TURHAN BEY - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 08/12/1946 - HFSID 289185

TURHAN BEY
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Turhan Bey's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Bey, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Turhan Bey", 1 page, 8½x11. Los Angeles, California, 1946 August 12. Turhan Bey 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. Born in Vienna, Austria to a Turkish father and a Czechoslovakian mother, actor Turhan Bey was a popular leading man of the 1940s who was often cast as mysterious or villainous characters on in Arabian nights-type films. Appearing in films from 1941-1996, Bey's credits include Bombay Clipper, The Mummy's Tomb and Arabian Nights (all 1942), Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Dragon Seed (both 1944), Song of India (1949), The Skateboard Kid II (1995) and Virtual Combat (1996). He also made several guest starring appearances on television, most notably as two different characters on Babylon 5 (1995, 1998). Bey has returned to Vienna, where he is a successful photographer. 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 holes at left. Normal mailing folds. Pencil note (unknown hand), not affecting signature. Slightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.