OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 12/02/1946 - HFSID 288907

OLIVIA de HAVILAND
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce de Haviland'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. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Olivia de Haviland", 1 page, 8½x11. Hollywood, California, 1946 December 2. De Havilland 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. Olivia de Havilland (1916-2020), the sister of actress Joan Fontaine, received critical acclaim and Best Actress Academy Awards for her roles in To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949). She was also nominated for an Oscar for Gone With the Wind (1939), of which she is the last surviving star, Hold Back the Dawn (1941) and The Snake Pit (1948). In addition to her acting on the stage and screen, de Havilland is known for fighting the studio system. The actress sued Warner Bros. for extending her seven-year contract by tacking on several months for which she had been suspended for refusing to take a part. Although de Havilland spent three years off the screen, she ultimately won her case, and the "De Havilland Law", as it came to be called, ensured that studios were no longer able to engage in the practice of extending contract time. 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 (Lightly worn). Paperclip indentation at top left edge. Normal mailing folds. Lightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.