COLLEEN MOORE - AUTOGRAPH 01/29/1944 CO-SIGNED BY: JUNE COLLYER, JOAN WINTERS, FAITH STEWART VAN BUREN, IRV KUPCINET, LOUELLA O. PARSONS, SALLY EILERS, HOWIE MAYER, EDWARD "BIG ED" QUIGLEY, JOHN DRURY, MARION NEVILLE (DRURY), PATRICIA "PRINCESS PAT" DOHERTY, NATHAN "NATE" GROSS, FANNY BUTCHER, MAISIE WARD, WELTHY HONSINGER FISHER, DOROTHY (DOROTHY SELMA RICHARDSON KISSLING) LANGLEY, GEORGE FORT MILTON, JR., NOEL (MARY NOEL) STREATFEILD, MRS. WILLIAMS P. STREET, PAULINE GALLAGHER, ADELINE FITZGERALD, MARY DOUGHERTY, G. RAY SCHAEFFER, HELEN C. WELLS, J.H. GIBSON, DAVID H. APPEL, DORSEY MCCARTHY - HFSID 29574

COLLEEN MOORE, LOUELLA PARSONS and MANY OTHERS
Guest roster from a 1944 Chicago book signing by gossip columnist Parsons, signed by 33 entertainment/ media celebrities and distinguished authors
Signatures: "Colleen Moore", "Louella Parsons", "Mrs. William P. Street", "Howie Mayer", "Pauline Gallagher", "and her stooge/Irv Kupcinet", "Faith Stewart Van Buren", "Joan Winters Bering", "Eddie Quigley", "John Drury", "Adeline Fitzgerald", "June Collyer Erwin", "Marion Neville", "Mary Doherty", "G. Ray Schaeffer", "Helen C. Wells", 'J. H. Gibson", "Sally Eilers Barney", "Patricia Dougherty", "Nate Gross/'Town Tattler'", "Dorsey McCarthy", "Fanny Butcher", "David H. Appel", "Maisie Ward Sheed", and on verso "Toward World Citizenship/Yours in appreciation/Welthy Honsinger Fisher", "Sincerely/Dorothy Langley", "With appreciation/George Fort Milton/May 4, 1944", "Noel Streatfeild/1946", 1 page (front and verso), 7½x11¼. [Chicago], 1944 January 29. In all 33 signatures, five unidentified. Rose Oller Harbaugh, for many years the head of the book department at Chicago's Marshall Field Department Store, was noted for her well attended book signings, and kept a guest roster of authors and other distinguished attendees. The signers on the front of this sheet attended a luncheon and autograph session for Louella Parsons, who had just written The Gay Illiterate. She wrote about this event in her syndicated column, reporting that she had signed 1,100 copies. The signers on verso were not attendees at the Parsons signing, but probably present for similar events in their honor. COLLEEN MOORE (1900-1988) was the quintessential "flapper" of the 1920s in silent and early talking films (as in It Must Be Love, Ella Cinders, both 1926). Playing against type in her last starring role, she portrayed Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter (1934). Moore returned to the screen in 1961, playing a supporting role in a remake of one of her most memorable screen roles, 1933's The Power and the Glory. A canny investor, Moore authored three books, including How Women Can Make Money in the Stock Market. LOUELLA PARSONS (1880-1972) began writing the first movie column for the "Chicago Record-Herald" in 1914. After moving to Los Angeles, she worked for William Randolph Hearst's news organization, and her column appeared in some 400 newspapers. Parsons, whose chief rival was Hedda Hopper, became the most feared woman in Hollywood, wielding her power for some 40 years. She knew all the secrets, and her approval (or disapproval) could make or destroy an actor's career. She spent her last years in a nursing home, watching old movies and talking to the images of the Hollywood stars she had once known and written about. HOWIE MAYER (1904-1985) was a stringer for the Chicago Evening American when he earned his journalistic reputation covering the famous Loeb/Leopold murder trial. He left the newspaper in 1929 to co-found what soon became a nationally prominent public relations firm of Mayer and O'Brien. His duties included nine years managing the Academy Awards ceremony. IRVING KUPCINET (1912-2003) was drafted out of college to the Philadelphia Eagles, but a shoulder injury ended his career and shunted him into sports writing. He was hired by the Chicago Daily Times (now the Chicago Sun-Times) in 1935 and given his own gossip column in 1943. This column, renamed Kup's Column in 1948, was a fixture in the paper until his death in 2003. He gained a wider audience when he launched his own talk show in 1952 and replaced Jack Paar on The Tonight Show in 1957. Another incarnation of his show, The Irv Kupcinet Show, ran from 1962 to 1971. FAITH STEWART VAN BUREN was President of the Chicago-based literary association, The Friends of American Writers, which gives annual awards for fiction and nonfiction writing in several categories. Actress JOAN WINTERS (1907-2001) was seen in the Broadway play Bad Girl (1930) and the film Variety Jubilee (1933). In 1932, she married Frank Bering, longtime manager of Chicago's Hotel Sherman. EDWARD QUIGLEY (1909-1988), Democratic leader of Chicago's 27th Ward, spent 50 years inspecting sewers and water meters for Chicago and Cook County before becoming Sewer Commissioner under Mayors Richard E. Daley and Jane Byrne (1963-1983). The dapper Quigley may have been the model for "Jimmy Flannery," the beloved hero of Robert Campbell's series of mystery