BRIAN AHERNE - DOCUMENT MULTI-SIGNED 08/23/1946 - HFSID 288872

BRIAN AHERNE
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Aherne's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. He has signed four times, once to give permission and three times for an autograph sample. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed four times : "Brian Aherne", 1 page, 8½x11. Hollywood, California, 1946 October 23. Aherne grants to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, Inc., its successors and assigns, the exclusive right to use is 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. British actor Brian Aherne (1902-1986) made his first U.S. appearance on the stage in The Barrets of Wimpole Street (1931). Aherne, who starred opposite such leading ladies as Marlene Dietrich, Helen Hayes, Rosalind Russell and Merle Oberon, received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of doomed Emperor Maximillian in Juarez (1939). 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." Filing holes at left edge (worn with re-enforcements) Toned and heavily creased. Staple holes at top left corner.  Multiple mailing folds. Otherwise, fine condition.