DAVID NIVEN - DOCUMENT SIGNED 09/06/1946 - HFSID 289239

DAVID NIVEN
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce the actor's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed by Niven once as an autograph sample. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed: '"David Niven" in black ink, 1p, 8½x11. Los Angeles, California, 1946 September 6. David Niven grants to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, Inc., its successors and assigns, the exclusive right, until December 31, 1947 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. English actor David Niven (1910-1983) served with the Highland Infantry in Malta before he worked as a lumberman, news reporter, gunnery instructor to Cuban revolutionists, representative of a London wine firm in the United States, and finally, in 1935, an extra in Mutiny on the Bounty. He won the 1959 Academy Award for Best Actor for Separate Tables (1958). Despite the fact that he was often cast in light comedies such as the Pink Panther series (1964 and after), Niven could also play strong action roles, one of which being his performance in The Guns of Navarone(1961). 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 (worn). Normal mailing folds. Slightly creased. Gently worn. Otherwise, fine condition.