DENNIS O'KEEFE - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 08/27/1946 - HFSID 288787

DENNIS O'KEEFE
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 the actor, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Dennis O'Keefe", in blue ink, 1p, 8½x11. Los Angeles, California, 1924 August 8. Dennis O'Keefe 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. Dennis O'Keefe (1908-1968, born Edward Vance Flanagan in Fort Madison, Iowa) was an American actor with over 240 movies and TV shows to his credit, many of them as an extra. He began appearing on stage with his vaudevillian parents while still a toddler and, by 16, was writing scripts for Our Gang shorts. He first appeared on the silver screen as an extra in 1930's Check and Double Check, as a party guest, but wouldn't land his first starring until 1938 and over 150 movies later, as Tommy Bradford in Hold that Kiss. A tall, lithe and rugged actor, he was cast in numerous light action films and comedies in the 1940s, moving on to tough guy parts later. He moved to TV in the 1950s and starred in his own TV series, The Dennis O'Keefe Show (1959-1960). 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. Normal mailing holes at left. Lightly toned. Slightly creased. Staple holes at left. Otherwise, fine condition.