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Eric Idle was born in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, England in 1943. His father died when he was 2, and he was sent to live in a boarding school when he was 7. He went to the University of Cambridge where he joined the Footlights Club and met fellow members Graham Chapman and John Cleese, who were a year ahead of him. After graduation, he starred in the children's TV show Do Not Adjust Your Set opposite Terry Jones and Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam did animation for the show. In 1969, Idle and the above five people started the classic English TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus. They wrote the sketches and performed them, with frequent (and often bizarre) animation by Terry Gilliam. Words fail me as to how to explain the humor of this show, but it certainly was unlike anything seen to that time! In 1971, the Python troupe did a feature movie, And Now for Something Completely Different, in which they recreated the best sketches from their TV show. The movie was intended to widen their appeal, but it was just too weird for most audiences in the U.S. In 1975, they released Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which had somewhat of a plot, and was much more successful. In 1978, Idle took a break from Monty Python and wrote, directed and starred in The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, a mockumentary of a Beatles-like band. In 1979, he and the Monty Python members did Monty Python's Life of Brian (produced by George Harrison, a friend of Idle's), which was their most outrageous movie (due to the sacriligeous subject matter) and their most successful. The closing song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" (sung by men on crucifixes!) was composed by Idle. In 1983, he and the Monty Python members did The Meaning of Life. In 2003, Idle wrote the book and lyrics for Spamalot, "lovingly ripped off from" the group's 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was an enormous success on Broadway and elsewhere. The above are just the highlights of Eric Idle's hugely successful career, both with and without the other Monty Python members. He has also written several books and much music! As of 2021, he is still alive at the age of 78.

Important Added Info: Note that this still has been personally autographed (signed) by Eric Idle!

Note that this autographed item is part of a remarkable collection. In many of our past all-signed auctions, we auctioned hundreds of items from this collection and now we are auctioning many more signed items!
     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 item (and the vast majority of the other photos and other items 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,
306 Washington Avenue, West Plains, MO 65775