Paul Newman & George Peppard Signed Photo Bang the Drum Slowly – COA JSA

Paul Newman was an American actor, film director, race car driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Silver Bear, a Cannes Film Festival Award, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

George Peppard secured a major role as struggling writer Paul Varjak when he starred alongside Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), and later portrayed a character based on Howard Hughes in The Carpetbaggers (1964). On television, he played the title role of millionaire insurance investigator and sleuth Thomas Banacek in the early-1970s mystery series Banacek.

“Bang the Drum Slowly” was an American television play that was broadcast live by CBS on September 26, 1956, as part of the television series United States Steel Hour. The play, about the friendship between two baseball players, starred Paul Newman. It was based on the 1956 novel Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris.

Presented is an autographed photo of which is dual-signed. The photo was clipped delicately from the 1959 book, “Pictorial History of Television.”  George Peppard signed the photo (3″ x 3.75″) in black felt tip (“9”) with Paul Newman also signing below in black ink (“9”). It is from the play, “Bang the Drum Slowly” broadcast. Note the back of the photo has additional (3) autographs (in part) which as part of the collection makes it overall more special.

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 signing 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 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 1930’s toward it’s humble beginnings in the late 1940’s into the late 1950’s. The hardcover is a heavily photo-illustrated survey of the major programs and personalities of that time period (1930’s-50’s). Notably, that era of television like silent film is rapidly vanishing from first hand accounts and memories as generations get older. So, there is an 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.

Authentication: JSA Full Letter

George Peppard Signed Photo