DONALD O'CONNOR - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED CIRCA 1946 - HFSID 289165

DONALD O'CONNOR
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Donald O'Connor's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Donald O'Connor, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Donald O'Connor", 1 page, 8½x11. Los Angeles, California, no date. Donald O'Connor 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. Donald O'Connor (1925-2003) was dancing away as a child in his family's vaudeville act. Remembered as the army private who can't convince anyone that a mule can talk in a series of six Francis the Talking Mule films (1949-1955), he also kept dancing in, among others, Yes Sir, That's My Baby (1949) and, with Bing Crosby, in Anything Goes (1956). For portraying Cosmo Brown in Singin' in the Rain (1952), O'Connor won the 1953 Golden Globe for Best Actor-Musical or Comedy. He won the 1954 Emmy Award for Best Male Star of a Regular Series for his appearances on The Colgate Comedy Hour. 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 folds. Slightly creased. Pencil note (unknown hand) double underlining the first and last name in the autograph sample. Otherwise, fine condition.