KAY KYSER - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 09/27/1946 - HFSID 289001

KAY KYSER
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Kay Kyser's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Kyser, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Kay Kyser", 1 page, 8½x11. Hollywood, California, 1946 September 27. Kay Kyser grants to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, Inc., its successors and assigns, the exclusive right, 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. Bandleader Kay Kyser (1905-1985), who couldn't read a note of music, was one of the most popular bandleaders and music personalities in America from 1933 until the end of the 1940s. Kyser and his band became nationally known following a series of radio broadcasts from the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica. These shows, which featured his trademark comedy (vocalists singing the titles of songs, interrupting a chorus for the band's theme, "Thinking of You") and an engagement at the Blackhawk Restaurant in Chicago, Kyser a star. His many hits included "The White Cliffs of Dover" and "Old Buttermilk Sky". Kyser's zany radio show, Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge, ran for more than 15 years and was so popular that RKO signed him up for a series of films, starting with That's Right, You're Wrong. During WWII, Kyser and his band appeared at over 500 military installations in USO shows. After his radio show was cancelled in1949, Kyser had difficulty making a transition to television, and he retired in 1950. 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). Staple holes at top left. Normal mailing folds. Lightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.