# Are celebrity autographs still a "thing"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 3, 2019, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-celebrity-autographs-still-a-thing/831978 "2019-04-03T14:29:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stuntman\_Mike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stuntman_mike/32/334_2.png) [@Stuntman\_Mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuntman_Mike)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-celebrity-autographs-still-a-thing/831978/1 "2019-04-03T14:29:39Z")
And how/why was it ever a thing?? 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. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-celebrity-autographs-still-a-thing/831978/2 "2019-04-03T15:28:10Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-celebrity-autographs-still-a-thing/831978/3 "2019-04-03T15:44:33Z")
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). ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-celebrity-autographs-still-a-thing/831978/4 "2019-04-03T15:51:58Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > It is absolutely a thing. Yup, I’ve joined stage-door queues after a play to get actors to sign my program. > [@StuntmanMike](#): > > But signatures?? I’d love to know who first asked for one. It [sez here](https://sarahemilybond.com/2016/04/11/can-i-get-your-autograph-a-short-history-of-signature-collecting/): > [@](#): > > Although imperial seals and autographed documents had been collected by cities, archives, and sometimes individuals in antiquity, the taste for signatures as transportable marks of status took hold particularly during the Renaissance of the 15th century. Manuscript hunters put great stock in possessing old documents and authenticating them, and the craze for vestiges of the past extended to the signature. Into the 16th century, people also began to collect the signatures of their friends and family members. These were called _alba amicorum_ (“albums of friends”), and they were simply a way of showing off ones networks of friends. Think of it as a a Renaissance Facebook wall that could be displayed at parties or in houses, in order to gloat about the high and mighty people you had connected with. > > Well into the Early Modern period, people continued to collect such albums and to keep visitor books at the front of their house in order to show off the list of people who had come. A small, magical part of a person was transmitted via a signature–producing an artifact that could be revisited over and over, even if the person was absent or dead […] and the diversification of names (unlike most Roman names, which were rather limited in scope) allowed for the personal signature, rather than the seal, to become a much more individualized touch. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-celebrity-autographs-still-a-thing/831978/5 "2019-04-03T15:54:01Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-celebrity-autographs-still-a-thing/831978/6 "2019-04-03T19:05:07Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-celebrity-autographs-still-a-thing/831978/7 "2019-04-03T19:26:10Z")
Don’t forget about authors doing book signings, either. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-celebrity-autographs-still-a-thing/831978/8 "2019-04-03T21:08:04Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > SASE For those wondering (maybe it was only me), this means Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2019, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-celebrity-autographs-still-a-thing/831978/9 "2019-04-03T22:11:40Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-celebrity-autographs-still-a-thing/831978/10 "2019-04-04T08:31:15Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > For those wondering (maybe it was only me), this means Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope. Threw me when I first saw it, many years ago. Because in Aus, they were always SSAE: Stamped Self-Addressed Envelope. ---
**Author:** ![DaveRaver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daveraver/32/1078_2.png) [@DaveRaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveRaver)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-celebrity-autographs-still-a-thing/831978/11 "2019-04-05T15:48:44Z")
There is also the fact that celebrity autographs can have monetary value. The same cannot be said of selfies. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-celebrity-autographs-still-a-thing/831978/12 "2019-04-08T01:14:45Z")
> [@DaveRaver](#): > > There is also the fact that celebrity autographs can have monetary value. The same cannot be said of selfies. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-celebrity-autographs-still-a-thing/831978/13 "2019-04-08T12:32:53Z")
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. Best part was it required very little space.