Celebrities' Autographs through Mail

It was once a lot easier to get good autographs through the mail. Internet websites that share celebrity addresses have hurt. Many celebrities began to ask themselves if it was really worth it to spend their free time giving free autographs to people who in many cases didn't care who the celebrity was and planned to sell it ...

Read full post at: Collecting Celebrity Autographs

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Autographs of Ten Famous People of the World

Benazir Bhutto (Twice Prime Minister of Pakistan) 

Bill Gates 

Princess Diana 

Imran Khan (Cricketer turned politician) 

Jackie Kennedy 

Muhammad Ali 

Napoleon Bonaparte

Nelson Mandela

Ronald Reagan

Yuri Gagrin

Related:

A rare video of Jackie Kennedy (Jaho Jalal)

Postage stamps commemorating Yuri Gagarin's Space Mission 

Autograph collecting

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America Welcomes President Ayub

A special Envelope of US Mail printed on occasion of President Ayub's Visit to the US - Autographed by the President

President Muhammad Ayub Khan of Pakistan paid a hallmark visit to the USA in 1961 on the invitation of the US president Kennedy. A special envelope with Auyb Khan's autograph was issued on the day as shown above. A friend once shared this special envelope photo and I thought of sharing it with my viewers.

Related References:

Watch video of Ayub Khan's visit

Relations (Pakistanpaedia)

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Autographs - Laurel and Hardy

I belong to the age of children who grew up watching comedy films and comics of the Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy. Yesterday while trying to dispose off the conetnts of my junk box, I came across a torn magazine carrying a photo of Laurel and Hardy, duly autographed. So I thought sharing the same with the autograph collecters with this prized possession and someting about the duo.

Laurel and Hardy made us laugh during our childhood, although they had started making films as early as 1919. Stan Laurel was an english comedian, while the heavyweight Oliver Hardy was an american. The two Alif and Noon (a similar duo of Pakistan TV) of the Hollywood made people laugh across the globe for as long as they lived. Their first film was The Luck Dog that was screened just after the WW-I, when people torn with grief of losing loved ones in the horrific war of the 20th century needed their smiles back on their faces.

The duo continued to act together and made many movies; Sons of the Desert, Way out West, Block Heads, Big Business and others. Their Music Box was an academy Award winning film of 1932.

Laurel and Hardy dance to the Gap Band

Their last public appearnce was on BBC in 1955. Thereafter, Hardy, in a bid to reduce his weight fell seriously sick and died of heartstroke on 7th August 1957. Incidently 7th August also happens to be my birthday. Doctors attributed his rapid wight loss as one of the major causes of his death. Hardy's death made Laurel lonely and retracted and he refused to appear in films anymore. He even turned down an offer to work in the famous film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. However, Laurel was given a special Academy Award for his contributions to film comedy in 1960. He died on February 23, 1965 in Santa Monica, and was buried at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California.

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Autograph of Çetinkaya - the Turkish female car race driver

Çetinkaya - the Turkish female car race driver and the first woman champion of Turkey is currently on a visit to Pakistan to foster the Pakistan-Turkish brotherly ties in her own way. Impressed by Benazir Bhuuto, the twice PM of Pakistan, Çetinkaya wanted to come and see the land the Turks loved so much after their own country.

Yesterday, she visited Bahria University, Islamabad where my two sons are presently studying to become Electrical Engineers. A special gathering was arranged for Çetinkaya to speak and talk to the students of the university and share her life experience. She told the audience of her love for sports cars right from her childhood even when she could not even think of affording and even driving one years later. She showed videos of her driving skills and even accidents from which she luckily survived.

At the end of the ceremony, she gave autographs and talked freely with the students. My son Waqaace also got his autograph as shown above.

Related Reading: The Turkish female car racer Çetinkaya in Pakistan

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Autographs of two celebrities

When man landed on the moon on 20th July 1969, like the whole world, I as a child was also witness to the famous "one small step - one giant leap for mankind". These historical words by Neil Alden Armstrong, the first man ever to step on the moon, made history. Then after the landing back of the astronauts of Apollo 11, the small pieces of moon rocks were shown around the world. Our school also arranged a special visit to the place where the moon rock was displayed and I along with other children looked at the small tiny motionless piece of grayish moon rock with awe and wonder. Later we were issued with posters and brochures of the moon landing, which also included this picture of Neil Armstrong with his autographs.

Elvis Presley was a great singer of his time. While the British adored the Beatles, Americans idolized Presley. Here is a photo of his autograph on a letter written to one of his fans. He is often referred to as "the King of Rock and Roll", or just simply the King. He is the best selling solo artist in the history of popular music.

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Autograph Collecting

In the previous posts, I have discussed two type of “collecting” hobbies; philately and pullimeny. An autograph collecting is also a collecting type of hobby, liked and loved by a lot of people of all ages. The sight of a celebrity makes one look for a pen and a paper to have the celebrity autographed. That is another thing that giving autographs can be fatal too as in case of the legendry singer John Lennon who was shot seconds after he gave his autograph to his would be assassin.

My love in autographs was associated as one of my elder brother in our school and college days thought of collecting autographs of the then famous people. As we did not have direct access to the celebrities and leaders of the time, we thought of writing letter to them requesting for autographs. And in doing so, we got the autographs of the then president Muhammad Ayub Khan (who would sign M A Khan), President Nixon of the USA (which came through the US Embassy in Pakistan), and many cricketers and hockey players of the time.

One day my elder brother was standing near the Lahore Museum while studying in the Government College and there he found Sadequain, the famous muralist and calligrapher, strolling outside the museum. In those days Sadequain was working on a roof of the museum ornamenting it with great artistic taste. My brother that day did not carry a pen or a paper, as it happens more often than not that one has a celebrity standing so close but no means to get his autographs. So he ran to the Anarkali paper market, bought a pen and a drawing sheet and asked for Sadequain’s autograph. When Sadequain knew of my brother’s interest in art, he invited him inside the museum and showed him his masterpieces. From then on my brother, later joined by another brother of mine, was part of Sadequain’s team to assist him in completing his paintings. I also got to sit with brothers and watch Sadequain at work and was lucky to have his autograph as shown above. I will write about more about days with Sadequain some other time.

Autographs can be taken on anything that is readily available. Beside proper autograph books, nay paper, book, record jacket, post card or even tennis balls are used for autographs. We often see tennis fans getting autographs of tennis stars on big tennis balls. Same goes for autographs on cricket bats and footballs.

Autographs are a reflection of a person’s personality, his level of education, passions, and dominance or otherwise, taste artistic qualities and much more. Those who have a flare for handwriting analysis can easily decipher celebrities’ hidden talents by mere looking at their autographs. Thus autograph collecting is fun, treasure and education.

Related Reading: Autograph (Wikipedia)

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