PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN - BOOK PAGE SIGNED CIRCA 1945 CO-SIGNED BY: JOHN HAMILTON, PERRY COMO, DEAN MARTIN, ROBERT STERLING, FRANCIS OUIMET, CHARLES IRWIN, JIMMY DORSEY, LEO B. GORCEY, EDGAR BERGEN, BRUCE CABOT, HELMUT DANTINE, ANN SOTHERN, MARGUERITE CHAPMAN, ALAN HALE SR., JERRY LEWIS, GARRY MOORE, LLOYD BACON, DON BARCLAY, DON PRINDLE, HOWARD PARKER, WILLIAM "BILL" MARSHALL, LARRY JACKSON, VINCENT C. HICKSON - HFSID 284201

HOLLYWOOD STARS: RONALD REAGAN and OTHERS
Many Hollywood stars and other prominent persons sign the title and half-title pages of the book, Movie Lot to Beachhead, a 1945 book on the film industry's response to World War II.
Book Pages signed: "Good Luck/Ronald Reagan", "Dean Martin", "Jerry/Lewis", "Robert Sterling", "Jimmy Dorsey", "Leo B. Gorcey", "To Bill/good wishes/from/Edgar Bergen/and/Charlie", "Bruce Cabot", "Helmut/Dantine", "Ann Sothern", "Lotsa Luck/Marguerite Chapman", "Hi Bill!/Garry Moore", "To Bill/Best/Lloyd Bacon", "Don Barclay [who has added a self-caricature]", "Perry Como", "Alan Hale", "Don Prindle", "John Hamilton" [a very rare signature], "To My Friend/Bill. A very nice/guy from Your Friend/Bill Marshall", "Francis Ouimet", "To Bill/Sincere best wishes/Nate Walley/1946", "Sincere/best wishes Bill/Larry Jackson", "Charles Irwin", "Vincent C. Hickson", 6¾x9½. Title page and half-title page from Movie Lot to Beachhead (1945), by the editor's of Look magazine (a survey of the film industry's response to World War II). In all 21 identified signers and 10 unidentified. RONALD REAGAN (1911-2004) had two careers: actor and politician. His first movie was Love is on the Air (1937) and his 53rd and last film was The Killers (1964). In 1965, he wrote his autobiography, Where's the Rest of Me?, a line from his role as Drake McHugh in King's Row (1942). He was President of the Screen Actors Guild. Elected Governor of California in 1966, he was reelected in 1970. Reagan began his campaign for the presidency and narrowly lost the 1976 Republican nomination to Gerald Ford. He was elected President in 1980 and was reelected in 1984. After leaving office in 1989, he wrote his second autobiography, An American Life. DEAN MARTIN (1917-1995) formed a popular comedy duo with Jerry Lewis in the 1950s. He made numerous films, including The Young Lions (1958), Rio Bravo (1959) and the popular Matt Helm spy spoofs of the 1960s. He was often linked in films and Las Vegas nightclubs with his "Rat Pack" buddies, who included Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. Martin recorded over 100 albums and 500 songs, including favorites "That's Amore" and "Volare", and his signature tune, "Everybody Loves Somebody". His TV variety show, The Dean Martin Show, ran for a decade (1965-1974). Lewis's comedy partner (1946-1956), JERRY LEWIS then successfully pursued a solo career as a comic actor. Disliked by many U.S. critics, but revered in Europe (and by many American fans) as a comic genius, Lewis starred in such films as Jumping Jacks (with Martin, 1952), The Geisha Boy (1958), The Nutty Professor (1963), The King of Comedy (1983) and Funny Bones (1995). He has directed several of his films, and is well known as the host of annual Labor Day telethons for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The elder of the two celebrated Dorsey brothers, alto sax and clarinetist JIMMY DORSEY (1904-1957) took over the band the pair had jointly fronted until Tommy quit in May 1935. In the 15 years that followed, Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra recorded exactly 100 chart hits. One of the top hits of 1937 was "Too Marvelous For Words", recorded on March 3, 1937 by Bing Crosby with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra. Jimmy rejoined his brother's band in 1953. In 1935, LEO GORCEY (1917-1969) and his younger brother David starred in the stage play Dead End. In 1937, it was made into a movie, and Leo became one of the busiest actors