EDDIE DEAN - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH CO-SIGNED BY: TOMMY SANDS - HFSID 344573

EDDIE DEAN, CO-SIGNED BY: TOMMY SANDS
The two singer-slash-actors are shown smiling together in this candid photograph
Photograph signed: "Eddie Dean" and "Tommy Sands" in blue ink. 4x6. EDDIE DEAN (1907-1999), a former singer on the popular National Barn Dance radio program in 1934, became a featured performer on Gene Autry's Melody Ranch and The Judy Canova Show. In 1938, Autry offered Dean a film role in Western Jamboree, beginning an eight-year stint in low budget Westerns, including five Hopalong Cassidy films and the serial, The Lone Ranger Rides Again. Ironically, Dean was not asked to sing until 1944's Harmony Trail, which brought him to the attention of PRC, a low-budget studio. The studio, which hoped to compete with Republic's Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, released the first Eddie Dean musical westerns in color, making their singing cowboy the first star of color "B" Westerns. Dean was first teamed with Emmett Lynn, who was later replaced by Roscoe Ates, his best-remembered sidekick. In addition to his film work, Dean appeared on the TV series, The Beverly Hillbillies (1963), and wrote songs for other country artists, including "One Has My Name, The Other Has My Heart", which was a hit for Jimmy Wakely, and "I Dreamed of a Hillbilly Heaven", which became one of Tex Ritter's most successful recordings. Dean, who received a "Pioneer Award" from the Academy of Country Music, was inducted into the Western Music Association's Hall of Fame in 1990. TOMMY SANDS (b. 1937) is an American singer and actor. He learned to play guitar at seven and within a year was performing twice weekly on a Shreveport, Louisiana radio station. Colonel Tom Parker signed him to RCA Records and, in 1957, starred in an episode of Kraft Television Theatre as a singer similar to Elvis Presley. He played Teenage Crush on the show, which was turned into a single and peaked at No. 3 on the charts. He also acted in several movies, including Sing, Boy, Sing (1958), Babes in Toyland (1961), The Longest Day (1962) and Ensign Pulver (1964). Sands was married to Nancy Sinatra from 1960 to 1965. Fine condition.