ETHEL BARRYMORE - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 10/15/1946 - HFSID 289123

ETHEL BARRYMORE
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Ethel Barrymore's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Barrymore, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Ethel Barrymore", 1 page, 8½x11. Hollywood, California, 1946 October 15. Ethel Barrymore 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. Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959), born Ethel Mae Blythe, was a member of the long-established American theatrical family that included brothers John and Lionel, with whom she would appear in one film, Rasputin and the Empress (1932). First gaining popularity in Europe, Barrymore returned to New York City after an engagement with Henry Irving in London. Under the Frohman banner, she appeared on Broadway in Clyde Fitch's Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines (1901), achieving instant success (the play was revived in 1907). Although her original desire was to become a concert pianist, Barrymore made the theater her home and gained a reputation as an actress of dignity and warmth. Her most endearing portrayal was in The Corn is Green (on Broadway at the National and Royale Theatres from November 26,1940-January 17, 1942 and at the Martin Beck Theatre from May 3-June 19, 1943). Barrymore also appeared in several films, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in None But The Lonely Heart. She was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress Oscars for The Spiral Staircase (1946), The Paradine Case (1947) and Pinky (1949). Her other film credits also include The Farmer's Daughter (1947), Portrait of Jennie (1948), Main Street to Broadway (1953, with her brother Lionel in his last film appearance) and Young at Heart (1954), and Barrymore also hosted and occasionally acted in a TV anthology, Ethel Barrymore Theatre (1956). Although she also acted in several other anthology series from 1950-1956, her assessment of the medium was, "It's hell." A theater bearing Barrymore's name was opened in New York City in 1928. 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). Normal mailing folds. Lightly toned at edges. Lightly worn at edges. Otherwise, fine condition.