in Hollywood for the next 20 years. From 1937-1939, he starred as Spit in seven Dead End Kids movies; from 1940-1945 as Muggs McGinnis in 22 East Side Kids films; and from 1946-1956 as Slip Mahoney in 48 Bowery Boys movies. EDGAR BERGEN (1903-1978, born in Chicago, Illinois) and his ventriloquist's dummy, Charlie McCarthy, were first heard over Rudy Vallee's radio program on December 17, 1936 and were an immediate hit. Bergen was promptly signed, and Bergen and McCarthy starred on NBC and later on CBS from 1937 to 1956. Charlie McCarthy was a sarcastic boy who managed to get into trouble, which always worried Edgar Bergen. Bergen was the father of Emmy Award-winning actress Candice Bergen. American actor BRUCE CABOT (1904-1972), born Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac, is probably best known to modern audiences as Jack Driscoll from King Kong (1933). This heroic role was against type for him, though, as Cabot was usually cast as a heavy (such as a gangster in Let 'Em Have It, Magua in Last of the Mohicans and a thuggish lynch-mob leader in Fury, all in 1936). Cabot was also a good friend of John Wayne and appeared with him in Angel and the Badman (1947) as well as many of his later exploits, like The Comancheros (1961), Hellfighters (1962), McLintock! (1963), In Harm's Way (1965), The Green Berets (1968), Chisum (1970) and Big Jake (1971). In all, Cabot appeared in almost 110 films and TV shows between 1931 and 1971. Austrian born HELMUT DANTINE (1917-1982) came to the US in the 1930s for political reasons. While attending UCLA, he became active in the Pasadena Playhouse and transitioned to movies -frequently playing Nazis, with his first appearance in International Squadron (1941). His last screen appearances were in two Sam Peckinpah films; Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) and The Killer Elite (1975). ANN SOTHERN (1909-2001) was trained as a vocalist before making her film debut in her original name (Harriette Lake) in the early Warner sound musical, The Show of Shows (1929). After success on Broadway, she returned to Hollywood in 1933 and found her niche as a lighthearted heroine, especially in the role of Maisie Ravier, which she performed in ten films (1939-1947). Sothern also starred in two TV series: Private Secretary (1953-1957) and The Ann Sothern Show (1958-1961). She was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her last film, The Whales of August (1987). MARGUERITE CHAPMAN (1920-1999) entered films in 1936, playing the (often) secondary star in many films of the 1940s and 1950s. Examples of her work include the serial Spycatcher (1942), Relentless (1948) and Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952). A frequent guest on TV programs of the 1950s, she reappeared in the mid-1970s for spots on Hawaii Five-0 and Barnaby Jones. Genial TV host GARRY MOORE (1915-1993), with his bow tie and crew cut, was a fixture of American television in the 1950s and 1960s. His variety show, The Garry Moore Show, created for radio in 1949, crossed over to television the following year and ran until 1964. Visible on daytime as well as evening television, Moore hosted the long-running panel quiz show I've Got a Secret (1952-1964). LLOYD FRANCIS BACON (1889-1955) appeared on screen in more than 40 silent films, including several Chaplin comedies (The Tramp, 1915). He became a workhorse director at Warner Bros., directing over 100 films, including 42nd Street (1933), Knute Rockne: All American (with Ronald Reagan, 1940), and The Fighting Sullivans (1944). Character actor DON BARCLAY (1892-1975) appeared in films for half a century, beginning in the silent era and continuing through Mary Poppins (1964). He often played a sidekick for Bob Steele and others in action movies. He was a voice-over in some of Disney's most loved animated films of the early 1950s: Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, One Hundred and One Dalmations. One of America's most popular