The title of this posting may sound like a nightmarishly tacky variety show, but I am really referring to my initiative in both Summer of 1992 and 1997 to collect autographs from celebrities who worked in friends with Robert DeNiro. Since 1991 when I first saw Goodfellas and followed it up with Cape Fear – and then began collecting DeNiro films one by one, I have been enamored with his film career. In the early 1990’s my goal was to acquire all of his movies on Laserdisc, which at the time was costing $30 (for the cheap ones) and upward. Since then, I have shifted to DVD’s and am close to completing the entire catalog.
But I digress. In 1992 when I was in California, I browsed the movie memorabilia shops for photos to send off to get signed and one of the themes I focused on was the films of Robert DeNiro. I purchased a small handful of photos which featured him with other actors.
There were several failures in this lot, among them Jerry Lewis (from whom I received a secretarial), Kevin Costner, Gregory Peck, Martin Scorsese, Sean Penn, and Joe Don Baker (all of who I received no response and lost my photos). I tried DeNiro himself but had the wrong address. The following were the only two successes:
Along with my mailings to Lewis, Costner, Peck, Scorsese, and DeNiro, I sent this great shot from Goodfellas to Paul Sorvino on July 24, 1992. He signed this and returned it a couple of months later along with two signed notecards.
I sent Jane Fonda this photo from Stanley & Iris on August 5 – at the same time as my request to Penn and Baker – and she returned it signed on September 4.
So when I began my initiative again in 1997, I still had some straggling photos left over from the “DeNiro Initiative.” Most likely I had no addresses for these performers but I was now working with a top-notch directory. I had better luck during my next go-round, failing only with Juliette Lewis and Jessica Lange. And it took nearly three years to get my signed photo back from Donald Sutherland!
This posed photo on the set of Cape Fear went out to Nick Nolte on August 13, 1997 and came back signed on my birthday, October 2
Tuesday Weld scrawled her signature on this shot from Once Upon a Time in America after I sent it to her on August 15. It came back October 20.
Charles Grodin was relatively quick to sign and return this shot from Midnight Run. It was mailed on August 20 and came back along with another signed portrait on September 15.
Donald Sutherland – as seen here on the set of Backdraft – took so long to return this photo that I sent on September 2, 1997 that I had stopped writing them down by then. As I recall, it took roughly three years.
This photo was returned with a note directing me to another specific address to send autograph requests to Robin Williams. This photo from Awakenings was sent out on September 3 and returned on November 3, 1997.
For the centerpiece to this whole story, we turn to Robert DeNiro himself. I had sat on this photo for nearly five years, having attempted once to send it to him at the wrong address. Over the years, I had learned what a good DeNiro signature looks like and what the signature of his secretarials looked like. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try again but wasn’t expecting much.
So on September 1, 1997, I sent out this great portrait of Robert DeNiro in his Academy Award winning part from The Godfather Part II – along with a long handwritten letter detailing how much I enjoyed his work and all of his films I had collected on Laserdisc.
Now I am not naive enough to think that DeNiro reads all of his mail, but I do believe that someone determined that I must be a rather big fan of their boss. And he must have just happened to have been available for autographs at this time, because what I received back is most certainly a legitimate DeNiro signature in gorgeous gold Sharpie on a fabulous portrait.
Sometimes things work out just fine. Are you talkin’ to me?
Autographs of 1992 will continue… (under construction)
Autographs of 1997 will continue…
He is the man! I always consider myself lucky to have seen him on stage in NYC. What a great thrill!
Bob
May 22nd, 2008
Sorry to say but that is not Bob’s autograph on your Godfather, Part 2 still. It is the clever work of his longtime secretary. I should know because I have more than a dozen real examples of Bob’s autograph/signature as we worked together on a couple of movies. You’re only best bet to get a real De Niro autograph is to go out and get him in person. He attends a lot of film premieres and shoots a lot of movies on location. Good Luck!
Clem
January 4th, 2012