Ultra-rare vintage signature in bold pencil on a page removed from a book in his personal library, measuring about 4.8 x 7.4 inches and dating to the 1920s or 1930s. In fine condition, with scattered spots of light foxing. Nice for matting with a favorite photograph. Pioneering, macabre film director Tod Browning helped to create the horror, mystery and crime film genres. He is remembered for his ten-movie collaboration with Lon Chaney, including The Unholy Three (1925), The Black Bird (1926), The Unknown (1927), the lost London After Midnight (1927), and Where East Is East (1929); The Thirteenth Chair (1929); the first sound version of Dracula (1931) and Mark of the Vampire (1935), with Bela Lugosi; the cult classic Freaks (1932), which was so frightful that 20 minutes were cut from the U.S. release and it was completely banned in Britain; and The Devil Doll (1936) with Lionel Barrymore as a cross-dressing, murderous toy maker. This is one of a small handful of examples of his autograph to have surfaced anywhere-- even at auction-- in the past several decades.

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