IRVING BERLIN - AUTOGRAPH CO-SIGNED BY: CYD CHARISSE - HFSID 159436

IRVING BERLIN and CYD CHARISSE
Signatures of composer Irving Berlin and dancer Cyd Charisse
Signatures: "Irving Berlin" and, on verso, "Cyd/Charisse". 5¼x3½ card. BERLIN (1888-1989, born Israel Isidore Baline in Tumen, Siberia, Russia) was such a force in American music that in 1924, when Berlin was just 37, songwriter Jerome Kern gave this assessment: "Irving Berlin has no place in American music. He is American music." If the only song he ever wrote was God Bless America, made famous by Kate Smith, Berlin would be an important part of American music. But Berlin wrote more than 900 songs, including the classics A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody, There's No Business Like Show Business, Always, Easter Parade and Blue Skies, 19 musicals, including Annie Get Your Gun and Call Me Madam, and the scores of 18 movies, including Holiday Inn, which featured his 1942 Academy Award-winning song, White Christmas. CHARISSE (1921-2008, born Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas), one of film's best dancers, spent her childhood studying ballet. At age 13, she joined the Ballet Russe. Five years later, in 1940, during a tour of Europe, she married Nico Charisse, her ballet instructor; she was later married to Tony Martin. Charisse starred with Fred Astaire in The Band Wagon (1953) and Silk Stockings (1957) and with Gene Kelly in Words and Music (1948), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Brigadoon (1954), Deep in My Heart (1954), It's Always Fair Weather (1955) and Invitation to the Dance (1956). Charisse, Astaire and Kelly costarred in Ziegfeld Follies (1946). Missing lower left corner. Tape on verso affecting "se" of Charisse's signature. Otherwise in fine condition.