Cat. #0011645: LILI DAMITA

Rare vintage blue indelible pencil signature on a 3x5-inch tan card, acquired in-person by a noted Hollywood-based autograph hound in the early 1930s and decorated with a small magazine image. In fine condition for its age, with a black stain left by a photo mount to the upper left-hand corner. Note that the image of the star shown alongside the scan of the autograph here is not included. Magnificently beautiful French-born silent and early talkie actress Lili Damita made quite a splash in three films directed by her husband, Michael Curtiz: Das Spielzeug von Paris (1925), Fiaker Nr. 13 (1926) and Der Goldene Schmetterling (1926). She went on to strong work in Robert Wiene's Die Grosse Abenteuerin (1927), G.W. Pabst's Man Spielt nicht mit der Liebe (1926) and Graham Cutts' The Queen Was in the Parlour (1927) before being imported to Hollywood by Samuel Goldwyn. During a decade in the States, sometimes credited as Lily Damita, she dazzled and charmed in films like The Rescue (1929), The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929), The Cock-Eyed World (1929), Fighting Caravans (1931), Friends and Lovers (1931), This Is the Night (1932), The Match King (1932), Goldie Gets Along (1933), Man Stolen (1934), Brewster's Millions (1935), Frisco Kid (1935), The Devil on Horseback (1938), and Escadrille of Chance (1938). By the late 1930s, she began to fall out of favor with audiences, partly due to her tempestuous, oftentimes scandalous marriage to Errol Flynn, and her career came to a screeching halt by the age of 34.