GEORGE BURNS - PROGRAM SIGNED CIRCA 1940 CO-SIGNED BY: ROBERT TAYLOR, BASIL RATHBONE, JACK OAKIE, BRENDA JOYCE - HFSID 178271

GEORGE BURNS, BASIL RATHBONE, ROBERT TAYLOR, JACK OAKIE and BRENDA JOYCE
With war threatening America again, all five signed this program for the Hollywood premier of The Ramparts We Watch, a feature length documentary film on the American home front during World War I
Program signed: "Basil Rathbone", "George Burns", "Robert Taylor", "Jack Oakie" and "Brenda/Joyce" in pencil, 12 pages, 6¼x10. "'The Ramparts We Watch'/First Full-Length Feature Picture Produced by the March of Time/Hollywood Preview-Pantages Theatre, August 15, 1940". It was produced by Time Inc., the publishing firm responsible for RKO's March of Time movie newsreel series. Halfway between a documentary and a wartime drama, the film focuses on a typical American small town, taking place in New London, Connecticut in the years between 1914 and 1917, just before the U.S. entered WWI. Just 15½ months after the film's premier, Pearl Harbor was attacked and the U.S. entered WWII. Vaudeville, radio, TV and movie comedian GEORGE BURNS (1896-1996) a co-starred with his wife Gracie Allen until her retirement in 1958(she died in 1964), then continued performing in television, theater and nightclubs as a solo act. When he returned to films in 1975 after a 30-year hiatus, Burns won the 1975 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in The Sunshine Boys. He later starred in the title role in Oh, God!(1977) and appeared in Going in Style (1979) and 18 Again! (1988). The comedian, who was honored in television specials celebrating his 90th and 95th birthdays, also wrote Gracie, A Love Story (1988) and 100 Years, 100 Stories (1996). BASIL RATHBONE (1892-1967), born in South Africa), appeared on Broadway 23 times and won the 1948 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play (The Heiress). He was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for playing Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1936) and King Louis XVI in If I Were King (1938). Rathbone also appeared as Murdstone in David Copperfield (1934), Evremonde in Tale of Two Cities (1935), Pontius Pilate in The Last Days of Pompeii (1936), Karenin in Anna Karenina (1936) and Guy of Gisbourne in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). In 1939, he was cast as Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles, the first of 14 screen appearances and many radio shows as Conan Doyle's master detective. The good looks of ROBERT TAYLOR (1911-1969) sometimes caused critics to overlook his acting talents, which he displayed in such films as Camille (1936), Waterloo Bridge(1940), Bataan(1943), Quo Vadis(1951) and The Last Hunt(1956). He starred on TV in Robert Taylor's Detectives (1959-1962) and succeeded friend Ronald Reagan as host of Death Valley Days (1966-1968). He was married to actresseses Barbara Stanwyck and Ursula Theiss. JACK OAKIE (1903-1978) was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award in 1940 for The Great Dictator. Oakie, who made his professional debut in the chorus of the 1922 George M. Cohan musical Little Nellie Kelly, appeared in several Broadway productions before making his film debut in 1928. The character actor appeared in a long list of feature films, including The Call of the Wild (1935), The Toast of New York (1937), Little Men (1940), When My Baby Smiles at Me(1948), Around the World in 80 Days (1956), The Rat Race (1960) and Lover Come Back (1961). BRENDA JOYCE (1917-2009) was an American film actress who appeared in B-movies in the 1940's. Twentieth Century Fox publicized her as a sexy single girl putting her in roles opposite Richard Greene in Here I Am a Stranger and opposite John Payne in Maryland (1940). She is best known for being the seventh actress to play Jane in the Tarzan film series. She appeared in the role five times. Some of her other films include The Rain's Came (1939), Little Tokyo, U.S.A. (1942), Danger Woman (1946) and Shaggy (1948).Light paper clip stain at upper left of front cover touches the "J" in Jack. Back cover has glue stains and stray ink marks. Overall, fine condition.