JACK BENNY - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 04/02/1947 - HFSID 289234

JACK BENNY
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Jack Benny's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Benny, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Jack Benny", 1 page, 8½x11. Los Angeles, California, 1947 April 2. Jack Benny grants to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, Inc., its successors and assigns, the exclusive right, until December 31, 1947 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. Vaudeville comedian Jack Benny (1894-1974) hosted a popular radio show from 1933, moving smoothly to TV (1950-1965). Benny appeared in over 25 movies, the most critically acclaimed of which was To Be or Not to Be (1942). Benny's comic image as a tone-deaf, penny-pinching bachelor contradicted the real Benny, a philanthropist, devoted husband and competent violinist. 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. Slightly toned Slightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.