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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

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Figure 1.jpg, 60 KB
Secretary 1.jpg, 37 KB

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on July 7, 2015 at 8:55am

It really is surprising how few photos Heston signed. If all the fakes suddenly disappeared and were no longer a buying option, you'd see authentic Heston signed pics at $100+.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on July 7, 2015 at 8:57am

And I know there was no malicious intent... but wow.... Heston's secretary ruined a lot of multisigned items.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Paul on July 9, 2015 at 5:56am

When I started collecting probably around 1972 I never thought about secretarial autographs I happily assumed every autograph was real. Of course I was 13 at the time and a lot more naive than those today. I learned from old collector's and dealers to be wary of a lot of the big name stars through the mail autographs. I never bought a Heston autograph until Steve came out with his signature study. I then had to buy a signed check for myself and the check I bought was made out to none other than Carol Lanning herself. There is a study of Redd Foxx signatures since there was some thought he may have had a secretary sign some of his checks. Upon a close study I came to the conclusion that I believe all of his checks were signed by him and that he used two distinct signatures. A Peter Falk study would be interesting since I had started collecting Columbo autographs but have narrowed my focus greatly now. I only have one Falk signature I got from jgautographs. If you start a Falk study let me know. I think the more studies like Steve did are vastly important to the field.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Strecker on July 9, 2015 at 6:22am

Scott, I will take a few pics of Peter Falk autographs. I got a few signed early 2000/2001. It was the signature being sent to fans around the time. 2005 he was sending autopens through Spanky Taylor agency.

I bought two books from one of his book signings, both came back with two different style signatures (a cursive and a print) but both were definitely his style/his handwriting.

In 2008, a friend picked me up a signed photo at Hollywood Show and it's in a similar style to the signed book but a little shakier. All the signatures I've seen which were In person were quite different from the ttms I got in 2000/2001. No way the same person signed the IPs and the ttms.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Paul on July 9, 2015 at 6:32am

That would be great Jason. Maybe start a new thread on Peter Falk. Hopefully others will post their exemplars.

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Permalink Reply by J.Seah on July 8, 2015 at 8:13pm

Hi Steve,

Do you think this one is authentic?? It is signed on a "Ten Commandment" LP.

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Permalink Reply by Greg on November 6, 2016 at 4:35pm

Ok, this Heston is driving me crazy! I've seen so many, and always knew what to look out for, but this one is throwing me for a loop! (Pardon the pun! Lol)
The 'Charlton' looks pretty typical of a version of his true signature. Even the 'He' in Heston I've seen before. But it's the 'ston' which has me at a loss, especially the 'e' going to the 's' and the odd looping of the 't'. The squiggle going down makes sense since he runs out of room, yet if he's so used to signing this particular head shot, wouldn't you think he would have started his signature more to the left to fit it all in?
Can someone please help me out! Is this yet another version of a real signature I need to keep a look out for?
Thanks so much!

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image.jpeg, 139 KB

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on November 6, 2016 at 4:51pm

Hi,

Here is one he signed for me where he did not have much room at all - it is a VHS label for Soylent Green. This was about 20-some years ago. I was happy to have the green ink. I waited over an hour. It was at a book signing "books only, with receipt!" - I had that, but tried for this, and got it. Just had to wait.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Strecker on November 8, 2016 at 4:41pm

Greg, the photo you posted is a good signature as is the To Howard posted in 2015.

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Permalink Reply by Greg on November 8, 2016 at 7:35pm

Thanks Jason, I appreciate the second opinion! The seller actually listed it as a 'probable secretarial'... I guess with all the fakes out there, calling it that was probably a safe bet, for those that don't follow live.autographmagazine.com lol