WALTER SLEZAK - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 10/16/1946 - HFSID 289151

WALTER SLEZAK
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Slezak's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. He has signed twice, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Walter Slezak", 1 page, 8½x11. Hollywood, California, 1946 October 16. Slezak grants to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, Inc., its successors and assigns, the exclusive right 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. Slezak attached conditions: that any reproduction of his likeness shall require his written approval, and that he is incurring no financial obligation. The son of Metropolitan Opera star Leo Slezak, 20-year-old Walter Slezak (1902-1983, born in Vienna, Austria) entered show business by chance after meeting director Michael Curtiz, who cast him for a part in his silent German epic Sodom and Gomorrah (1922). The former bank clerk continued acting in films and on stage, becoming a Broadway stalwart in the 1930s. A strong, handsome man in his youth, he gained weight rapidly as middle age approached, pegging him as a character actor playing both villains and "teddy bears". Slezak made his American film debut as the Nazi baron in Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942). In 1955, he won a Tony for his role in the Broadway production of Fanny and went on to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. 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." Filing holes at left edge. Multiple mailing folds. Edges lightly toned. Otherwise, fine condition.