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Lillian Gish was born in 1893. She was one of the most legendary actresses of early cinema, with lead roles in Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. When sound came in she oddly switched almost entirely to the stage (as Paul Muni would do a few years later), just when most stage actors were moving TO Hollywood. She did have some choice film roles in later years, but none more memorable than as the righteous Miss Cooper in Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter (who can forget her singing "Bringing in the Sheaves" with crazy preacher Robert Mitchum?), and in 1987, at the age of 92, she appeared alongside Bette Davis in The Whales of August! Some of her other movies include: The Wind, Ben-Hur, and Duel In the Sun (nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for this film). She passed away in 1993 at the age of 99.

Important Added Info: Note that this art card has been personally autographed (signed) by Lillian Gish! This unusual item (which we are calling an art card) measures 4" x 5 1/2", but it has a 3 1/2" x 4 3/4" color photo of Miss Gish lightly glued to the top of it. It has her name printed at the bottom and under the photo it says "COPR. THE KNAPP CO., INC., N.Y." The back of the 4" x 5 1/2" card has a biography of Miss Gish printed on it (not pictured). It is certainly vintage, and we are guessing from the 1920s. If anyone knows more about this or this company, please e-mail us and we will post it here.

Note that this autographed item is part of a remarkable collection. In our last two all-signed auctions, we auctioned hundreds of items from this collection and now we are auctioning 211 more items (mostly 8x10 stills and repro 8x10s, but also 58 other items like playbills and more)!
     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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