I cannot imagine asking a stranger, famous or not, to scratch his/her signature on a cocktail napkin, or even a photo, for me to take home with me. So bizarre.
It’s not lost on me that it might be a thrill to meet a celebrity, but why get them to sign something?? I suspect it may stem from a desire to prove to your friends that you’d met so-and-so, but would friends or family really know a random celebrity signature if shown one?
Selfie pics, I sorta get. But signatures?? I’d love to know who first asked for one.
It is absolutely a thing. The star of my tv show gets asked for his autograph all of the time when were out running around. He keeps telling me eventually people will be hounding me for my signature too. I get photo requests occasionally but no one wants me to write yet.
I think selfie pics are going to start eating into autograph seeking, more and more. But autographs have a charm all their own, because the best ones aren’t on a random piece of paper or napkin that just happened to be at hand (that kind of “document a random encounter with someone famous” would surely get replaced with a selfie request), but because they’re usually written on something more contextual and connected to the autograph seeker: a photo or memento, like a baseball, signed by a baseball player.
My wife’s father’s parents used to collect autographs of famous people in a unique way, from the 1930s through the 1950s or so. Her grandmother would draw a caricature of the people/person in question, while her grandfather would compose a cover letter and SASE that included a typed index card, with the “target’s” name and the date the letter was sent. The letter would compliment the target on their achievements, ask them what they thought of the caricature, and ask for their autograph to be sent back, either on the index card or on the caricature (or both) - though they were welcome to keep the caricature.
These “famous people” included aritsts, writers, and political figures, and they frequently got both signed and mailed back to them. Some have been kept in the family as treasured heirlooms, such as a triptych of the signed caricatures of all three Marx Brothers, Amelia Earhart’s autographed caricature of her in aviator goggles and helmet, and one that has been passed on to my wife and me: George Bernard Shaw’s caricature and index card that got signed with his added note, “I don’t - why should I?” (underneath/in response to “what do you think of this caricature?”).
Another political figure they got an enthusiastic reply from was the King of Jordan. Not only did he send back a personal letter, they got annual holiday cards (with photos!) from his family for many years, and reciprocated in kind. Yes, they were on the “Christmas Card list” of the King of Jordan!
Others were destroyed by my wife’s father when he inherited them, due to the later unsavory attraction they could garnish (leading Nazis, from the early 1930s).
It’s still a thing with sports celebrities. A friend of mine is retired from the NFL. He does a signing event every so often for the cash. He hates doing them, but it is easy money.
Back when I was living in NYC, I had an acquaintance who collected autographed celebrity memorabilia. His entire apartment was filled with items from presidents, royalty, sports figures, actors, etc. I remember a large poster-sized photo, signed by JFK, and all the other presidents back to, I think, Wilson. And another large photo signed by both Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
This guy passed away several years ago. I wonder what became of his collection.
Taylor Swift said she hadn’t been asked for an autograph for a long time, that the practice had been entirely supplanted by the selfie-with-famous-person.
What sucks about that is that it means that famous people have to be photo-ready at all times - no running out to the corner market in sweats.
Excellent point. Professional “autograph hunters” are slime, basically using someone else’s goodwill to generate income. Gregory Peck was the guest of honor at the *Chicago International Film Festival *the year my wife and I volunteered, and every time the poor man left his hotel, the same damn autograph hunters were there to use him as an ATM. They made it nearly impossible for regular folks to talk to him.
I saw a guy had something similar, a business card collection. He would send the SASE to different people who he would assume had a business card such as heads of corporations, foundations, college heads, and politicians, and request a signed business card. It was interesting all the corporations from LEGO’s to Ford. Then many go on to bigger things. For example he had Donald Trumps when he just ran his hotels.