CORNEL WILDE - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 06/26/1946 - HFSID 288840

CORNEL WILDE
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce his signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Wilde, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Cornel Wilde", 2p, 8½x11. No place, 1946 June 26. Cornel Wilde 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. The film career of multilingual CORNEL WILDE (1912-1989) took off when he earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his role as Chopin in A Song to Remember (1945). Other big roles followed in pictures such as Forever Amber (1947) and The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). Wilde, who produced many of his own films, often starred in historical epics (Constantine and the Cross, 1962). His last starring role was in The Norseman (1978). Interestingly, Wilde gave up a spot on the 1936 U.S. Olympic fencing team to pursue an acting career. In fact, he served as a fencing instructor for the Broadway version of Olivier's Hamlet (1940). 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 (top hole on second page torn to edge).  Staple holes at top left. Lightly creased. Slightly soiled. Otherwise, fine condition.