GLORIA JEAN - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 07/26/1946 - HFSID 288947

GLORIA JEAN
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Gloria Jean's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Jean, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Gloria Jean" and "Best wishes/Gloria Jean", 1 page, 8½x11. Los Angeles, California, 1946 July 26. Gloria Jean grants to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, Inc., its successors and assigns, the exclusive right, to use her 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. In 1939, Universal studios, searching for a possible successor to their juvenile singing star, Deanna Durbin, cast actress Gloria Jean (born 1926 as Gloria Jean Schoonover) in The Under-Pup, an inexpensive comedy-drama set in an Interlochen-style musical camp. The film was a hit, and Jean was signed to a Universal contract. Although the actress made 39 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, including Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941) with W.C. Fields, her career was not as carefully monitored as Durbin's; allegedly, the studio had problems dealing with Jean's mother, and surreptitiously punished her by sticking her daughter in second-rate roles. Jean also made occasional guest appearances on television, including roles on Death Valley Days (1954) and Annie Oakley (1955), before retiring from acting in 1961. 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. Slightly creased. Slightly soiled. Pencil check (unknown hand). Otherwise, fine condition.