feaito

Yes MovieJoe thanks very much for all the information and for sharing your personal experiences...."The Golden Girls", what a great show, such good lines, wisecracks...that was witty dialogue...Rue as Blanche Devereaux really excelled, well Estelle Getty, Betty White and Bea Arthur too! They're grand!! Lucky Guy, to have worked with Rue!!! I'd love to write to Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland...they are both all-time faves!! It also would be wonderful to write to Anita Page, she is another legend.

Mongo is right, Joan Crawford, was exceptional on that count, I read that since her stardom days, she always signed personally all of her stills, and that she had a high regard for her fans, throughout her life, and answered every letter sent to her. It's so sad that so many classic stars are dead now, I'd been so happy if I had gotten signed stills from Claudette Colbert and Irene Dunne, but they never answered my letters. For me, the value of this stuff is "sentimental". I'd never sell my signed stills, not for "all the money in the world", beacuse they really mean a lot for me, more than money can buy. Well at least got three stills, sent specifically to me ('cos the others were a gift), and in the ole' romantic way (and for free!).

Edge you're right, the problem with classic stars' autographs is not what they have signed when they were retired, like the ones you mention, but with the autographed stills, they "supposedly" signed back in their glory days, many of them could have been signed by secretaries, especially committed for that task, thus the importance of buying from serious dealers, when it comes to "Vintage signed portraits" or "Vintage autographs", made in the 1930's, 1940's or 1950's for example. Because it seems that a Lana Turner signed still from let's say 1945, would be more valuable than a Lana Turner signed still from 1987.

Gimme all those early thirties!!!!!!

Some specialists may know how to distinguish; I've checked some tips at the website of one of the most respectable dealers of all kinds of memorabilia, letters of historical figures, signed vintage portraits, collectibles, etc...."Profiles in History" www.profilesinhistory.com, they've got catalogs, images, etc. So I feel that first one has to have money to buy these "vintage" signed stills, and second: you ought to buy this kind of stuff from respected dealers, who guarantee the authenticity of the material. Someone mentioned that nowadays some stars do not sign their stills, but someone else does....It's no new "practise". In the old days, many stars, had secretaries, who signed stills and answered fan-mail on their behalfs. I've got 21 vintage stills from the mid 1940's signed by such stars as Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, etc, around 1945-1947, and I know they must be authentic, because they belonged to my country's ambassador in the USA, during that period of time, and they're dedicated to him!!! I've got them as a gift from a dear relative, who bought them many, many years ago at an auction of all his belongings...there was even some correspondence between the ambasador's wife and Dal? or Picasso.... I must say that I compared Bette Davis'signature on the photograph she dedicated to the aforementioned amabassador with the one written on the still she sent to me in the early '80s (some 40 years later), and they're very much alike... Still, I think, that someone may have the luck of getting a signed photograph from a classic star (Van Johnson, Cyd Charisse, Debbie Reynolds, Luise Rainer, etc.) if you write to them, with truth, telling them how much you admire their work, how much you've enjoyed their movies, how important they've been in your life....from the bottom of your heart... I did that as a young lad, and I even had not seen any of Lillian Gish's films, but boy!!...Had I read a lot about her!!, Her work with D.W. Griffith, her masterpieces directed by Sjostrom at MGM, the story about the filming of La Boheme, How she ended her contract with MGM, her way of living, her rise to stardom, etc....I admired her so much, that words came out of my mind & heart, I was 14 or 15 years old....and she sent me back the most greatly dedicated (to me) still I own: For...."with every fond wish and remembrance, Lillian Gish"... the writing shows it was written by a person of some age, so I'm sure it was dear Ms. Gish.

Click on this link, Sixmore...the book was edited in 2003, but is way too expensive!!!....it's a refference book, so maybe your local library has it. Check the reviews at amazon. Hope this helps!! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0837969662/qid=1093489725/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/002-9742841-0487256

There used to be a Huge Book edited on a yearly basis?...Which contained information (data and biography) and addresses of almost all the public people in the world, actors, singers, writers, politicians, etc...I do not know if its edited anymore....Maybe you can check on your local library...It was called Who's Who (in the world)...

