RICHARD RODGERS - AUTOGRAPH CO-SIGNED BY: RAY MILLAND, JOE DE SANTIS - HFSID 509

RICHARD RODGERS, RAY MILLAND and JOE De SANTIS
Yellow album leaf signed by the songwriter and Broadway producer, and one-half of Rodgers & Hammerstein, actors Milland and De Santis
Signatures: "Richard Rodgers" and "Ray Milland", "Joe De Santis" both in blue ink.  With erased pencil notes in top right corner and black ink notation near bottom edge in unknown hand, 5¾x4½. RICHARD RODGERS (1902-1979) collaborated with lyricists Lorenz Hart and later Oscar Hammerstein II to produce dozens of America's most beloved popular songs and many of its most successful musicals. Collaborations with Hart produced such standards as With a Song in My Heart, The Lady Is a Tramp, My Funny Valentine and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered. After Hart's death (1943), Rodgers teamed up with Hammerstein to produce one Broadway hit after another, including Oklahoma, South Pacific (which won a Pulitzer Prize), The Sound of Music and The King and I. Richard Rodgers and Marvin Hamlisch are the only two composers to win an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy, a Grammy and a Pulitzer. RAY MILLAND (1905-1986) was a British and then American actor who spent the 1930s and early 1940s playing light romantic leads in such films as Next Time We Love (1936); Three Smart Girls (1936); Easy Living (1937), in which he was especially charming opposite Jean Arthur in an early Preston Sturges script; and as the major in Billy Wilder's The Major and the Minor (1942), opposite Ginger Rogers. Milland won an Oscar for his intense and realistic portrait of an alcoholic in The Lost Weekend (1945). In Dial M for Murder, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Milland convincingly portrays a wastrel husband who schemes to have his wife (Grace Kelly) murdered for the insurance. His later career was made up of mediocre parts in mostly bad films. JOSEPH VITO De SANTIS (1909-1989) was an American movie, television, radio, theatrical actor and sculptor. He studied sculpture and drama at New York University, and made his first performance in Italian. After obtaining a part in a play at Hunter College, he secured work as an actor for three seasons with the Walter Hampden Repertory Company, which marked the beginning of his performances in English. His career in broadcasting began on radio in May 1940 with Pepper Young's Family and continued with major network shows such as Mr. District Attorney, The March of Time, Gangbusters, and The Kate Smith Show. One of his most important contributions to the industry was his narration of Norman Corwin's On a Note of Triumph. De Santis was inducted into the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters Diamond Circle on May 17, 1985. With the advent of television, he became known as a skilled character actor who was able to play convincing dialect characters, mugs, suave heavies and emotional leads. Joe had an active participation in television series as Playhouse 90, Studio One, Sheriff of Cochise, and also appeared regularly on the programs of Red Buttons, Martha Raye and Sid Caesar shows. Besides his several single performances on other series like Voyageto the Bottom of the Sea, he had a recurring presence in such shows as The Untouchables, 77 Sunset Strip, Perry Mason, Mission: Impossible, and in the westerns such as Sugarfoot, Daniel Boone, Gunsmoke, Sara, and Bonanza. One of his choicest moments came while playing a role with Frank Sinatra, a performer whom he greatly admired, on a made-for-TV movie, Contract on Cherry Street. The highest point of his career came in 1962 with Cold Wind in August; he was also featured in I Want to Live! and The Brotherhood. He was an active member of the Players' Club in New York City, and the Masquers' Club in Los Angeles, California. De Santis retired to Provo, Utah in 1978to be close to his family and resided there until his death in 1989. Along with sculpting, he often contributed to the activities of the Provo Eldred Center. Lightly toned and creased. Otherwise, fine condition.