I can understand why some people want autographs to prove their momentary contact with a famous person but personally I would just want to talk to whoever I saw. If I ever met any of my heroes (Bono, Dave Grohl, Kurt Vonnegut, Kevin Spacey, Janeane Garafalo) I would just want to talk to them and say how much their work meant to me. Or if I ever saw one of them I might lose my cool and not be able to say anything. 
Autographed STUFF is one thing. Like an autographed piece of sporting equipment, or a book, or clothing, or (whatever)… but an autograph that is just a piece of paper that someone signed… or worse yet, one of those tacky autograph books… well those are kinda lame.
Say what you like, I’m gonna shit my pants when Al signs my accordion next month.
LOL No offense taken Jack – as a matter of fact I’d like to have an autograph from a wrestler for exactly that reason…
Feh. I’ve had several celebrity run-ins…Maureen McCormick, Mickey Rooney, Kenny Rogers, the band Warrant (although their celebrity status is pretty marginal), the-girl-from-Jurassic-Park-whose-name-I-always-forget, Maureen McCormick (again), Sylvester Stallone, Judy Tenuta, and most recently, John Delancie (or…Delacey…whatever, “Q” from Star Trek: TNG).
I have one autograph from all of these encounters–Mickey Rooney’s. That one I asked for, really, out of pity. He was going on and on about the movie business, how he made Paramount, how A&E was horrible in their portrayal of Judy Garland, how Jane Seymour is a bitch, and how TV is all junk today. He was so pathetically sour and washed up, I asked for his autograph so he could feel like a movie star again. I also figured it might feel good that two (a friend was with me) pretty young 20-somethings would listen to him. Of course, he leered and gawked and creeped us both out with his lecherous old man act, but whaddya gonna do.
I have no idea where that autograph is, if I still have it at all.
Oooh, I do have the autographs of some of my favorite jockeys. I got them when I was 14 and had first moved out here and made my initial trip to Santa Anita. I’m now involved in the sport–I frequent with a friend who owns, and whose hubby trains–and have never even thought to ask any jockeys or trainers for theirs. It was neat when I was a kid, but now? Eh.
Her name is Arianna Richards. By the way, how did you manage to meet all those famous people?
<b>Or if I ever saw one of them I might lose my cool and not be able to say anything</b>
I met Micky Dolenze and I just cried I couldn’t say anything, so I understand 
His is the only autograph I ever wanted and the only one I have, the reason it’s so special to me is because I absolutly adore him and I can say “he touched my book!!!”
I met John Delancie, too… Got his autograph… He’s a total cock.
I have three autographs that I personally “sought out.” (Well, I also have a baseball autographed by the 1982 Cleveland Indians roster that I got on Autograph Day. Hey, I was 13.)
All three of them are from musicians, all are from people I really admire, and all came within the context of conversations I got to have with them. The first was Sarah McLachlan, who signed a CD for me after I conducted a college radio interview with her. Another is Tanya Donnelly (Belly, Throwing Muses), who I met after a show, and the third is Ken Stringfellow (Posies), who I also met after a show.
As many have referred to, they’re just nice mementos from getting to meet and chat for a few minutes with people whose work I admire.
To be fair, guys, there are autographs and then there are autographs: a colleague of mine has a short (one-page) handwritten letter from Charles Dickens to his publisher wrangling about illustrations for one of his books (can’t recall which one now), framed on his study wall. Now, that’s pretty cool, as is the rejection letter that Canadian novellist Robertson Davies wrote to my (then teenaged) father when dad sent some bad highschool poetry to the local paper (Davies was the editor).
I think that quasar’s excellent post put it best, and I echo Finagle’s suggestion of sympathetic magic: we all want to own a small part of our heroes in the hopes that some of their virture(s) will rub off on us.
OpalCat brings up an interesting point: a scribble on a black piece of paper is pretty boring, but if a famous person has signed something tangible (especially something relating to their field of endeavour), it then has some kind of historical context: for example, let’s say you had a pastie signed by Gypsy Rose Lee, or a boxing-glove signed by Jack Johnson–items like that say something about the person.
I have a few autographs of Victoria Cross winners, and fairly obscure British/Canadian military types, but one of my favourites is an east African man who served with the Germans in WWI, was awarded the Iron Cross, then with the British in WWII and was awarded the Order of the British Empire: not many people with that combo!
Ermm, “scribble on a blank piece of paper,” of course…
Hmmm. I was thinking Laura Dern.
Anyway, I agree with Opal. For example, I once met Dave Barry. I adore him, and had I had one of his books, I would’ve asked him to sign it. I thought it would be lame for him to sign a scrap of paper, so I settled for shaking his hand and smiling, since all I could think of saying would’ve been along the lines of Kathy Bates in Misery…
I do not seek out autographs either. They seem kinda wimpy. But I do have 2 of them, and each has a story attached. One is from David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs- I got that one when I was in high school and jumpstarted his Mercedees off of my '83 toyota at a Texaco station in San Antonio. The other is a scale model of Dale Earnheardt’s NASCAR signed on the windshield by Dale- A friend of mine was his hunting guide and knew that I am a NASCAR nut. What is neat is that my friend got a Picture of Dals signing the car and put that in the box and resealed it. The only person to ever open the box and touch the car is The Intimidator himself. Now THAT was a neat Christmas gift.
Ironically, I met two famous people last Monday on a flight to LA: Kevin Pollack and Patrick Duffy.
