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Maurice Chevalier was a legendary entertainer who is known today for his wonderful French and American movies of the 1930s and 1940s (and his reemergence in the 1950s and 1960s in American movies). But for decades before that, he was a legendary stage performer in France. In 1909, when he was 21, he became the partner of 18 year old Frehel, who was a popular French singer and actress. They performed together (both on and off the stage) for two years, and then Chevalier left her for Mistinguett, a 36 year old French superstar, and they too performed on and off the stage, and a devastated Frehel tried to commit suicide and had drug and alcohol problems the rest of her life. Chevalier then became a major French solo act, and in the late 1920s, he started making movies, and he became an international star through the beginning of World War II. His career was tarnished during World War II when he was accused of collaborating with the Nazis, but he was forgiven after the war, and he resumed his wonderful career, especially with notable performances in Gigi and in some Walt Disney movies. Some of his movies include: Big Pond (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), Love Me Tonight, Love in the Afternoon, Love Parade (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), and The Smiling Lieutenant. He passed away in 1972 at the age of 83.

Important Added Info: Note that this still has been personally autographed (signed) by Maurice Chevalier! Also note that although this still was "printed in Great Britain", it has full NSS information. We have been told by an expert that Columbia and MGM had a number of their color stills printed in Great Britain in the late 1950s and the early 1960s (the years vary between the two studios), no doubt because the English color printing was better than the U.S. color printing at this time. However, they were printed in Great Britain to be used in the U.S. (we have heard from many collectors who saw these color stills in U.S. theaters at the time these movies were released, but we have not heard from any English collectors who saw them used in England at that time). In the late 1960s and 1970s some studios started printing color stills like these in Italy, surely for the same reason (because Italian printers had better color printing during those years). But those stills printed in Italy were for use in the U.S., as these stills printed in Great Britain were for use in the U.S.

Note that this autographed item is part of a remarkable collection. In our last three all-signed auctions, we auctioned hundreds of items from this collection and now we are auctioning 224 more items (mostly 8x10 stills and repro 8x10s, but also 54 small photos)!
     In the 1970s, our consignor was a teacher who taught a film class, and he also part-time ran the local movie theater (and he saved all the presskits from the movies the theater showed).
     Starting in the late 1970s through the late 1980s, he wrote to famous celebrities, and enclosed an 8x10 still or repro (or sometimes another item) from his collection, and he wrote a literate personalized letter, talking about his work as a film teacher, and discussing his favorite movie by that star.
     He received signed photos back from a good percentage of the people he wrote to, and if the people simply sent him a stock photo back, he did not save it, but if he felt the autograph was genuine, and if they added a personalized note, then he did save them.
     In the late 1980s, he pretty much stopped sending letters and photos, simply because he was just too busy. So this photo (and the vast majority of the other photos we are auctioning for this consignor) were obtained in the late 1970s or 1980s, through personal correspondence with this star. This is of course excellent, because back at that time celebrities were not selling their signatures nearly as much, and many of the stars were pretty forgotten and were happy to get letters from people like our consignor!
     He of course does not have any "Certificates of Authenticity", but he only kept ones he felt were surely authentic, and those are the ones we are auctioning. However, bidders can certainly compare the signatures to known examples on the internet to judge for themselves.

As is true of all the signed items we are currently auctioning, we give every buyer 30 days in which to review what they purchased and they can return any item as long as it is within 30 days of the end of the auction. On non-signed items, we give a "lifetime guarantee" on everything we auction, but on signed items, we give the above modified guarantee of 30 days after the auction closes.

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Bruce Hershenson,
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