Word: autographing
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...Autographs (or holographs), as distinct from mere signatures, are by definition documents in the author's handwriting - preferably signed by him. Their value depends on rarity, content -usually their historic significance - and the writer's eminence. With inflation and the uncertain stock market, many buyers have turned to autographs and other tangible investments like diamonds, antiques and rare books, thus driving up prices. "In the past five to seven years, business has more than doubled, even tripled," says Doris Harris, a Los Angeles autograph dealer. Reports Sara Willen, another Los Angeles dealer: "Good manuscripts on the average...
Among presidential autographs, those most in demand are by Lincoln, Washington and John F. Kennedy. Almost any signed Lincoln document is worth at least $2,000; Abe's reply to a girl who had urged him to grow whiskers - "Do you not think people would call it a silly affection [sic] if I were to begin now?"_sold for $20,000. A 1785 letter from Washington in which he refused "pecuniary reward" for his services to the young country fetched $37,000 in 1973, an alltime record for a presidential letter. The highest price ever bid for a letter...
Says Mary Benjamin, a noted autograph scholar and dealer: "The field is governed in great part by emotion, the feelings that collectors have toward the individuals who have written."Nonetheless, villains too have autograph appeal. Papers signed by John Wilkes Booth sell for around $1,000, ten times as much as writings by his gifted brother Edwin Booth. Benedict Arnold's three-page will sold for $2,800. Two known letters from Jesse James are worth between $5,000 and $10,000. Documents of Nazi leaders command high prices. Producer David Wolper, a collector of note, has a Christmas...
Searchlights swept the Manhattan sky above the old Ed Sullivan Theater on Manhattan's West Side. Autograph freaks gaped at a parade of celebrities. The atmosphere was as neon as a Hollywood première in the '20s. Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell-the first live TV variety series since the Ed Sullivan Show rode out in March 1971-was under way. It lived up-and down-to expectations. Roone Arledge, the hard-driving Barnum of ABC Sports, who developed the latter-day vaudeville along with Cosell, had burbled, "We want people to feel...
...audience rushed to shake his hand and get his autograph. Rocky, in fact, was engulfed by more well-wishers than even Wallace. Noting how much Rocky and Wallace had in common, Maryland Lieutenant Governor Blair Lee declared, "The political situation is getting spooky around here." Asked if Wallace had written the speech for Rocky, an aide to the Alabama Governor replied, "We lost a speech the other day. Now I know who found...