DICK POWELL - AUTOGRAPHED INSCRIBED PHOTOGRAPH CIRCA 1936 CO-SIGNED BY: FRANCES LANGFORD, EDNA MAY OLIVER, LOUELLA O. PARSONS, NORMA SHEARER, RALPH FORBES - HFSID 289558

DICK POWELL CO-SIGNED BY: FRANCES LANGFORD, EDNA MAY OLIVER, LOUELLA O. PARSONS, NORMA SHEARER and RALPH FORBES
Shown together in a candid photo, reading scripts or sheet music, inscribed to collector Saul Goodman
Photograph Mount inscribed and signed signed: "To/Saul -/Sincerely/Dick Powell", "To/Saul/Louella O/Parsons", "To Saul/Frances Langford", "Edna May Oliver", "Ralph Forbes" and "Norma Shearer". B/w 10x8 overall, image 4½x3½ (one surface). Collector's ink stamps on verso date signatures from 1936 to 1940. The six actors and actresses sign at the margin. Actress and band singer FRANCES LANGFORD (1914-2005) was a radio star of the 1940s, performing on her own show, with Bob Hope and paired with Don Ameche in the comedic The Bickersons. Her best film work includes Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and The Bamboo Blonde (1945). Langford's musical repertoire featured show tunes and pop standards. LOUELLA PARSONS (1880-1972), born Louella Rose Oettinger) 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. DICK POWELL (1903-1963) sang and played several instruments in live performance and radio in the late 1920s, and had some hit records. He moved to film musicals in the 1930s, including 42nd Street (1933) and The Gold Diggers of 1933 and subsequent years. He moved to dramatic roles in the following decade, beginning by playing Phillip Marlow in Murder, My Sweet (1944). He appeared often on early TV, hosting The Dick Powell Show from 1961 until his early death from cancer. Powell was married to actresses Joan Blondell and June Allyson. NORMA SHEARER (1903-1983) won one Best Actress Academy Award for The Divorcee (1929-1930), and she was nominated for five more: Their Own Desire (1929-1930), A Free Soul (1930-1931), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), Romeo and Juliet (1936) and Marie Antoinette (1938). She was married to MGM producer Irving Thalberg until his early death (1936). Shearer turned down the starring role in Mrs. Miniver, and, by some accounts, did the same for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind. She retired from films after 1942. EDNA MAY OLIVER (1889-1942) shined on Broadway as the dour Quaker aunt in Jerome Kern's Oh Boy!, the first of her many tart-tongued characters.Her film career, beginning in 1923, included mostly supporting roles, but her starring vehicles included several films as spinster sleuth Hildegarde Withers. Oliver received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for Drums Along the Mohawk (1939). When asked why she appeared in so many comedies, she replied, "With a horse's face, what more can I play?" RALPH FORBES (1896-1951), born in London in an acting family (mother Mary Forbes, sister Brenda Forbes). Breaking into silent films in 1923, he was featured in such movies as Beau Geste (1926), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), The Three Musketeers (1935), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (also 1939) and Frenchman's Creek (1944). Forbes was married to three actresses: Ruth Chatterton, Heather Angel and Dora Sayers. His last stage appearance was in a Broadway revivial of Shaw's You Can Never Tell (1948). Saul Goodman (1919-2003), a New York business man by day, pursued his love of film and theatre in the evening, making friends with many celebrities. While other autograph seekers offered album leaves, Goodman presented stars with snazzy photographs, a rarity then, to sign in fountain pen.  The occasion for this photo is uncertain. No motion picture included all these celebrities in its cast. It may have been taken at a private party attended by Goodman, perhaps even one hosted by him. Corners worn and creased. Toned. Otherwise, Fine condition.