EDWARD ARNOLD - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 11/14/1945 - HFSID 288861

EDWARD ARNOLD
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Edward Arnold's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Arnold, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Edward Arnold", 1 page, 8½x11. No place, 1946 November 14. Edward Arnold 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. Edward Arnold (1890-1956) moved from the stage, and bit parts in silent movies, to starring film roles, beginning with Diamond Jim (1935). He abandoned efforts to lose weight after deciding that his girth increased his prospects for getting character roles. A favorite of director Frank Capra, he played a corrupt boss in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1938) and starred as Daniel Webster in The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941). A staunch conservative who considered running for the Senate as a Republican, Arnold nevertheless worked hard as President of the Screen Actors Guild to protect fellow actors from excesses of the McCarthy era. 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. Staple holes at top left. Normal mailing folds. Lightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.