Jayne Meadows Signed Photo w/ Bill Cullen, Henry Morgan & Garry Moore – COA JSA

Jayne Meadows was an American stage, film, and television actress, as well as an author and lecturer. She was nominated for three Emmy Awards during her career and was the elder sister of actress and memoirist Audrey Meadows as well as the wife of original Tonight Show host Steve Allen.

Bill Cullen was an American radio and television personality whose career spanned five decades.

Henry Morgan was an American humorist. He first became familiar to radio audiences in the 1930s and 1940s as a barbed but often self-deprecating satirist; in the 1950s and later, he was a regular and cantankerous panelist on the game show I’ve Got a Secret as well as other game and talk shows.

Garry Moore was an American entertainer, comedic personality, game show host, and humorist best known for his work in television.

I’ve Got a Secret is an American panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman’s own panel show, What’s My Line? Instead of celebrity panelists trying to determine a contestant’s occupation, as in What’s My Line, the panel tried to determine a contestant’s secret: something that is unusual, amazing, embarrassing, or humorous about that person.

Presented is an autographed photo of Jayne Meadows, Bill Cullen, Henry Morgan, and Garry Moore. They signed the photo (4″ x 4″) in black felt tip (“9”). It was clipped delicately from the 1959 book, “Pictorial History of Television.” This photo is from the show, “I’ve Got a Secret.”

The autographs were part of a larger compilation within the book. Note, there were two books in this collection from which these autographs were obtained. Wildly obsessive by a Hollywood insider no doubt it featured the duteous task of 400 signatures of television actors and actresses, nearly all signed by their respective images, with a few adding brief inscriptions in the books. Now, the signatures have been wonderfully conserved from the books and preserved singly for appreciation.

Television’s intention was to revolutionize America’s desire for more entertainment. Previously for enjoyment, Americans were flocking to the theater or stationed next to their radio for their daily broadcasts. Before the end of 1931 as the industry gained a full-steam-ahead approach, CBS President William Paley, announced they were, “on the air seven hours daily, seven days a week.”

In 1959, Daniel Blum caught up with the history of the television industry by providing a first look at the medium in the form of a photography book. Titled, “Pictorial History of Television” the publication peeked into the earliest conception in the 1930s toward it’s humble beginnings in the late 1940s into the late 1950s. The hardcover is a heavily photo-illustrated survey of the major programs and personalities of that time period (the 1930s-50s). Notably, the era of television like the silent film is rapidly vanishing from first-hand accounts and memories as generations get older. So, there is the importance behind this work.

Blum continued his cavalcade of media books later in his career with “A Pictorial History of the Talkies”, “The Silent Screen”, “The American Theatre” and “Television” and of course volumes and volumes of the “Theatre World” and “Screen World” Annuals.

Overall, the autographed photo presents as a reward for the tremendous complication of both television history and the latter arduous task of signature collecting.

Authentication: JSA Basic Cert & Sticker

Jayne Meadows Signed Photo