ROUBEN MAMOULIAN - AUTOGRAPH SENTIMENT SIGNED - HFSID 342999

ROUBEN MAMOULIAN
The famed early Hollywood director signs his name in blue ink
Autograph sentiment signed: "Sincerely,/ Rouben Mamoulian" in blue ink. 5x3 index card. Mamoulian (1897-1987, born in Tiflis, Georgia, Russian Empire, now Tbilisi, Georgia) was an American director. Mamoulian directed only 19 films between 1929 and 1959 - and was fired from what should have been his 20th, Cleopatra. But his work is some of the most influential in movie history. He got his start as an actor and then directing operas in Rochester, New York. From there, he was hired by Hollywood to direct in the new medium of talkie movies. His movies, beginning with Applause in 1929, introduced innovations like voice-overs conveying the internal monologues of characters, diagonal wipes, split-screens, a mobile camera (which had been lost from the silent era, due to the limitations of microphones at the time), point-of-view shots and Hollywood's first three-strip Technicolor feature, Becky Sharp (1935). Mamoulian's actors also turned in fine performances; Fredric March from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) is the only actor to receive a Best Actor Oscar for a horror movie. His movies faltered commercially after Becky Sharp but found enduring commercial success on Broadway, with three adaptations of Porgy and Bess and another three of Oklahoma!. Toned and soiled. Corners rounded. Light surface creases. Otherwise, fine condition.