JACKIE COOPER - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 07/13/1946 CO-SIGNED BY: JUNE HORNE - HFSID 288791

JACKIE COOPER
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Cooper's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. He has signed twice, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. Also witnessed by his first wife and by another woman. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Jackie Cooper", 1 page, 8½x11. Hollywood, California, 1946 July 13. Cooper 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. Also signed by two witnesses: "Mrs. Jack Cooper" [his first wife, June Horne] and "Mrs. Frank Fenton" [possibly Queenie Bilotti, wife of actor/screenwriter Frank Fenton and daughter of sculptor Salvadore Bilotti]. Child film star Jackie Cooper (1922-2011) appeared first in Hal Roach's "Our Gang" comedies, then earned an Oscar nomination as Skippy (1931). He co-starred with Wallace Beery in several films of the 1930s, including The Champ and Treasure Island. As an adult, his film opportunities diminished, but Cooper had two hit TV series in the 1950s, The People's Choice and Hennessy. He won an Emmy (1973) for directing episodes of M*A*S*H. Cooper played newspaper editor Perry White in all four of the Christopher Reeves Superman movies (1981-1987). Cooper was married to his first wife, June Horne, from 1944 to 1949. They had one son. (Cooper discouraged all four of his children from embarking on acting careers.)His third marriage, to Barbara Kraus, lasted from 1954 until her death in 2009. 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." Filing holes at left edge. Lightly creased and toned around edges. Multiple mailing folds. Staple holes at top left corner. Otherwise, fine condition.