Extremely uncommon vintage 8x10-inch black and white seated portrait, dating to the 1940s, boldly signed and inscribed in fountain pen:  "To Erma / Did we do the Mutt Show!!! / Regards, / John Trent".  Some light trimming to the bottom edge and negligible handling dings, but, overall, in good condition for its age.  The celebrated aviator, born La Verne W. Browne, was hand-selected by producer B.P. Schulberg during a hunt for fresh faces in 1931, and signed to a seven-year film contract.  Reinvented as leading man and action hero John Trent, he was handsome and tough-as-nails, with a sensitive underbelly, hailed as the "next Gary Cooper" by the press.  Trent did, indeed, achieve enormous popularity, as heroic pilot Tailspin Tommy Tompkins in a series of films in the 1930s, but, in 1941, he abandoned Hollywood to return to the skies and was never heard from again.  He died in 1966, at the age of 59.  This is the first authentic signed photo of the actor we've ever encountered.

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