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DEAR JOHN...a study of John Belushi's autograph and a personal search!

John Belushi shone bright and burned out in only 33 short years on this Earth. He is rightly considered an American comedy icon and so his autographs are highly sought after items. The trouble is that the man who lived a wild and fast life also had a wildly signing style. Now I’m only an amateur collector, and I’ve tried doing my research, and although there are characteristics to his signature, he can be very tricky to give a definitive on. Obviously taking into consideration the changes in signing over his years of fame, quick signings, documents and checks, he’s still a tricky one.

The following is my tale to discover if I have a genuine Belushi or not.

First of all, let’s have a look at some (what I would consider to be) 99.9% genuine Belushi signings.

Firstly some signed documents:

Here is a very confident and quite complex signature; an all in one movement for ‘John’ continuing into an ‘A’ for his middle name ‘Adam’ (which appears in earlier examples of his signings and official documents) Then his surname is another all in one movement, this time rounded with lots of swirls. The ‘B’ starts with the straight line downwards, then twists back up to the top veering left and then he continues into the two front loops of the ‘B’ and then back again and into the ‘e’ and a nice loop for the ‘L’ a tight swirl for the ‘u’ and ‘s’, another loop for the ‘h and then finishes with the dot of the ‘I’ that floats out to the right hand side of the signature.

Another contract signed faster, The ‘J’ a bit more pointed in this example, still with the ‘A’ for Adam, and the Belushi is stretched and less flourished, probably to fit into this document. Still that dot over the ‘I’ out to the right. And both names written in single, deliberate movements.

Next up is a nice example of a check from 1972. A little looser, back to the more rounded style, still with the middle ‘A’ but the ‘Belushi’ is leaning to the right a little. There is a break after the ‘s’, which seldom occurs and the dot once more.

This group signing from SNL cast in 1977 features a much simpler signing style, he’s dropped the ‘A’ and this time there’s less of a lean to the left on the ‘J’ of John and the trademark ‘I’ dot still floating off the very end.(in the middle of the document)

This check from the same year and the lean to the left is back and that dot over the ‘I’ as a little dash to the right.

This dot/ dash I believe is an important trait in spotting a genuine Belushi (isn’t it the same with Stan Laurel, where a genuine one always has a dot after the signature? Something that forgers often missed.)

Then there’s this hastily signed membership card, yet there’s that ’A’ and of course the dot again!

Another card:

Now a couple of more informal versions of his signing styles. A signed receipt with a much simpler ‘John’ but it still has a twist in the ‘o’:

And this in-person from a respected document specialist, this time with the John above the Belushi and with a flamboyant swirl underneath.

So there you have it, lots of variation, but a few stand out features;

A lean to the left

Both ‘John’ and ‘Belushi’ written in one movement.

The bottom of the ‘B’ twisting back and sweeping into the rounded ‘e’

The twisting ‘s’

And that tell tale ‘dot’ over the ‘I’ at the end.

Now onto the obvious fakes to compare to:

This site ‘Memorabilia Autographs’ are hawking a large number of these forgeries, from 200 to 400 dollars. This is the most common forgery of his signature out there.

Memorabilia Autographs

This one on Ebay is currently passing this one off. Not a bad attempt to copy his movement, but not right

Ebay

This pick guard is pretty shameless:

Now onto my own purchase, I bought this on Ebay back in 2005. And I am under no allusions that it could be a fake, but it has always bugged me, as just when I write it off, I see something that makes me think it could be genuine.

Firstly it seems like a very elaborate fake, now, I’m not stupid enough to think that forgers won’t go to great lengths to cheat us collectors, but still. Why fake these three names in particular; Bill Murray, John Belushi and Gilda Radner (whom the autograph hunter wasn't sure who it was, hence the question mark after her name). Surely Dan Aykroyd would serve you better to forge alongside Belushi? More bucks for sure.

And the confidence in which the Belushi signature is executed has always made me wonder, a forger could certainly have gone for a simpler version of his signature and there is no hesitation at all in the line, it has that lean to the left and has that all important dot over the ‘I’.

I sent the item to John Hickey at Heritage Auctions, who was very helpful and ran it by Steve Grad at PSA/DNA at no extra cost and I was simply told ‘all no good.’ Now I have the utmost respect for their work, but it continued to bug me and nine years later it still does! Particularly as PSA Autograph facts have this one posted as a genuine example.

PSA facts

Here are two studies I’ve done on my own autograph. One shows all three SNL cast comparisons.

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And finally another look alongside two genuine and similar in style Belushi’s.

