VIRGINIA O'BRIEN - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 08/30/1946 - HFSID 289273

VIRGINIA O'BRIEN
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Virginia O'Brien's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Virginia O'Brien, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Virginia O'Brien", 1 page, 8½x11. No place, 1946 August 20. Virginia O'Brien grants to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, Inc., its successors and assigns, the exclusive right, until December 31, 1947 to use her 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. Stage, screen and television actress and singer Virginia O'Brien (1919-2001) got her big break in 1939, when she appeared in the Los Angeles stage production of Meet the People. Paralyzed with stage fright, she sang the words to her song with a zombie-like expression that delighted the crowd (who thought it was part of the show) and resulted in O'Brien being known to some fans as "Miss Deadpan". O'Brien, who reprised her role in the 1944 film version of the play, was signed by MGM in 1940, and appeared in a number of other MGM musicals, including Thousands Cheer (1943), DuBarry Was a Lady (1943), The Harvey Girls (1946) and Ziegfeld Follies (1946). After leaving MGM, she appeared in only two more films, Francis in the Navy (1955) and Walt Disney's Gus (1976), preferring to concentrate television and stage work. O'Brien was married to her second husband, actor Kirk Alyn, from 1942 until their divorce in 1955. The couple had two daughters and a son. 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. Slightly soiled. Otherwise, fine condition.