Cat. #00146223: RAYMOND GRIFFITH

Extremely rare vintage inscribed violet fountain pen signature on a 3.5 x 4-inch portion of a tan autograph album page, acquired in-person at the 1938 Olympics. In good condition, with some writing at the bottom from another autograph that was trimmed away by the previous owner. Virtually mute due to long-term vocal chord damage, Raymond Griffith was one of the great silent movie comedians, appearing in scores of Vitagraph, L-KO, Triangle, and Mack Sennett shorts. Typically clad in a top hat and white tie and tails, he was dubbed "The Silk Hat Comedian." His more memorable silent credits include two films with Tod Browning, The Day of Faith (1923) and The White Tiger (1923); the caper film Paths to Paradise (1925); and the Civil War-themed Hands Up! (1926), in which he starred, opposite Mack Swain, as a Confederate spy.  With the advent of talkies, Griffith tried his hand at minor character roles, with an outstanding turn as a French soldier killed by Lew Ayres in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), but he gradually segued into writing and producing at Twentieth Century Fox. It is a little-known fact that he was part of the electrical crew for The Wizard of Oz (1939). In 1957, he choked to death at Los Angeles' Masquers Club, aged only 62 years.