DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS JR. - AUTOGRAPH CO-SIGNED BY: GLORIA SWANSON - HFSID 342997

DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR. and GLORIA SWANSON
The successful 1920s and 30s actors sign names for a fan
Signature: "Douglas Fairbanks" in black ink and "Gloria Swanson" in pencil. 5x3 index card. DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR. (1909-2000), the son of the dashing actor of the 1920s and Anna Beth Sully, the daughter of an industrialist, was raised by his mother after his parents' divorce in 1918. At the age of 13, he starred in Lasky's Stephen Steps Out, an unsuccessful attempt to exploit the Fairbanks name. Although the younger Fairbanks, a movie producer as well as an actor, appeared in some 75 films, his father took little interest in his son's career, and the two did not become close friends until the early 1930s. His feature films included Stella Dallas (1926), Little Caesar (1930), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Gunga Din (1939) and Sinbad the Sailor (1947), and Fairbanks also appeared in a number of made-for-TV movies and hosted the anthology series, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Presents (1952-1955). In the 1930s, he was married to actress Joan Crawford. GLORIA SWANSON (1897-1983) was one of the reigning queens of the silent screen. She was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress for Sadie Thompson (1928), The Trespasser (1929) and Sunset Boulevard (1950). Sunset Boulevard, ranked #12 on the American Film Institute's 1998 list of greatest American films, gave Swanson - as Norma Desmond - some of the best remembered lines in motion picture history. Swanson left Paramount in 1926 and, bankrolled by paramour Joseph P. Kennedy, produced her own films. She retired in 1934 and made her first comeback in Father Takes a Wife (1941). She then made a picture in Italy in 1956, Mio Figlio Nerone (Nero's Mistress). Her third comeback was in 1971 on Broadway in Butterflies Are Free. Four years later, she played a passenger aboard a doomed 747 in Airport 75. She remained a favorite on TV talk and variety shows through the 1970s. Tone and soiled. Stains throughout. Pencil marks around border of Swanson's side. Slightly work. Corners rounded. Creased throughout. Otherwise, fine condition.