Six, as young lad back in the very early 1980's (I'm 37 now), when still, even some silent legends were alive, I made the firm decision of writing some classic stars to get her signed photos. In those days without Internet, I looked Up the Who's Who Book, and wrote down the addresses of some stars like Irene Dunne, Kate Hepburn, Claudette Colbert, etc...and wrote to them, telling how much I loved their movies, how much I admired them, etc...from a youngster's point of view, letters writtem really from the bottom of a young classic film buff's heart Result: I got three signed photographs: one by the great Bette Davis; another by the legendary Lillian Gish, written in golden ink, with a lovely dedication too; and last but not least, a lovely autographed & dedicated still of Luise Rainer. Of all three, only Miss Rainer is still alive (she's 94 or 96 years old), and still lives (it seems) in Lake Lugano, Switzerland, and I think she's one of the loveliest persons/actresses. I've ever seen on-screen, upon watching her interviews in "MGM When The Lion Roars" & the one she gave for the DVD release of "The Great Ziegfeld", you can feel her "truth", her "goodness", you can look into her eyes which reflect a pure soul. She seems friendly, and let's not forget that she was the first actress to win 2 Best Actresses Academy Awards, for "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936) (as Anna Held) and "The Good Earth" (1937) (as O-Lan), a masterpiece and one of the most outstanding performances ever! If you want to do it, go on...you've got nothing to lose. I did it and have those three cherished stills.

I'm almost sure it is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn...

Maybe the 1945 "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" with James Dunn, Joan Blondell, Peggy Ann Garner, Dorothy McGuire

Blossoms in the dust?

sorry (always in rush..me...) last paragraph, I meant: "I hope..."

If TCM is going downhill...I might as well de dead!. TCM is the best classics channel ever!! You only have to look up its monthly schedules. TCM is always improving itself, airing more silents, leasing more Paramounts (as their budget permits so), showing all the pre-codes they can....TCM has always done a wonderful job!! Hearing our opinions (TCM Programmer thanks)...For instance when I & other people spoke so much and praised "Midnight" (1939) and "Portrait of Jennie" (1948), suddenly they appeared in the schedules...If that's not giving the public what they want, I don't know what is!!! I'd hope TCM Latin-America will be as good as the USA TV station!!

Yesterday I watched the DVD edition of "The Howards of Virginia" (which was birthday gift from one of my bros.), and I just loved it...an unusual role for Cary Grant, but as always, he's excellent, and the rest of the cast too, especially Martha Scott, Cedric Hardwicke and Richard Carlson. A Great Epic "Americana".

King Kong?

I knew it was the "Rose Tattoo"...I was waiting for another clue ..... great work Mongo....

Yeah lolite!!!!! Bravo...you got it....1932's As You Desire Me, with Garbo, Melvyn Douglas & Erich Von Stroheim...Your Turn!!! Congrats!!!

Nope Lolite...Would love to see that movie!!!...but you are sort of close, the film was released one year earlier: Clue # 9: Based on a Luigi Pirandello play

Nope Lolite...good try!! Clue # 8: The husband is a Count (italian nobility) Extra Clue: Much Later on, the couple who starred in this movie made two more films together, at the same studio...

Hey Lolite...you can!!! Clue # 7: It's a Pre-Code (done between 1929-1934)

Nope Lolite...good try Clue # 6: When the wife is brought back to her husband & home (in Italy) she looks at her painted portrait on the wall...done 10-15 years earlier...

SORRY It's Clue # 5 and: "She's found (The lost Wife) in Paris as a "bleached blonde"

Nope... Clue # 4: She's found in Paris as "bleached blonde"

Great movies all but no... Clue # 4: A Long lost wife

Nope.... Clue # 3: An Italian Villa