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Johnny Carson postcard to my mom, an early Tonight Show fan. signed, dated (1963) -- is the signature authentic?

I found this postcard in my father's possessions after he died. I am wondering if the signature is authentic or secretarial and how much it might be worth? I read that Johnny Carson started the Tonight Show in October 1962, and this was sent only 8 months later (but I am not sure that is a concern with autographs).

Not autograph related but interesting: 04 cents postage! And neither party used a zip code. (Wikipedia says: "non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide on July 1, 1963")

I joined this forum to ask about this; I'm not a regular autograph collector. But I did a lot of reading here before joining--and you all have great expertise. Since I joined I'm still fascinated--it reminds me of Pawn Stars when they'd bring in an autograph expert. It makes me wonder why I didn't get interested in autographs...

Let me know what you think.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on August 3, 2018 at 2:28am

RE your mom not knowing, I think in thses cases, the sentiment of the celebrity is about the same, handwritten or preprint as here. They only wanted to please a number of requests impossible to satisfy. It is not...malicious like a forgery.

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Permalink Reply by Larry Shockley on August 2, 2018 at 1:32pm

Carson was just a few months into being the Late Night guy out of 30 Rock then..

Amazing

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on August 2, 2018 at 1:41pm

It appears similar to this vintage Carson postcard with preprinted message found online in a few minutes for a few dollars. Pardon the "clip" missing on the "J"...

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Permalink Reply by goodcat on August 2, 2018 at 1:58pm

Nice research Eric

Thats definitely a close match to the OP

Leaning towards preprint based on your find

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Permalink Reply by Larry Shockley on August 2, 2018 at 1:46pm

He was in TV guide just a few weeks later:

https://m.ebay.com/itm/1963-TV-Guide-June-8-Johnny-Carson-Hootenann...

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on August 2, 2018 at 1:50pm

Hi Larry,

This increase in fame (he was not unknown having been on one of Gleason's shows etc), and the above PC in my opnion increase the likelihood the OP is a preprint of some kind.

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Permalink Reply by Larry Shockley on August 2, 2018 at 1:53pm

Yeah I think it’s a pre print. But a VERY cool one from a great era..

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Permalink Reply by Daniel S. on August 2, 2018 at 3:53pm

In terms of vintage Carson signatures, the closest example that I have is this 1969 check to the IRS. Not bad for a quarterly installment payment back then!

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Permalink Reply by James on August 3, 2018 at 1:39am

It appears to be a preprint to me as well, although the overlapping in the word “write” is indeed strange. Fantastic item from one of the two greatest talk-show hosts ever, the other being David Letterman, the man with the most creative, original, and inventive late night show. My opinion only of course. Man I miss Dave. But Johnny was incredible too and obviously smart since he personally wanted Dave to follow in his footsteps.