Thumbs Up Or Down

If a deal is too good to be true, it probably is. I've come across James Dean autographs online, when I'm looking for other people. They are always expensive, and I don't like him, so I would never even consider buying one. That is until today.

This was sold by a autograph dealer who has only had sports figures till today. He had this James Dean and a Michael Jackson (two of the biggest names in the entertainment industry. If he had a Marilyn Monroe it'd have been a trifecta) Quickly looking at the Dean, it looks like his signature. I looked up contracts, and it's still within the boundaries of him signing this. It was presented OK. Wrapped in plastic and attached to a 16 x 20 matted photo of him.

The paper is old. The signature is pen. It's not a copy.

The piece is dated 5/1/55 which is a few months before he died. It wasn't dated by him. It was dated by the person he gave the autograph to. If he actually gave the autograph. This might be a excellent hoax piece. Because they went the extra mile to make this seem like a genuine autograph hound autograph.

I'm not saying this is real. Because I don't know. I do think there's a decent possibility of it being real.


I'm probably going to sell it either way. I will absolutely list it as possible, but not absolutely certain. I'll also price it accordingly.

What do you folks think? If you think it's a fake, please explain why.

THANK YOU!

 

Sorry can't help with authenticity. I'm no Dean aficionado,but just curious-do you actively dislike the guy ?

 

Doesn't look much like his genuine signatures to be found on the internet.

Debora

 

In other examples that appear to be genuine, he starts his capital D in the high center. Yours starts at the bottom, rises, then loops around.


https://www.psacard.com/autographfacts/entertainment/james-dean/183

 

Also, the slant is different. Line them both up horizontal, and you’ll see the slant is quite different. That is hard to do - try signing your own name with a different slant.

 

As you certainly know: Caveat Emptor!

 

No. I don't hate him. He was a very nice looking young man. Model like.But, I saw Rebel Without A Cause, and was flawed by how awful his acting was. I remember thinking is he playing a special needs character who can't form a sentence? It was very hard to watch. I might one day go back and revisit his 3 films. I saw Rebel back in the 80s. I love Brando's early films. They both practiced the Stanislavsky method of acting. I just didn't understand Dean's use of it.

 

Brando was more naturalistic, or as an old actor once told me-'He just was...', where as Dean was still acting-he was stylized.
People were shocked when they saw Brando in 'Streetcar'.

 

The a letters are open at the top on yours and closed on the cheque.

 

If I'm remembering Rebel correctly, that wasn't stylized, that was awful. When I saw that, I was definitely working in live theater. I was truly shocked at how bad he was. Everyone else was great. It's not like the director was missing in action. His performance was the worst thing I'd ever seen in a major motion picture, and I watch most everything. My girlfriend at the time, her mother was a Dean fanatic. It had to be for his looks.

I never quite got why Monroe was as popular as she was. Certainly a beautiful woman. But, I wasn't rushing to see any of her movies. Then I saw The Misfits, and it all clicked. On screen, she's electric. She's certainly no raging talent. But, she fit the roles, and she's stunningly beautiful. I've seen pretty much all her movies now, and it's understandable why she was such a superstar.

 

I've seen a few where his a is open. There are some where there is no a, just a bump of one. Someone used two signatures to show the difference between mine and those. The problem was, one J had one loop, and the other had two.

I looked up a few that sold with COA, and one had to have been a forgery. Autographs are so hard to definitively know. You either feel it or don't. If I didn't do any digging into Dean's signature, and just bought this because I was looking for his autograph, it'd be on the wall.