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William Haines was born Charles William Haines in Virginia in 1900. Haines knew he was gay at an early age, and he left home with a young man when he was a teen, and eventually landed in New York City. After a variety of jobs he started acting, and he was signed to a contract by Samuel Goldwyn in 1922. At first his career progressed slowly with mostly minor roles, but in 1926 he was noticed in a supporting role in Brown of Harvard. He was given the lead in his next movie, Lovey Mary, and the public liked this tall athletic actor, and he stayed very busy, playing the romantic lead in 21 movies over the next six years, often playing a soldier or an athlete. In 1930 he was the top male box-office star. But Haines was not only gay (not at all unusual in Hollywood), but he was also openly gay, living with his boyfriend Jimmie Shields, who he had met in 1926. Haines was the only openly gay major star at that time. In 1930 The Production Code came to Hollywood movies, led by Will Hayes, which was an attempt to curb "immorality" in movies. With the support of the Catholic Church, the Code slowly gained power in the early 1930s. In 1933, Haines was arrested in a YMCA with a sailor he had picked up, and Louis B. Mayer (head of MGM and very much afraid of Hays and the Code) gave him an ultimatum to either give up Jimmie Shields and enter into a sham marriage and hide his homosexuality, or be fired. Haines refused, and he was fired, and his career was essentially over. But Haines had many great friends in Hollywood, including Joan Crawford, Gloria Swanson, Marion Davies and George Cukor, and he started a very successful interior decorating business that lasted for 40 years. His clients over the years included many of his friends, such as Ronald and Nancy Reagan, at the time when Reagan was Governor of California (Haines was an active supporter of the Republican Party). Haines relationship with Jimmie Shields lasted until his death in 1973, and shortly after, Shields committed suicide, and they are buried together. Joan Crawford described them as "the happiest married couple in Hollywood"! AND Buster Crabbe was born Clarence Linden Crabbe II in Oakland, California in 1908. He was named for his grandfather, and he was nicknamed "Buster" at an early age. Buster was raised in Hawaii, where he became a great swimmer, and he was went to college at USC, and was in both the 1928 and 1932 Olympic Games, and he medaled in both. He got bit parts in movies starting in 1930, but after he married his girlfriend, Adah Held, in 1933, he set about trying to become a full-time actor. It seemed he would have been a natural to play Tarzan in 1932's Tarzan the Ape Man, but that part went to the winner of five Olympic medals, Johnny Weissmuller. But in 1933 Paramount Pictures decided to make an imitation Tarzan movie (it was King of the Jungle, starring "Kaspa the Lion Man", but everyone "knew" he was Tarzan!), and Crabbe got the part. That got him the role of Tarzan in PDC's Sol Lesser's Tarzan the Fearless the same year, but it had a much smaller budget than the MGM Tarzans. Buster had signed a contract with Paramount, and he appeared in lots of their movies over the next three years, usually billed as Larry 'Buster' Crabbe, but they really didn't know what to do with him. In 1936 he starred in Flash Gordon for Universal Pictures (based on the classic Alex Raymond newspaper comic strip), and that is the role he is most remembered for, and it was released in both a serial and feature version, and was followed by two sequels, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. Original movie posters from all three of these movies are extremely rare and quite desirable! In 1938, Crabbe starred in another newspaper strip adaptation, Red Barry, and in 1939 he was Buck Rogers! Crabbe had played in some Paramount westerns, and he made a series of westerns for PRC, starring as "Billy the Kid" starting in 1941. By the 1950s Crabbe's movie career had slowed greatly, and he starred in a TV show, Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion, and he got his real life son cast on the show as well. In the mid 1950s, he bought a swimming camp for kids, and also got heavily involved in a company that sold swimming pools, and these business pursuits meant he did little acting. You may remember him from his TV commercials in the 1970s where he pitched the Magic Mold Bodyshirt, and he modeled it himself, and looked great! Crabbe was still married to his college sweetheart, and they remained married for 50 years, until his passing in 1983. Right before he passed away, he starred in a wacky movie, The Comeback Trail, a sort of rip-off of The Producers, where two promoters take an over the hill former cowboy star, and cast him in a movie, and give him dangerous stunts to perform in the hopes he will drop dead and they can collect the insurance on him!

Important Added Info: This cut album page has been personally autographed (signed) by BOTH William Haines (who signed "Billy Haines") AND Buster Crabbe! It could be matted with a vintage or repro still and framed together to make a cool display, but of course, the new owner will have to decide which side to display!

Note that this item was consigned to us by a man who has been a major movie memorabilia dealer from the 1970s on. He purchased the signed photos that were in the inventory of a long running Hollywood memorabilia store, and he has consigned a large number of them to us, and we are auctioning them here, including this item. The store would get items signed when celebrities visited them, and they also bought collections of signed items, but of course only when they were convinced that they were genuine! Both we and our consignor feel it is extremely likely that the autograph on this item is authentic, but he does not have a certificate of authenticity.

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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