Brian Leno reports in bright and early from behind the lines, after another raid on his autograph collection:
“Was going to send you this image sometime back, but never got around to doing it.
“Sorry about the blurry picture — it’s under glass and that’s never a good thing when it comes to scanning.”
Brian says he got the postcard “mainly because of the Francis X. Bushman autograph, as I also picked up a Ramon Novarro signature at the same time. Put them both together and you’ve got Ben-Hur.”
The 1925 silent Ben-Hur, of course. Chariots by Canutt (who stepped back in to give Chuck Heston a boost in the remake).
“That’s Bushman’s feet at the top,” Brian reveals, “couldn’t scan the whole thing.”
“But I figured you might get a kick out of the Ricardo Cortez auto. The original cinematic Sam Spade, no less, and a lot cheaper than a Bogart.
“The other signatures, Marsha Hunt I remember mainly from a Gunsmoke episode ‘The Glory and the Mud’ — Jay Kirby was in a few Hopalong Cassidy movies.”
From the most casual net research I don’t see any 1944 film projects that would have brought those names together, so guess that someone hauled the card around for scrawls before winging it off to the Bronx.
Postmarked Halloween, the City of Angels.
Kind of interesting that Novarro would be murdered “Halloween eve,” October 30, 1968. Jeez, maybe I ought to get into numerology. . . .
