NELSON EDDY - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 07/24/1946 - HFSID 289223

NELSON EDDY
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Nelson Eddy's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Eddy, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Nelson Eddy", 1 page, 8½x11. Los Angeles, California, 1946 July 24. Nelson Eddy grants to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, Inc., its successors and assigns, the exclusive right, until December 31, 1947 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. Nelson Eddy (1901-1967) performed with the Metropolitan Opera (1924) and was heard in concert and on radio in the early 1930s. Beginning in 1935, he joined Jeanette MacDonald in a singing duo, commonly called "the Singing Sweethearts", which scored one smash hit film musical after another through 1942, including Naughty Marietta, Rose Marie and Let Freedom Ring. 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 and staple holes at top left. Normal mailing folds. Lightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.