When my friend Jimmy and I visited former Our Gang member Mildred Kornman at her home in San Diego on October 4, 2005, one of the wonderful pieces of memorabilia that she shared with us was a little autograph book that she had had many celebrities sign during the 1930’s. 35 celebrities with 35 signatures to be exact. Mildred was the younger sister of silent Our Gang leading lady Mary Kornman and the daughter of still photographer Gene Kornman. So she had good reason to be visiting movies sets and was occasionally employed as an extra.
Milded’s autograph book made me drool in my coffee to say the least. So when she asked how she might go about selling it, I mulled over my current financial status and figured out how much pain Carolyn might inflict on me and made her the offer of $1000 for the book. Yes, a bit pricey I grant you, but it averages out to about $28.57 per signature – some of which, as you will see, are worth scads more. But to have the book as a collective record of Mildred’s brief career in Hollywood has a lot of value in itself. I didn’t take the book with me that day, but a couple of months later, after working out the payment arrangements, the book ended up in my hands.
As for the book itself, I will share about a dozen of the signature in each of three postings, going in the order in which they are presented. The first dozen are also interesting, because someone (most likely her father Gene) has jotted at the bottom of the page below the signature the name of the film set on which these were signed. These notations abruptly stopped a third of the way through, but I have been able to make some educated guesses as to what films were shooting when the remainder were signed – one being a Laurel and Hardy movie!
The cover of the book
The first two signatures come from the set of Reckless, which was filming in 1934 – and belonged to Franchot Tone and Jean Harlow. Harlow’s signature is a real rarity and easily the most valuable in the book. Harlow died at the very young age of 26 and any requests that she got through the mail were generally always signed by her mother, so this is a great example of a legitimate in-person autograph. Harlow was particularly important to me as she began her early career at the Hal Roach Studios, appearing with Laurel and Hardy in Liberty, Double Whoopee, and Bacon Grabbers.
Mildred’s big sister Mary was still doing some acting in 1935 and the current project at this time was the chapter serial Queen of the Jungle. The leading man in the series was Reed Howes and he signed a special note to the nine-year old Mildred. Too bad that she didn’t have Mary sign it as well!
In February of 1935, production of the film Dinky was underway. Mildred captured the signatures of the top four billed performers: Jackie Cooper, Henry Armetta, Roger Pryor, and Mary Astor. Cooper of course was a fellow member of the Our Gang, albeit in the sound era. He represents the only person to have signed this book who, as of this writing, is still alive.
Henry Armetta holds a special place in Laurel and Hardy history, as he has the notable role of Matteo in The Devil’s Brother. He is the unfortunate victim of Stan’s maddening games of Kneesie, Earsie, Nosey and Finger Wiggle.
Mildred was able to grab two of the leading performers of the 1935 film Page Miss Glory, although she missed leading lady Marion Davies. The next two signatures in the book belong to Pat O’ Brien and Dick Powell.
The next signature is another invaluable one to me. Back in the days when Mildred’s sister Mary was the leading lady in the silent Our Gang comedies, the leading boy was most certainly freckle-face Mickey Daniels. Mary and Mickey kept a close association for the next decade following their departure from the Our Gang. They starred together in another series at the Roach Studios known as the Boy Friends. And then several of these actors, including Mary, Mickey, David Sharpe, and Gertrude Messinger, went on to appear together in a few other adventure films together.
One of these adventure films was Roaring Roads and it was on the set of this film that Mickey signed Mildred’s autograph book. Mildred recalled that she never really cared for Mickey, despite he referring to her as her ‘big brother’ in the inscription below. She remembered that he used to like to smoke cigars and blow the smoke in her face.
The final film to be covered in this posting was surely the most famous. Mildred remembers that she was in fact an extra in the Charlie Chaplin classic Modern Times. She was able to get the signatures of Allan Garcia and Paulette Goddard. She actually apologized to me that she didn’t get Chaplin for me.
Allan Garcia (better known as Al E. Garcia) also starred with Chaplin in his feature films The Gold Rush, The Circus, and City Lights. Paulette Goddard (who also briefly appears in the Laurel and Hardy films Pack Up Your Troubles and The Bohemian Girl) would go on to marry Charlie Chaplin the following year.
Mildred’s autograph book will continue…
Return to our visit with Mildred in 2005…
Wow! These have certainly been worth the wait! You have a real treasure with that little autograph book. I can’t wait to read the next two installments!
Dave Chasteen
January 29th, 2010
Thanks for sharing this book. Anything on sister Mary? Larry Smith
larry smith
February 21st, 2011