Mr. Pollack, whose character, Todd Hockney, in The Usual Suspects was just excellent and whose portrayal of the bored co-counsel in A Few Good Men was right-on. He looked exactly as I would have imagined, had I ever given it a thought: khakis, a button down, ball cap, toothpick and dark glasses. I did the classic gushing fan thing: “I love you work” and was rewarded with a handshake and on my way out of the airport with a casual “Take care.” Nice guy.
Mr. Duffy, well, I grew up with my mother watching Dallas, so he will always be Bobby Ewing. Again, perfectly nice man. From him I did ask for an autograph. For my mother, since she liked his character (and I would assume, him) back in the day. That is the only “piece of paper” autograph I have.
Other signatures I have are: all of (the remaining) Def Leppard on the Slang album; 7Mary3 on a drumstick from the free show they played at OSU, their debut CD, and the playlist from another show.
quasar, I have all of these celebrity run-ins because of where I happen to live. Arianna lives (or at least, lived) in the Sunset Hills section of Thousand Oaks; she and her mother were my customers once at the T.O. Mall when I was working in the pet store. Funny, she was actually my last customer–right at the end of my shift on my last day. They were looking for female zebra finches; I strongly recommended that they go elsewhere as our finches were sorry looking creatures. She was very tall and very lanky–in that awkward stage at the time.
Mickey Rooney was at Hudson’s Bar and Grill in Westlake (neighboring Thousand Oaks). Westlake is a popular place for celebrities; several live in the immediate area, including Rooney as well as (at one point, have no idea if they’re still there) Charlie Sheen, Heather Locklear, Tommy Lee and Pamela, and Barbara Streisand. Malibu is only about 15min from this area.
Maureen lived in Thousand Oaks for years, and AFAIK, still does. She was a customer at Marshall’s when I worked there about a decade ago. I saw her just a few years ago at a restaurant, and hardly recognized her…from frump to fluff. She’d had her hair bleached, lips done, etc.
Oh, I forgot one: Kelly … uh … crap, what’s her name. She was on “Life Goes On” and “ER.” Anywho, I saw her in her LGO days at the T.O. El Torito’s restaurant. Very easy to spot–those red-rimmed glasses, and 100mph Minnie Mouse voice were dead giveaways.
Warrant: roommates of a musician friend of mine (when Eric got married, my friend had to move out). They, too, live in Westlake. Pretty cool people, I thought, even if they did decorate the place with that one guy’s atrocious paintings. Ah, well.
Kenny Rogers: spotted him at a Ventura restaurant a few years ago. Hardly recognized him; in fact, the entire time I kept staring at him wondering where I knew him from. He’d shaved his beard–an instant incognito! It was when we were leaving that my friend said, “Hey, wasn’t that Kenny Rogers?” Oh, yeah!
Judy Tenuta was at the Derby restaurant/swing dancing place when I went a year or so ago. She was at the table next to us, and was very, very loud.
John DeLancie is the most recent…when Shayna, DeathLlama and I went to the Hollywood Bowl a month ago, he was in the box seat about five boxes over from us. Turned out, he was in the play, but not until the second act. First act, he just hung out in his box, picnicking with the rest of the crowd.
Basically, it’s a matter of where I live…most do live in southern California, and do their work here. (Oh, Stallone–I was working at GTE the year they filmed the gawd-awful “Demolition Man” there…workers were permitted to come watch filming, etc. Two words: BOR-ING!) In fact, I live where “Roswell” is filmed, just about a half mile north of that section of town. Nothing funnier than having, in big neon green letters, a “UFO Center” in the downtown section of your city.
Autographs?
Sure. There are a few people who I’d want to get signatures from. I’d love to have any famous cartoonist (Chuck Jones, Todd McFarlane, or Craig McCracken would be at the top of my list.) draw me an original picture and sign it with a personal comment. I wouldn’t go crazy over a celebrity, though, and definately not a sports star. Sports aren’t my thing.
Paying for autographs?
Really, how cocky can you be!?
Buying autographs from other people?
This is what I don’t get. People will buy autographs from other people? The whole point of an autograph is to say “I was there. I saw this person sign this. And it was really cool.” If you buy it from someone else, it loses any “sympathetic magic” that it had. It turns into just a piece of paper.
If (ahem I mean WHEN) I get famous, I might do autographs, but not “indecipherable scribble on a torn piece of paper done without looking at the person” autographs. I’d only give them for people whom I’d met, and hung out with for at least 5 minutes.
I agree with you. I mean if you had a really neat conversation with someone then I can understand wanting to remember the conversation (or what ever you had with them…) But, I don’t get what the big deal is about a famous person. They are just people, they go through the same daily things we do, bodily functions etc. They happen to have a skill or a face that other people respect. But are they really any different from the woman next door who makes the best candy apples on Halloween? I just get sick of all the drama and crap that surround “famous people”. I think that people should just get over it.
This summer I worked with a local equity theater. I did a lot of backstage work, and I got to meet John Ritter and Bruce Davison, among oters. I got both of their autographs, but it wasn’t a particularly ego-worship thing. They remind me that I got to know them a little, work with them, and had a great time.
Beyond circumstances like that, I don’t get the appeal.
I was thrilled with my school chum’s signing my annual.
I validated my being popular after arriving at a new school, which I was quite concerned about at the time.
You’re all just jealous of my autographed and personalized glossy photo of Daniel Goddard a.k.a. Beastmaster.
He wrote, “Dearest Melanie, Much Love To You! Daniel Goddard”
I have it on my desk at work and people think he’s my boyfriend. Life is good.