Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by JK on May 28, 2025 at 8:35am

It might help to put his name in the title of the thread...

As for the landing card, it clearly was not filled out or signed by him.  First, because he was blind, and second, the first name is misspelled (I couldn't find a reference to that spelling on a quick check of his Wikipedia entry).

Also, there are a couple initials (?) before his "signature" so that presumably references the person who signed on his behalf.

As for the photo, it's too dark to really see the signature.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Shawn Brown on May 28, 2025 at 8:41am

Thank You. 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on May 28, 2025 at 8:44am

Plus one.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Josh Board NEW & Improved on May 28, 2025 at 10:44pm

No Ray Charles signature out there is real. He never signed.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Richard Booth on May 29, 2025 at 10:02am

Ray was famous for saying ‘I don’t sign anything that I can’t see’.

It’s possible that the landing card was signed by his manager?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on May 29, 2025 at 10:48am

+1 Sometimes he used a stamp.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on May 29, 2025 at 4:50pm

"Show me one! I'll be waiting for ever. Ebay and the auction houses would be awash with them but they are not, they are full of clearly fake polished autographs that even I couldn't sign that neatly like the example at the top of this post. I'd expect if he did have a stamp then it would look like the original posters autograph. I can I think say to a level of 100% that no-one will ever show me a stamp that matches this autograph." - Phil Spilsbury

OK. I said it would take time. Here you are:

Click for full image. The bottom shows an overlay.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on May 29, 2025 at 5:04pm

Shawn, neither are real in my opinion.

I know Ray Charles's handwriting, including his autograph, always printed, fairly well. I actually had one that I purchased from a lady who got it signed when she was in a beauty contest in the early 1960s. She sold it to me in exchange for a donation to a Christian charity she supported that was providing medical assistance in Haiti. I sold it at RR in the early teens.

Ray travelled all over the world, with his right-hand-man and manager, Vernon Troupe. Ray Charles autographs signed in handwriting since the late 1960s were almost all signed by Troupe. Never Ray, he only printed.

• ▶ Reply