JOHNNY MACK BROWN - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED CIRCA 1946 - HFSID 289226

JOHNNY MACK BROWN
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Johnny Mack Brown's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Brown, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Johnny Mack Brown", 1 page, 8½x11. Los Angeles, California, no date. Johnny Mack Brown 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. An All American football halfback at Alabama, Johnny Mack Brown (1904-1974) was cast opposite stars such as Greta Garbo and Mary Pickford in films of the late silent era. He found stardom, however, in the "B" Westerns of the 1930s-1950s, appearing in over 200 of them. Brown came out of retirement to play supporting roles in three Westerns of the mid-1960s. 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 edge. Pencil note (unknown hand) at bottom right. Slightly toned. Slightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.