THE INK SPOTS - DOCUMENT SIGNED 07/29/1937 CO-SIGNED BY: THE INK SPOTS (IVORY "DEEK" WATSON), THE INK SPOTS (ORVILLE ("HOPPY") JONES), THE INK SPOTS (CHARLES (CHARLIE) FUQUA), THE INK SPOTS (WILLIAM (BILLY) KENNY), GEORGE ENGLES - HFSID 269368

THE INK SPOTS
Pop pioneers The Ink Spots signed this document in 1937 to amend their 1935 contract with NBC. This document is signed by all four members on the Ink Spots' first album in 1936: Ivory "Deek" Watson, Orville "Hoppy" Jones, Charlie Fuqua and Bill Kenny.Documents with all four of these signatures are rare and highly desirable.
Contract signed "Ivory Watson", "Orville Jones", "Charles Fuqua" and "William Kenny" and by "George Engles" as Vice President at National Broadcasting Company, Inc. 1 page, 8½x11. July 29, 1937. In letter form to the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). In full: "We hereby acknowledge receipt of your letter of July 28, 1937, properly and sufficiently exercising the option contained in our contract with the National Broadcasting Company, Inc. dated August 13, 1935, as modified by our letter of July 21, 1936, thereby extending said contract for one year from August 13, 1937 to August 12, 1938." A second paragraph "amending the above mentioned contract to provide for a further option on the part of the National Broadcasting Company, Inc. to continue the contract for one additional year from August 13, 1938" has been crossed out. IVORY "DEEK" WATSON (1909-1969, born in Mounds, Illinois), ORVILLE "HOPPY" JONES (1902-1944, born in Chicago, Illinois), CHARLIE FUQUA (1910-1971)and BILL KENNY (1914-1978, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) comprised the Ink Spots from their first Decca recording on May 12, 1936 until October 1943, when Fuqua was drafted into the Army. In September 1944, Watson quit or was forced out of the group, later forming The Brown Dots. Hoppy Jones died shortly after collapsing on stage at the Café Zanzibar on October 18, 1944. On October 26, 1945, Fuqua rejoined the group, later quitting to form his own group after an Ink Spots appearance at The Frolics, Salisbury Beach, Massachusetts, on August 16, 1952. There were always four Ink Spots except for one month following Watson's departure in 1944. The Ink Spots helped pioneer the Black vocal group-harmony genre that eventually became known as doo-wop. "If I Didn't Care", released by Decca in 1939, was their first smash hit. From then through 1951, the group was seldom absent from the pop charts, topping the lists with "We Three (My Echo, My Shadow, and Me)" (1940), "I'm Making Believe" (1944) and "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall" (1944). Autographs of the original Decca recording artist Ink Spots are rare and desirable and this is a fine example. Folds touch signatures of Jones and Engles. Staple holes at upper edge, pinhead-sized spot at left margin. Overall, fine condition.