: NESTOR PAIVA, JOHN SHELTON, POLLY BERGEN, GEORGE WHITCHER, CHARLES WATTS, DON CHURHCILL, GINNY JACKSON, OLE RASMUSSEN, JAN KAYNE - HFSID 34055

BILLY ECKSTINE, POLLY BERGEN, NESTOR PAIVA, JOHN SHELTON, GEORGE WHITCHER, CHARLES WATTS, DON CHURCHILL, GINNY JACKSON, OLE RASMUSSEN and JAN KAYNE
Guestbook page signed by 10 actors and singers, including jazz singer Billy Eckstine, singer-actress Polly Bergen, character actors Charles Watts and Nestor Paiva and country artists Ole Rasmussen, Don Churchill and Ginny Jackson. With small b/w printed photos of some signers.
Autograph notes signed "Best of Luck/to a fine Disc Jockey/Don Churchll", "Best of Luck/George Whitcher", "To George/All the luck in the world/Sincerely/Billy Eckstine", "To George-/A very fine D.J.; & also/a real fine guy! - We''ll probably go 'spading' thru life, just/like a big 'Lark' -/My, but I'm tired/Ginny Jackson" and, on verso, "To the most handsome/disc jockey in/the world/Jan Kayne", "Ditto/John Shelton", "To Geroge/A Swell Pal/Ole Rasmussen", "Thanks for your kind words George -/Nestor Paiva" , "To George-/May you always be/the Ace or Spade Cooley/Fine/Polly Burger" and "George/Thanks for/the air!/Charles Watts". Red pencil marks and blue ink notations, all in unknown hand. 2 pages, 7½x10¼, 1 sheet, front and verso. With small b/w printed photos of Churchill, Eckstine, Jackson, Paiva and Bergen affixed. ECKSTINE (1914-1993), born William Clarence Eckstein, possessed one of the most distinctive voices in popular music, a deep tone with a unique vibrato. He also played trumpet, trombone and guitar. Eckstine had his own band from 1943 to 1947, featuring such then and future jazz greats as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan and Miles Davis. Singer-actress BERGEN, born Nellie Paulina Burgin in 1930, was dissatisfied with the roles Hollywood offered her in ten films of the early 1950s, including three Martin and Lewis vehicles, so she left for New York to pursue a stage career and record several albums of popular standards (most notably Bergen Sings Morgan and The Party's Over (1957). She returned to film in 1962, beginning with Cape Fear (1962). Robert Mitchum, her tormentor in Cape Fear, would later play her husband in the TV miniseries Winds of War (1983) and War and Remembrance (1988). Bergen has authored three books, assisted many charities, and promoted her own lines of cosmetic and jewelry products. American character actor WATTS (1912-1966) never had a starring role or saw his name on a movie marquee. But, like most character actors, you've probably seen him nevertheless, and in more than one movie to boot. A busy actor with over 100 movies and TV shows on his resume between 1950 and 1965, including recurring roles on Bachelor Father (1960-1962) and Dennis the Menace (1960-1963), Watts had a round face and body and rich voice that were almost tailor-made to roles like politicians, businessmen, salesmen, bankers and supportive (or not) family members. Before becoming an actor, he was a high school teacher and worked in local theatre and in industrial shows. Character actor PAIVA (1905-1966), born Nestor Caetano Paiva, had a vaguely ethnic-looking face and a gift for dialects that guaranteed him a job as a "foreign" character actor (despite the fact that he was born in Fresno, California!). He had a long and busy resume of over 280 movies and TV shows, many of them in uncredited roles, between 1937 and 1967. Paiva got his start in stage and, during his busiest period in the mid-1940s, also appeared in a long-running Los Angeles production of The Drunkard (1943-1945). Horror fans may recognize him as Captain Lucas in Crature from The Black Lagoon (1954). He reprised this role in the sequel, Revenge of the Creature (1955), one of two Paiva movies to be lampooned on Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (the other was 1956's The Mole People). American actor SHELTON (1915-1972) worked his way up from uncredited bit parts in the 1930s to leading man status in MGM B-movies during the 1940s. Unfortunately, his rocket never lit, and his roles all but evaporated after 1948. He retired from show business after two appearances on Fireside Theatre (1952 and 1954), his only TV appearances, married fellow actor Kathryn Grayson, and became a businessman. RASMUSSEN led Ole Rasmussen & His Nebraska Cornhuskers - interestingly, a band that was based in California and not the cornfields of Nebraska - in postwar 1940s and early 1950s. He assembled some good talent around him, including vocalists Teddy Wilds and Virgil Lee, violinists Tex Atchinson and Rocky Stone, Billy Tonnesen on steel guitar and Earl Finley on the electric guitar. They could be heard on KMMJ in Clay Center, Nebraska, KXLA in Pasadena, California and, between 1950 and 1952, on Capitol Records. CHURCHILL was a country music performer with Don Churchill and the Texas Mavericks. They had a daily show on Oakland, California' KWBR radio and a Saturday dance in El Cerrito. JACKSON was a country music singer who also acted in a few movies and TV shows between 1948 and 1955. KAYNE was an actress with 12 or so movies and TV shows to her credit between 1950 and 1953. Lightly toned and rippled. Red marks, show-through from notes and photos and discoloration from photos touches some signatures. Torn from guestbook at right edge. Otherwise in fine condition.