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Authenticity is Everything
Ray Charles signature study (just a start...)
I posted this earlier on another Ray Charles post but everyone got sucked into another matter.
I took two signed contract signatures as well as a 1988 signed 5x6 photo from Ray Charles Enterprises. We all know the full name cursive signatures are surely not real and I have seen dozens of these 5x6 photos of Ray signed with the fake full name signature. But this one, is different then the rest, the letter that came with it from Ray Charles's office states that they are sorry for running out the larger versions so please accept this smaller one instead. Is this Ray's actual signature? His real signature? I mean, it's on several contracts I have seen over the years and to me, it's looks like a blind mans interpretation of "Ray Charles". I personally feel Ray could sign more then block letters, he wasn't born blind and surely he could write some, or at least draw or doodle and I am sure he had at least seen writing so unlike Stevie Wonder he had a clue what writing even was and how it looked so I feel he could have taught himself over the years. idk, if you post that these are from a helper can you please post who signed his name like this, and also how you are sure of this? Thanks, and if someone could get Roger Epperson involved that would be great to try to work together and put together a solid Ray Charles signature (or lack there of) study.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Phil Spilsbury on
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Cheers, I'll make a note to return here when I get to the Ray Charles one.
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Hello Paul, we've been going through nearly 1000 autographs in the personal collection I'm collating we've now got to the Ray Charles Autographs. This is one of them. As you can see its an authentic one. I suspect you will see few authentic ones like this. This was taken face-to-face with Ray Charles and he hand-signed it.
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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on
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STAMP! Two examples with an overlay. NOT signed "face to face"...
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This is called a stamp Phil. Simple. Your face to face story is BS. You told me I would NEVER find another. Well, I did.
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okay, thanks i'll take a look around.
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Here is one of mine. Mine were taken face to face with Ray Charles in UK in Birmingham in 1963 at the Birmingham Odeon. His manager/or assistant had to guide his hand to the two items signed and then he signed. Mine were taken face-to-face with Ray and he hand-signed them. So many fake Ray Charles autographs about and from my understanding he never signed his own contracts.
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A stamp as noted.
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NOT face to face. A stamp. Period. As noted.
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This was on a page in the annual addition of New Musical Express which is a weekly UK music magazine. The magazine also contains a further 70 autographs from the stars of 1963 that were again all taken face to face.
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Permalink Reply by a pug called eva on
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Please forgive me if I come across slightly "gushy" and "waffly" in this post but I am still in shock.
I was at a fleamarket in Zurich yesterday and came across the attached program lying on the ground. At first I thought it was just a great vintage 60s photo. I then realised it was a program from the early 60s and that it had "Ray Charles" handwritten on the cover. When I flipped it over and saw the price, which was several hundred dollars, I realised that it was being sold as an autographed program. I should add that in Zurich not everything you see lying on the ground at fleamarkets costs next to nothing.
The seller was someone who regularly sells at the market. He appears to be a very genuine guy and often has higher priced and/or unusual items. He has next to no autographs and is certainly not an autograph collector or specialist - attested to by the fact that the only other autographed item he had yesterday was a Giger-signed "Alien" book and by the fact that it was priced the same as this program.
The seller told me that he had got the program from an 85 year old neighbour whose now-deceased wife had seen Charles play in Paris in 1962. The seller (not necessarily the 85 year old original owner) thought that the date of the show was 10 May 1962 but I think this was because the program had a photo of Charles in Paris on that date (when you think of it the sellers' logic here was rather strange). I pressed a little as to whether the lady had actually seen Charles signing or whether the program had been "sent to the dressing room". Obviously the seller went for the former but I'm sure he had no real idea on that given that the recipient is no longer with us.
Just by chance I had bought few old copies of Autograph Collector on eBay last year and had read the May 2005 "Is It Really Ray?" follow-up article. The signature on the program reminded me of the child-like ones I had seen in the article so - after much pondering - I agreed to buy the program and made my way to the nearest cash point.
Although I was far from certain that the autograph was real, I figured that the program alone had to be worth about 25-50% of the price I was paying, being cooler than cool (large format, great black & white images and adverts). It is from a Paris Olympia show and could be from either 1962 or 1963 - there is an advert which advertises the fact that the promoter is holding concerts at Olympia during 1962/1963. I suspect that it was from the late May 1962 shows that Charles did there, even if (or perhaps given that) they were so soon after the 10 May photo was taken. It has a full page advert from Atlantic records so I also assume Charles was still signed to them at the time.
Having got the program home the first thing I did was to look on this site (I am a regular anyway) and found this excellent thread. I also dug out the 2005 Autograph Collector magazine and did some Googling, which led me to the RR Auction program from November 2016 that Paul mentions above (item 7154) and the associated YouTube video (which strangely never shows the program).
So, after all that, I attach an image of the program cover to see what others think. Obviously Charles is not exactly an easy autograph to authenticate but my hunch is that this is real given that it is in similar block letters to the "only known genuine example" above and is by no means neat or on a straight line. On top of that, the story from the original owner appears to stack up and the seller is not someone I would suspect of pulling a fast one. The fact that the signature is mostly in the light part of the cover might raise suspicions but the fan or an assistant could have put the program in the right position for signing.
I think Steve has shown a personal interest in Charles' autograph over the years. Three questions for you Steve :
1. Would it be an idea to add scans of the Autograph Collector articles here? I don't want to infringe any copyrights by uploading the May 2005 one without permission.
2. Did the RR Auction example sell? After half an hour of looking I suspect not.
3. Will contributors to the Charles' thread from which this one was taken (when it went off on a tangent) see this post?
Fingers crossed!!!
- Attachments: No photo uploads here
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Ray Charles - A.jpg, 455 KB
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