singers from the end of WWII until the rise of rock and roll, PERRY COMO (1912-2001) starred in radio and television musical variety shows bearing his name (1948-1963). He earned four Emmys for his television series and specials. Como released at least eight albums of Christmas music over half a century (1953-2002). His songs include: "It's Impossible", "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes", "Till the End of Time", "Prisoner of Love", "A Hubba-Hubba-Hubba (Dig You Later)", "Temptation", "And I Love You So", "Because", "Catch a Falling Star", "Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom)" When You Were Sweet Sixteen" and "No Other Love". ALAN HALE (1892-1950) began in silent films in 1912, usually cast as a villain. His success as a character actor continued in the talkie era, except now he often played a comic pal of the leading man. Hale played Little John in three film versions of the Robin Hood legend, paired with Douglas Fairbanks (1922), Errol Flynn (1938) and John Derek (1950). Son Alan Hale, Jr. (1918-1990) closely resembled him, but their distinctive signatures are quite different. DON PRINDLE was a gag writer who worked for Abbott and Costello, among others. He co-hosted a radio show (1946) with Wendell Niles, posing as two friends always arguing with each other. JOHN HAMILTON (1887-1958) appeared on Broadway stages before moving after 1930 to the movies, where he usually played supporting roles as an authority figure (a District Attorney in The Maltese Falcon, a recruiting officer in Yankee Doodle Dandy, the Justice of the Peace who marries Marlon Brando and Teresa Wright in The Men). He is best remembered, however, as Perry White, editor of the Daily Planet on TV's The Adventures of Superman (1952-1958). Only very rarely do signatures of John Hamilton come on the market! HOWARD PARKER appeared in several Broadway musicals of the 1950s, including Once Upon a Matthress, and occasionally thereafter (Ballroom, 1979). WILLIAM "BILL" MARSHALL was a vocalist with Fred Waring's Orchestra before forming his own band in 1937. Moving to Hollywood, he played supporting roles in films of the 1940s, including such wartime movies as I Escaped from the Gestapo and The Boy from Stalingrad (both 1943). His third wife was Ginger Rogers (1961-1969). 20-year-old amateur golfer FRANCIS OUIMET(1893-1967) won the 1913 U.S. Open championship at Brookline (Massachusetts) Country Club, where he had formerly caddied. Ouimet went on to win two U.S. amateur championships and was on the Walker Cup team eight times. As of May 2010, the Frances Ouimet Fund has awarded $20.5 million in need and merit based college scholarships to applicants with two years of service as a caddy, pro shop employee or golf course maintenance worker. Figure skater NATE WALLEY was a star performer with Ice Capades in the 1940s, promoted to performance director in the following decade. The difficult Walley Jump (or simply "the walley") is named for him. LARRY JACKSON, another skater, performed with Ice Capades and appeared on ice in some movies (Everything's On Ice, 1939; Ice Aces, 1948). Irish-born American actor CHARLES IRWIN (1887-1969) had bit parts in many of the best remembered movies of the 1930s and 1940s, including Mutiny on the Bounty, The Wizard of Oz, The Great Dictator, Yankee Doodle Dandy, National Velvet, The Third Man and The Court Jester. He finally got some speaking roles in TV guest appearances through the early 1960s (Lassie, The Real McCoys). VINCENT C. HICKSON was a Los Angeles lawyer, active from the 1920s. The two pages contain 10 additional names. Some of these are not easily readable. Others are easily readable ("Edmund Francis Griffin, for example), but cannot be readily associated with known persons. A film buff or social historian should enjoy trying to puzzle out the remaining names. Soiled. Lightly creased. Right edge torn from previous binding. Smudge on signature at bottom of page. Otherwise, fine condition.