Speaking of Autographs...

I'm not sure exactly HOW it all started but I do know it's been going on for longer than I have been in existence.

An acquaintance of mine has lived in NYC for over 70 years and he always talks about the days when he was able to get stars from Marilyn Monroe to Marlon Brando to Ethel Merman with no hassle and with no second thoughts from the stars.

Unfortuantely, those times have changed and with the number of autograph dealers that attack the stage doors it makes it very difficult for some true fans to get autographs these days.

The upside is that the sellers are, often, easily distinguished from someone who genuinely wants an autograph. The downside is that the sellers do make it a lot harder and are, often, rude. Just because it's how you make your living doesn't mean you deserve an autograph.

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Back in the "good old days" guys would wait for the chorus girls and take them out after the shows. Eugene O'Neill and his brother were big into this.

I like to ask for autographs from the bigger stars by asking if they can sign it "To Chrissy"...it's a little more personal and it's nice for the bigger stars to know their signatures won't be sold.

What makes you think it has anything to do with Broadway? People have been collecting autographs from other, more famous people, for a long, long time. I recently saw an autograph album being examined on Antiques Roadshow and it was full of autographs of famous military and political persons from the Civil War. The collector wrote to these people - both in the North and the South - and they sent him their autographs to add to his book. He had EVERYBODY in that book. Lincoln and Davis and Grant and Lee on the same page, as well as Sherman, McClellan, Jackson, you name it. And then the abolitionists, freed slaves, and on and on. He had included the letters he got back from each of them and not one thought it was unusual that he'd asked for their autographs! Standing at stage doors and asking for autographs is as old fashioned and normal as pie.

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Updated On: 11/26/08 at 02:04 PM

I honestly don't care about signatures in and of themselves. It's hard to remember whose squiggle is whose anyway.