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Charlton Heston Secretarial Signature Study

Hi:

At Steve Cyrkin's invitation, I'd like to call your attention to a signature study I've posted on my blog, Charlton Heston signature study by Steve Zarelli.

I believe I have identified the "tell" in Charlton Heston secretarial signatures, and if I am correct, the news is not good for most collectors. It appears that most Heston signed photos are secretarially signed.

Here is a synopsis:

The Theory
Photographs and other memorabilia sent to Mr. Heston's office were signed by a secretary. However, Mr. Heston did authentically sign books through-the-mail.

Real vs. Secretary
In authentic signatures, the R in "Charlton" is distinctly a lowercase "r" and less than half the height of the L. The first four letters are clearly "Char."

In secretarial signatures, the R looks much more like a lowercase "l" and is about the same height as the L. So, the first four letters appear to be "Chall."

I have attached two images to give you a small sampling.

For more details and images, please visit my blog at the link below.

I'd love to hear your feedback and thoughts on this. I fully anticipate some resistance to the theory, because denial is always the first step. In fact, I would love to be proved wrong, because that would mean I wasn't sitting on a bunch of secretary signed photos!

By way of introduction, I have been collecting since the early 90s and I am the UACC Ethics Director.

I look forward to the discussion.

The Collecting Obsession

Regards,

Steve Zarelli

Tags: Charlton, Forgery, Heston, Secretary, authenticating, autograph, secretarial

2 members like this

Attachments: No photo uploads here

Figure 1.jpg, 60 KB
Secretary 1.jpg, 37 KB

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 11, 2011 at 4:45pm

I found a Carol M. Lanning on Facebook and just dropped her a note. She may not use it much--don't know. But hang in there.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Shinn on March 11, 2011 at 4:47pm

Steve....

Outstanding Detective work on your part.

BTW did you notice the signature at the end of the page on his personal note to his friends?

Looks like an authentic Heston signature to me, how about you...

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 11, 2011 at 4:52pm

Thanks, but it wasn't outstanding detective work. I just blew up her signature in Photoshop so I could read it and googled her last name with Heston's.

The first listing was the link I uploaded and the second was her Facebook page...if it's her, and I think it is.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 11, 2011 at 4:58pm

Bob,

It's too small for me to see clearly, but I doubt he signed it. It looks smooth and polished, but the letter talks about neurological damage from Alzheimer's. It looks like the 'r' is there, but by then he probably wasn't signing anything himself. Otherwise it seems to resemble the suspected secretarials.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 11, 2011 at 5:04pm

The letter is from when he was first diagnosed in 2002. He was still signing at that point and even appeared at a NRA convention the following year I believe.

Reagan signed for several years after he was diagnosed.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 11, 2011 at 4:58pm

Yes, it does look like a real sig at the bottom of that letter. The facsimile signature on the NRA web site looks like the real deal as well.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 11, 2011 at 5:10pm

How can you tell on such a small image of the signature?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 11, 2011 at 5:33pm

Strong eyes. lol ;-)

Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 11, 2011 at 3:46pm

And keep in mind that the three I posted from our article were signed in 2002 in person for our featured editor, Larry Grobel. He hated Heston's politics so he had no reason to seek him out before he got the job assignment.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 11, 2011 at 4:39pm

I've had the same thought that it may have been an intentional variation. BTW, supposedly it was his sister (now deceased) that signed for him. However, that fact has not been corroborated.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 11, 2011 at 4:51pm

Here's something you may not have seen. A copy of Beijing Diary signed by "Chuck" and Lydia. Inscribed by her obviously. This is the only time I have seen this variation of his name.

Has anyone else ever seen a "Chuck"?