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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 Zarelli on March 16, 2011 at 10:05am

Occam's razor.

:-)

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Permalink Reply by Rolf Ramseier on March 16, 2011 at 10:06am

what impresses me is, why do all have no problem to believe that Clint Eastwood and Al Pacino (and some others) use a secretary (no one really knows who their secretary is who sign in their name) but some refuse to believe that Heston did the same.......

can someone explain me that ?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 16, 2011 at 10:08am

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt. ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Michael Barrucci on March 16, 2011 at 10:19am

All I know regarding Pacino's signature (I met him in person in NYC and got a sig and pic together with him when he was filimg CITY HALL in the '90s) is that anyone who can draw a simple circle can copy his 'a'! What a silly autograph! :-)

I'm easily convinced that Heston used help with signatures when he basically admitted as much in that informative and revealing questionaire from a few pages back.

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Permalink Reply by Rodger Griffin on March 16, 2011 at 3:18pm

Maybe this has already been discussed, but isn't it possible that Heston felt a certain obligation to sign books that were mailed to him precisely because the sender had taken the time and expense to buy his book? Whereas, he didn't feel such an obligation to someone who simply sent him a letter to ask for an autograph.

Just a theory that would seem to make sense.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 16, 2011 at 3:30pm

I would presume this is probably a good theory. There are other celebrities who do not sign anything TTM except books. Heston would not be the first.

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Permalink Reply by Rolf Ramseier on March 16, 2011 at 3:32pm

it makes sense.... special requests get a special response

therefore he has probably also signed the Ben Hur album in 1999 TTM and my Q&A I sent in 1993 TTM with an authentic "r" and "es" signature and not with a double L secretary.

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Permalink Reply by Rolf Ramseier on March 16, 2011 at 3:46pm

from 1991 to 1994 I got Danny DeVito also 2 or 3 times by mail requests just within 1-3 months each time. And as I got him so easy I also sent him a 11x14 inch photograph of Batman which was already signed by Michelle Pfeiffer. This was sometime in 1994.

In 1996 I realized that all Danny DeVito autographs I got were only signed by a secretary. I was shocked at that point , especially as I still haven't got back the 11x14 i sent two years ago with the wonderful full signature of Michelle Pfeiffer. At that point I was in believe that my 11x14 of Batman is lost forever.

And then sometime in 1997 the postman handled me a large letter from USA and at the first glance I had no idea what that could be. So I opened the letter and what a surprise it was the Batman 11x14 photo with the Michelle Pfeiffer signature and oh what a special surprise it also was signed authentically by Danny DeVito !

Special requests get a special answer !

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Permalink Reply by Michael Barrucci on March 16, 2011 at 9:17am

Just to be sure, I went through the Charlton Heston autographs I own, and I have a total of 10. I only obtained 3 in person, all of which have the small "r" in 'Charlton'. I now believe only these 3 to be authentic.

The other 7 were all obtained TTM, and they each have the notorious double "L" "Challton"... as well as that very straight line drawn clear across. 6 of these are 8x10 photos (and not all were obtained during the same mailing). One of these is a "personal letter" to me which was typed on Heston's stationery which is signed below, with that "Chall" flourish.

I now believe those 7 TTM acquisitions to be forgeries.

I wish I could photograph and post them here, but I'm afraid I'm clueless when it comes to how to do that.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Barrucci on March 16, 2011 at 5:32am

Although this doesn't advance the discussion of the signatures themselves, I just thought I would relate how I met Heston.

The first time was in 1990, when he was doing the Today Show at NBC in New York. I waited for him near the elevator, and after a long time I gave up and walked across the hall to the phone booths to make a call. This was lucky fate for me, as Heston then exited from this OTHER location on the opposite side. Had I waited in the previous spot one more moment, I would have missed him. I shook his hand and asked him for his autograph. I had an 8x10 from BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES with me, and as he graciously signed, I mumbled jokingly that I was sorry I'd brought a photo from his least favorite film, to which he comfortably assured me: "Mmmm... not my least..." (I've since discovered that CALL OF THE WILD was his least favorite). The great part of this encounter was that Heston asked me my name, and thus he personalized the photo: "To Joe", which was rare, and I treasure it.

I met him two more times... one was in 1993 in NYC again, at ABC studios. There was a very large crowd outside, and so he had to sign a lot of autographs, and he was very happy to do so. I heard one lady ask him to personalize hers, and he apologetically asked: "Would you settle for just my name, dear, because I want to get everyone..." And when my turn came up I presented him with the famous lobby card from THE OMEGA MAN where he's holding a machine gun as he uncovers a bed of corpses. He beamed to an associate of his who stood beside him: "Now THAT'S a gun!" (This signature is the weakest of the three I obtained; it's rather scribbled, but yet does not look like the "Chall" veriety).

Last time was either late in 1993 or 1994 -- outside another studio in NY... and he signed a photo from EL CID, which is a gorgeous signature -- absolutely the nicest one I have from him. There was a sizeable crowd here that day as well, but it didn't affect the quality of that autograph. After the crowd had dispersed, I asked Mr. Heston if I might take a picture with him, and he said "I'm sorry, I don't do photographs".

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Permalink Reply by Michael Barrucci on March 16, 2011 at 10:24am

Well, Travis - my own personal experience on 3 'in-person sigs' as compared to my 7 'secretarial Challs' is not a theory... it's what happened, though of course I cannot expect anyone to believe me, I guess, anymore than I can believe another.

As for finding just one in-person autograph with the LL to shoot a hole in the theory ... how can we know it was really in person?

Celebrities sign different ways, absolutely -- but with my situations, 3 seperate encounters in person yielded a "Char", when 7 different TTM experiences produced "Chall's"...? That's a mighty "coincidence...

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on March 16, 2011 at 10:50am

Travis, Nobody claimed anything about the examples shown. They asked questions and even highlighted why they had a problem with the examples ( different types of pens ). They were asking for further clarification. Maybe that clarification will be given when the questions are answered.

Don't you think that there are a great many people that re holding onto hope that this study is wrong?

However, until then, there is a VERY strong case made against the "Chall" signatures. It's rather apparent to anyone why the questions about the items were raised. Just remember that questioning the items shown is NOT calling someone a liar.