Scarce vintage ballpoint pen signature on a 3x5-inch white card, attained by fellow actor Peter Hansen in 1966.  In good condition, with a minor crinkle to the bottom right-hand corner, well away from the writing.  Just right for matting.  Exotically beautiful Hungarian cabaret singer Franciska Gaal was groomed for an acting career by Joe Pasternak, who envisioned her as a Europe's answer to Deanna Durbin, whom he also discovered and promoted.  While charming in films like Little Mother (1935), The Girl Downstairs (1938) and The Buccaneer (1938), Gaal decided to return to her family's luxurious estate in her native land during the Second World War, only to discover it overtaken by the Third Reich.  It was over a decade before she returned to the United States to try for a stage career, which never really got off the ground.

• Tweet