KATINA PAXINOU - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 08/02/1946 - HFSID 289098

KATINA PAXINOU
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Paxinou's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. She has signed twice, once to give consent and again as a sample autograph. A perfectly verified example of a very rare signature!
Document signed twice: "Katina Paxinou", 1 page, 8½x11. Hollywood, California 1946 August 2. Paxinou 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. Operatically trained Greek stage and film actress Katina Paxinou (1900-1973) is probably best remembered by American audiences as Pilar in the film version of Hemingway's classic of the Spanish Civil War, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). This role earned her an Oscar and Golden Globe as Best Actress. Trapped in England when the Germans invaded her home country in World War II, she moved to the US and made several English-language films, including Confidential Agent (1945), Mourning Becomes Electra (1947) and Prince of Foxes (1949). She returned to Greece in 1950, focusing most of her talent on theatre. 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 toned around edges. Otherwise, fine condition.