Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 167

I have been in Las Vegas for the last couple of days, so in honor of my trip – here is a photo of Ann Dvorak and Joseph Schildkraut hitting the casino tables in Flame of Barbary Coast.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 166

We’ve spent a few  days looking at Ann’s signature over the years. For those of you interested in getting an authentic Ann Dvorak autograph here are a couple of photos to be aware of – the studio issued images signed by a secretary.

Both of these are from the later 1940s, measure 5×7, and appear to have been signed by the same person. These two are the images I have seen most often, so they are definitely floating around. Compared to the signatures we looked at yesterday, these are a much more fluid and flowery script.

What should an Ann Dvorak autograph cost? I my opinion, a cut signature should be around $15, and $20 would be pushing it. An 8×10 around $40 and an 11×14 around $75. Of course it also depends on the quality of the photo and who the photographer was. I have a number of Ann’s film and radio contracts and don’t think I ever paid more than $30 for any of those. I think the most I ever spent on an Ann signature was a 5 page letter she wrote to her agent in 1951 and that was around $100.

Ann was not stingy with here autograph, so they’re out there. Just be sure not to pay too much, especially if she was not the one doing the signing!

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 164

Yesterday, we looked at Ann’s signature from the early 1930s. Sometime around 1936, she altered it because someone had been forging her’s on checks. I looked through my mountain of photos and did not find any with the alternate autograph, so here are some paper examples.

The first one is off a 1950 talent agency contract and the second is a 1949 cut. The signature is much more loose than the earlier one, with the biggest difference being the large “D” with part of “vorak” residing within the first letter.

This last cut is from 1964, so you can see that Ann altered her signature very little over 30 years.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 163

Yesterday, we took a look at the first autographed photo of Ann-D I ever bought. Unfortunately, it turned out to not be her signature, but was probably signed by a studio secretary. Today, we take a look at the real deal.

Here we have two 11x14s signed by Ann sometime between 1932 and 1936. I know this because around 1936 Ann changed her signature. Apparently, someone was forging her signature on checks and so she altered her autograph. Here’s a closer look at the signature on the second photo.

The top photo I did not pay a dime for. A local dealer who I have known for years obtained it in a lot of other photos which he made a huge profit on, so he just handed it over to me one day!

The second photo I bought from an eBay dealer. As I recall, I had purchased some Ann item from him and asked if he had anything else, and he came up with this gorgeous shot. He wanted $120 which I really could not afford at the time. I offered $75 and once he realized that I was an obsessive fan and not a dealer who would try to turn a profit, he let it go for the $75. It has hung up in every place I have lived ever since.

The above cut signature is currently listed on eBay and is another example of Ann’s pre-1936 autograph. The asking price is $99 which is a bit high. The photo that’s with it usually goes for around $30-45 (assuming it’s original) and the cut should not be more than $20, so $50 is a more accurate price.

Tomorrow, we’ll dig up Ann’s post 1936 signature.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 162

This was the first autographed portrait of Ann I ever purchased. It was around 1998 or 1999 and I bought it in the main dealer room of a memorabilia show at the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn. I opened up a binder and there she was with a mere $35 price tag. This was in my novice days of collecting and I had not yet developed my poker face, so when I started doing my happy dance the dealer half-jokingly asked if I would step away for a moment while he changed the price.

Turns out, the signature is fake.

I don’t think it’s a deliberate forgery. It looks like a vintage signature, so it was probably signed by a studio secretary. Still, it was a drag when I realized this a few years later but at least it a nice portrait…that has been kind of ruined with an unauthentic autograph.

It just goes to show that one should always be leery when purchasing any sort of celebrity signature that is not on an official document.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at what Ann’s signature actually looks like.