Comment by Darrell Shields on August 29, 2011 at 3:05pm

I can give the history of it. My maternal grandfather was the fire chief at the studio in Culver City. He is Joseph A. Bernard. After his death in 1985 the document was passed to my mother then my father after her death and came to be mine after my father passed last year.

 

Joseph is named as an honorary member of the FMPU (First Motion Picture Unit) at http://www.genordell.com/stores/lantern/FMPU.htm

 

I had the document authenticated this year to be sure it was not a secretarial or auto pen. It was signed about 2 weeks before V.E. Day and if you look in the upper right corner of the document I found it a little funny that the document had expired before the time of its use.

Comment by john reznikoff on September 14, 2011 at 3:55am

Here is one around the same date that is similar
http://www.universityarchives.com/Find-an-Item/Results-List/Item-De...

Comment by Darrell Shields on September 22, 2011 at 11:36am

Thank you for the input John. I am very new to the idea of trying to research this sort of thing and the value to the heart and the value to the public are certainly different things.

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