My grandma’s autograph book
My grandmother passed away in November of last year and since then my grandfather has been trying to clean out the house. He recently told me that I can have anything I want. Today I stopped by to rummage around in his attic.
I found some family documents, some letters, and a lot of great photos of relatives, but the most interesting find was an autograph book of my grandmother’s.
I picked it up and the first few pages were entries by friends and relatives, a nice find for me as a genealogist, but nothing too exciting for the general person… but after a few pages I came across autographs of Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Hilliard!
Holy Crap!!! This is awesome! I grew up watching “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” on Nick at Night. I loved that show… mainly because of Ricky Nelson, but still.
The next few pages had even more celebrity autographs, some of them more well known than others…
Bing Crosby (singer/actor):
Bob Hope (comedian/actor):
Alan Ladd (actor):
Johnny Long (big band leader):
Bob Allen (a singer with Tommy Dorsey):
Harry James (big band leader):
John Loder (actor):
Van Johnson (actor):
Humphrey Bogart (actor):
There are two other autographs in this book too. I just can’t make out the names. Maybe some of you can and will let me know who they are:
Exciting stuff! I only went through, at most, five percent of everything in grandpa’s attic, so who knows what else is stowed away up there! I’m excited to find out.
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UPDATE:
The first “unidentified” autograph is by Paul Henreid. I checked it against other samples online. Thanks to Jen for letting me know.
The first unknown one looks like it starts with a ‘Paul’, with what might possibly be ‘elbeiireid’. Maybe Elbeweid. I dunno who that might be, but you seem to know a few more famous people of days gone by than me.
The second one looks like Delind..Tomims. Geluins perhaps?
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April 9th, 2008 at 8:00 pmThis is sweet! I’m pretty sure the first one you’re not sure about is Paul Henreid - he played Victor Lazlo in Casablanca. I don’t know the second one, but I’ll put my classic movie junkie skills to use and see if I can come up with the answer
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April 9th, 2008 at 8:43 pmWhat great finds!!!
Johnny Long and Bob Allen! That’s so cool that you found that stuff and now you’ll have it to pass on as well. 
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April 9th, 2008 at 9:25 pmWhat an exciting find for you, Amanda! I wish my family had left such interesting stuff. I’m lucky if I can find a name on a photo!
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April 10th, 2008 at 4:17 pmWow! What a tremendous find! Good luck with your genealogy! I’m tracing mine as well. Will be in New Jersey in July for a family reunion. Getting excited!
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June 17th, 2008 at 9:30 amnice stuff. checking cummings family history and caught your website. iam oringinally from cincinnati, ohio. father earl cummings. i have seen some bob hope signatures and he liked to include various middle names when signing. whenever he would be visiting a town he would sign example; bob cincinnati hope. he also liked visiting a certain cincinnati steak house, cannot recall name of it but very popular restaurant.
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September 13th, 2008 at 12:52 amI’m not sure about the last one but I have a mystery autograph of my own. My mom got me so many autographs over the years and I have one that neither of us can remember… Here’s a link to the pic if anyone can help: http://i36.tinypic.com/34il6i0.jpg Ignore the Jennifer at the top, that’s my name.
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November 2nd, 2008 at 11:45 pm