DON DEFORE - DOCUMENT SIGNED 06/12/1946 - HFSID 288905

DON DEFORE
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Ryan's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. Document signed: "Don Defore", 1 page, 8½x11. Hollywood, California, 1946 June 12. Defore 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. Defore attaches the condition that he assumes no financial obligation from this transaction. A character actor who made his film debut in 1937, Don Defore (1917-1993) played similar roles on television, including Thorny, the next door neighbor of Ozzie and Harriet (1954-1955) and George Baxter on Hazel (1961-1965). 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." Filing holes at left edge. Lightly toned. Top left corner creased. Otherwise, fine condition.