One of the factors that drew me back into the world of autograph collecting in early 1985 was the wide array of legendary celebrities that were now in retirement, sitting around their pads signing autographs for fans. Looking through our tent Grand Sheik Carl Ahlm’s autograph albums, I was astonished by the volume of illustrious film icons that were responding to fan mail.
Two autographs that he had obtained really fascinated me. Although never a fan of the the Three Stooges, they did share the era of film comedy with contemporaries of whom I was a huge fan – not the least of which were Laurel and Hardy. So I held an iconoclastic admiration for them even though I wasn’t particularly fond of their films.
Don’t forget that in those days there was no such thing as the Internet Movie Database, so finding out if these old actors were even still alive was not information that you had readily available at your fingertips. So in some cases, finding out that some of these performers were still kicking was enough to jump-start me into sending them a letter.
As I began this hobby, I was only armed with an address book and the know-how to write a nice letter. Of course, within the letter I needed to mention some of the celebrity’s film appearances so I would copy down the names of films pertaining to the stars to whom I was going to write from Carl’s copy of Ephraim Katz’ The Film Encyclopedia – a telephone-book-sized (although miniature) version of the IMDB. I would later get my own copy for Christmas that year. Later on, Carl would also hook me up with some sources to help me find photos to purchase.
So back to the Stooges – I was amazed to see personalized, signed photos of two of the former Stooges in Carl’s collection: Joe Besser and “Curly-Joe” DeRita. I wrote to Joe Besser on May 28, 1985 and received a response on June 10. Curly-Joe took a bit longer. I wrote to him on June 17 and heard back on July 10. In addition to the items displayed here, they each signed notecards as well, and Curly-Joe also enclosed a tiny unsigned photo of himself. The letter from Joe Besser was written by his wife Ernie and then signed by him. The color photo below has pre-printed signatues of all of the Three Stooges with an added authentic autograph from Curly-Joe.
Upon reflection, I now realize that I couldn’t have started collecting autographs at any better time. These days the hobby has become a greed-filled money-making venture on the part of the collectors as well as the celebrities. But back then, so many retired legends were pleased to send authentic autographs that it makes my head spin just thinking about what I could have obtained had I worked even harder at it. As it is, I appreciate all of the cool stuff I did get.
More autographs from 1985 later…
More from Curly-Joe here…
More from both of these Stooges the following year can be seen here…
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