EDDIE CANTOR - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 07/24/1947 - HFSID 289125

EDDIE CANTOR
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Eddie Cantor's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Cantor, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Eddie Cantor", 1 page, 8½x11. Los Angeles, California, 1947 July 24. Eddie Cantor 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. Energetic singer-comedian Eddie Cantor (1892-1964) moved from vaudeville tours to the Ziegfeld Follies, where his singing career took off with popular songs of the 1920s, including "If You Knew Susie", "Makin' Whoopee" and "Ida". A star in many big budget musical comedy films of the 1930s, Cantor was a popular radio star of the 1940s, and he hosted a TV variety show in 1955.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 (worn). Paperclip indentation at top left. Creased. Lightly soiled. Otherwise, fine condition.