TEX RITTER - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 11/14/1946 - HFSID 289217

TEX RITTER
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Tex Ritter's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Ritter, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Tex Ritter", 1 page, 8½x11. Los Angeles, California, 1946 November 14. Tex Ritter grants to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, Inc., its successors and assigns, the exclusive right, until December 31, 1947 to use his 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. Tex Ritter (1905-1974, born Maurice Woodward Ritter in Marvaul, Texas) was a country music star who also was successful in Westerns, appearing in 85 films. Rivaling Gene Autry in popularity at the beginning of his career, Ritter curtailed his filmmaking in the late 1940s, opting to tour in live shows with his horse, White Flash. As a singer, he became a weekly fixture at the Grand Ole Opry. The father of actor John Ritter, he is the only entertainer elected to both the Cowboy Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame. 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 hole at left (worn). Normal mailing fold. Ink stain (unknown hand) on verso. Slightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.