So, there you have it, what do you guys think? Am I chasing a dream and need to save up and buy another, or could I have a genuine Belushi in my collection? I’d love to know what you think? And no need to spare my feelings, I’m still getting over that Jackie Gleason secretarial I have hanging on my wall!!

And at the very least, anyone looking to buy a Belushi have a little resource here on site.

Tags: Belushi, Bill, Gilda, John, Live, Murray, Night, Radner, SNL, Saturday

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Micko on August 28, 2014 at 12:55pm

I hadn't seen that photo before, but the sig looks fake, from what I can see of it.

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Permalink Reply by Bam Miller on August 27, 2014 at 3:22pm

antic8 has ended the listing. He got back to me realizing his errors in the listing, I mentioned that he showed no creditentials, no COA, he even googled authentic examples of John's autograph and pointed out I was right about the mistakes with this signature when he compared examples. Will send a copy of his message soon

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Permalink Reply by Bam Miller on August 31, 2014 at 3:38pm

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JOHN-BELUSHI-DAN-AYKROYD-SIGNED-BLUES-BRO...

Ebay seller Lidia1753

This piece was sold to this seller back in 2000 according to the COA in the photos. Another fake, this seller has sadly been conned by "Mighty Mike's" which he had guaranteed authentic. Shameful.... With the COA included, I believe the seller doesn't realize that this piece is fake and goes by any COA handed to her with signatures she has bought :(

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Permalink Reply by Stuart Grant on October 10, 2014 at 6:27am

I bought this a few years ago and with the influx of TV shows that have experts checking authenticity I thought I'd take another look at my item. It came with a certificate (for what that's worth) but I'm not convinced its real.

I have emailed http://www.authenticatemyautographs.info who tell me that they believe it to be real (a free service they offer, if you want one of their COAs then a fee is involved).

Anyway, found this thread and thought I'd see what you guys think.

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Permalink Reply by Pete Bendu on October 10, 2014 at 7:43am

The Belushi is not real, Aykroyd may be some vintage version of his authentic autograph, but I am not holding my breath on that either.

If authenticatemyautographs believes it to be real, I would try and sell it to them. Hahahahahha.

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Permalink Reply by Micko on October 10, 2014 at 3:17pm

Thanks for posting your Belushi Stuart. I have to agree with Pete that the Belushi you have is not genuine. I've learnt the hard way that COAs really aren't much use. Even the big authenticators get it wrong.

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Permalink Reply by Stuart Grant on October 10, 2014 at 8:31am

If you say the Belushi is fake then its highly unlikely that the other would be isn't it? Quite gutted to be honest as the wife bought it for me as a birthday gift a few years back. If that website provided me with confirmation of its authenticity (in their opinion) then would that not count as a COA if in future I wasn't to sell it. In that instance would it come down to the company who authenticated it rather than the seller if the buyer queried it?

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Permalink Reply by Pete Bendu on October 10, 2014 at 3:38pm

Unfortunately there are far more real Dan Aykroyd autographs out there, when compared to real Belushis.

I have seen a number of bad Belushis added to real Aykroyd pieces to give those pieces a sense of authenticity.

As for the value of the company's opinion.....obviously it is pretty worthless, no matter when you may try and sell it. any buyer will want a proper & well recognized COA.

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Permalink Reply by Stuart Grant on October 11, 2014 at 9:08am

So does anyone have any experience of the ckmpany I mentioned? I h have to admit I thought tbney seemed pretty genuine and gave a very detailed explanation of the pitfuls of autographs and their authenticity.

On a different topic do you ever get your autographs personalised and if so does that make them effectively worthless? I've been to a few shows and met some great stars who have signed things for me but I've always asked for them to make it out to me personally. Guess they're no good for leaving to my kids huh :)

For the record I've managed to meet - Bruce Campbell, Ernie Hudson, Robert Englund, George Romero, Doug Bradley, Tom Savini, William Forsythe, Gunnar Hansen and Danielle Harris.

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Permalink Reply by Micko on October 12, 2014 at 1:15pm

Hey Stuart,
The topic of personalised autographs has come up on this site before and in fact I think that in the future personalised autographs may end up being more valuable as they help with the provenance of items. So I wouldn't be worried either way wether a piece is personalised or not. Real collectors do not mind, in fact the personalised message makes the piece unique. A one off.

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Permalink Reply by Stuart Grant on October 13, 2014 at 2:40am

That's good to hear, hopefully the ones I have will be appreciated by my kids when they're older.

Does anyone have any advice regarding faded autographs? I have a picture signed by Kane Hodder (sent to him in america for him to sign) but he did it in Biro (I believe it is genuine) and over time its faded to where you can barely see it.