GENE AUTRY - AUTOGRAPH CO-SIGNED BY: HILLARY BROOKE - HFSID 88811

GENE AUTRY and HILLARY BROOKE. Signature: "Gene Autry", 5¾x4 album leaf. Captioned photograph, b/w, 1¼x1¼, affixed at lower right margin. On verso, inscribed signature: "To Louie/Best Always/Hillary Brooke". Captioned photograph, b/w, 1¼x1¾, affixed at lower right margin. GENE AUTRY (1907-1998), the original singing cowboy, appeared in his first western in 1934. He was the only western star to be listed among the top ten moneymakers from 1938-1942. In 1942, Autry was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song for "Be Honest With Me" from his film, Ridin' on a Rainbow. The Gene Autry Show was televised on CBS from 1950-1956, and The Adventures of Champion, which starred Autry's horse, also ran on CBS from 1955-1956. Scheduled opposite the popular series, Rin Tin Tin, it was cancelled in mid-season. Autry's business interests included a radio and TV chain, ranches, oil wells, a flying school, a music publishing company (he wrote 200 songs including "Here Comes Santa Claus") and the California Angels baseball team. HILLARY BROOKE (1914-1999), a former model, played supporting - often unsympathetic - roles in many films of the 1940s and 1950s. She appeared as the straight woman in films of Abbott and Costello (as Hillary) and The Bowery Boys and had a recurring role in the TV sitcom, My Little Margie (1952-1955), as Roberta, the girlfriend of Margie's father, Vern (Charles Farrell). Light show through of Brooke's photograph at lower left blank portion of Autry's page. File holes at blank right margin. Fine condition.