WAYNE MORRIS - DOCUMENT DOUBLE SIGNED 07/20/1946 - HFSID 288782

WAYNE MORRIS
Consent form authorizing the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce Wayne Morris's signature and likeness for a series of stamps raising money for needy film industry veterans. The form is signed twice by Morris, once as an autograph sample and again to grant permission. A remarkable, perfectly verified example!
Document signed twice: "Wayne Morris", 1 page, 8½x11. Hollywood, California 1946 July 20. Wayne Morris 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. Wayne Morris (1914-1959), who was emerging as a strong second lead in films of the 1930s, made the prophetic I Wanted Wings in 1941. His movie wish came true, when as a naval aviator in World War II he won four Distinguished Service Crosses for his combat heroics in the Pacific. He took to the air again in the 1949 film Task Force, and was then featured in the anti-war film set in World War I, Paths of Glory (1957). Morris' film career never really recovered from his screen absence during the war, and the man who had dodged Japanese bullets died of a heart attack at age 45. 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. Slightly soiled. Otherwise, fine condition.