After I sent an eventually-successful autograph request to Robert Blake, I continued my program of making one attempt per day to obtain a variety of celebrity autographs. Some of my unsuccessful attempts between July 20, were to Kurt Vonnegut, Ronald Reagan, Tony Dow, Bill Clinton, and George Bush (who alternately refused, never answered, or sent along an autopen. Shame on you, President Bush!)
Some of the successes that I have already displayed in previous postings include Yoko Ono, Shirley Temple, Dick Moore, and Joyce Dewitt – along with follow-up requests to Robert Blake and Monty O’Grady.
A purchased KISS
Not only did I attempt to mail requests directly to the stars, but I often used other means as ‘official attempts.’ For instance, I made my pal Randy Skretvedt an unsuccessful offer to buy one of his hand-signed cards of Oliver Hardy. A fellow I knew named Rick Sinchak had a signed photo of Our Ganger Mickey Daniels and I made an unsuccessful offer to him as well. From a dealer, I at least managed to successfully purchase a signed photo of the entire line-up of KISS. And I made several trades with my friend Stephen Cox.
Steve always had a very interesting array of autographs to trade. He took pride in obtaining the unique and unusual in autographs. He was very particular about what kind of pen they used to sign the photo, where they scrawled their name, and what they wrote. These are among some of the coolest autographs in my collection. I’m not sure what specifically I traded with him, but they were certainly mostly extras of Our Gang and Laurel and Hardy co-stars that I had.
As the author of The Munchkins of Oz, Steve had done ample interviews and collected numerous signatures of Wizard of Oz co-stars, as in the two below: Nita Krebs (the tallest of the Lullabye League), and Dona Massin, who sang the line that she inscribed on the photo insided the Emerald City.
Nita Krebs outside of her Lullabye League garb
The clip, clip girl – Dona Massin
One of my very favorite pieces in my entire collections is the Peanuts photo below from A Charlie Brown Christmas, which has been signed by the highly elusive comic strip creator Charles Schultz – in addition to the director of the TV special Bill Melendez, and the voice of Charlie Brown Peter Robbins.
I proudly display this item on my basement wall
Finally, one method I occasionally employed was to send a request to the surviving spouse of a deceased performer. During this time period I made two relatively unsuccessful attempts: Ty Parvis (who crooned Honolulu Baby in Laurel and Hardy’s Sons of the Desert) and Our Gang kid Sherwood “Spud” Bailey (who is seen at the top of this posting). I never heard from Mrs. Parvis, but Mrs. Ruth Bailey was kind enough to at least respond to my letter. Although she didn’t have any signatures of Mr. Bailey, she did send along a rare picture (which looked to be a passport photo) of him.
Note from Ruth Bailey
Rarely seen photo of the late Sherwood Bailey
Autographs of 1997 will continue…
There was a *Mrs.* Ty Parvis? Hmm, that sure doesn’t square with what Marvin Hatley told me about him. Or, actually, what Marvin’s wife Josephine told me. Marvin and Josephine had known Ty Parvis when they’d all done some vaudeville work in the late ’20s. Later, Josephine’s daughters from a previous marriage wanted to go on the road in an act with Ty (the daughters were in their teens), and Josephine was very cautious, until Ty indicated that the girls didn’t have to worry about him doing anything untoward–nor did *any* girls, for that matter.
You tried to buy an Oliver Hardy card from me? Hmm, I don’t recall that. I must have something around here if you still need it. I have very few things signed “Oliver Hardy,” though. Usually they’re cards signed “Daddy,” which had accompanied flowers Babe sent to Myrtle at various sanitaria.
Randy Skretvedt
April 8th, 2008
Very Cool autograph Charlie Brown
James Lavin
February 27th, 2011