novels. Flannery was also a sewer inspector and Democratic leader of Chicago's 27th ward. A Quigley quote, given to Chicago columnist Mike Royko, sounds just like Flannery. Asked if he ever walked the sewers, Quigley replied, "No, but many a time I lifted a lid to see if they were flowing." JOHN DRURY (1898-1972) was a reporter and columnist for the Chicago Daily News from 1924 to 1944, and also authored tour guides for Chicago. In 1944, the year of this signature, he received a fellowship from the University of Minnesota to write Old Chicago Houses. He left the Daily News to become a freelance writer. MARION NEVILLE (DRURY), 1902-1967, was on the editorial staff of the American Library Association Booklist from 1925 to 1930. Thereafter she wrote for various Chicago newspapers and became an amateur painter, exhibited in several local shows. ADELINE FITZGERALD was a feature writer for the Chicago Sun Times and Chicago Herald American. JUNE COLLYER (1904-1968) appeared in late silent and early talking films from East Side, West Side (1927) to A Face in the Crowd (1936). In 1931 she married fellow actor Stu Erwin, and co-starred with him (as his TV wife) on The Stu Erwin Show (1950-1955). SALLY EILERS (1908-1978) was having lunch with former drama school classmate Carole Lombard when she was "discovered" by producer Mack Sennett. Prominent movie roles followed, including Buster Keaton's Sailor's Holiday (1929), Oscar-winning Bad Girl (1931), and Will Rogers' State Fair (1933). She made several Westerns with her first husband, Hoot Gibson. She was married to Howard Barney from 1943 to 1946, and has signed here with that name. She made her last film, Stage to Tuscon, in 1950. PATRICIA DOUGHERTY, was a society columnist for the Chicago Evening American from the 1920s through the 1940s, writing under the by-line "Princess Pat." NATE GROSS started out as a Chicago crime reporter, before moving to a general news and society column, "The Town Tattler," at the Herald American. Gross claimed to have negotiated a deal for the surrender of famed gangster John Dillinger, which became moot when the FBI slew Dillinger in a gun battle outside a Chicago theater. Nate Gross and Irv Kupcinet were longtime journalistic rivals. FANNY BUTCHER (1888-1987) wrote for the Chicago Tribune for 50 years (1913-1963). After covering everything from crime to fashion, she became the paper's chief literary critic in 1923, holding that position for four decades. A New Yorker cartoon of the 1940s has a bookstore clerk telling a customer that the book she is holding was liked by Eleanor Roosevelt and by Fanny Butcher, an indication of her national reputation. Englishwoman MAISIE WARD (1889-1975) and her husband, Frank Sheed, were leaders of the Catholic Evidence Guild, whose mission was to train Catholic lay persons to win converts to the faith. They founded their own publishing house, which publishing many books of theology, including translations of European writers. Maisie Ward was also a biographer; her subjects included G. K. Chesterton and Robert Browning. WELTHY HONSINGER FISHER (1879-1980), the wife of a Methodist missionary, opened one of the first schools for women in China. Later, after studying the educational systems of many nations, she founded World Education, to promote worldwide literacy and especially the education of women. At the urging of Mohandas Gandhi, a personal friend, she moved to India and established Literacy House. Her teaching methods influenced the development of India's village literacy program, and in 1980 she became the only US citizen honored on an Indian postage stamp. DOROTHY LANGLEY was the pen name of Dorothy Richardson Kissling (1904-1969), who published poems and book reviews under her legal name but was best known for her three novels written as Langley: Swamp Angel (1944), Dark Medallion (a Friends of American Writers award winner, 1945), and Mr. Bremble's Buttons (1947). She also wrote a popular children's book, The Hooglies and Alexander (1948). GEORGE FORT MILTON, JR. (1894-1985), the son and namesake of Tennessee publisher and Democratic Party leader George Fort Milton and women's suffrage leader Abby Crawford Milton, wrote seven books on American history between 1930 and 1945, most centered on the prelude and aftermath of the Civil War. In 1944, he published The Uses of Presidential Power. English author NOEL STREATFEILD (1895-1986) wrote 16 adult novels, 26 children's books, and 6 works of non-fiction. While her adult novels were well received and one - Aunt Clara - was made into a 1952 movie, it was her prize winning children's books which cemented her reputation, especially Ballet Shoes (1936) and The Circus is Coming (1939). Her 10 prior years as a stage actress had a notable influence on her books. No information is presently available on the remaining signers, but they certainly merit further research. Lightly toned, especially around edges. Page has been torn from album on right and has pinholes from binding. Otherwise, fine condition.