Classic Entertainment Autographs

Cat. #0016414: MITCHELL LEISEN

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Highly scarce vintage inscribed signature in blue ballpoint pen on a 4x5-inch tan autograph album page, acquired in-person in the early 1950s.  In good condition for its age, with a light, rectangular stain to the right of the writing, left by the prior page in the book.  After being trained as an architect and working as an interior designer, Mitchell Leisen embarked upon a career as a Hollywood costume designer, with assignments like Cecil B. De Mille's Male and Female (1919), Ernst Lubitsch's Rosita (1923), and the Douglas Fairbanks classics Robin Hood (1922) and The Thief Of Bagdad (1924).  Shifting to set design, he collaborated with De Mille on The King of Kings (1927), Madam Satan (1930) and The Sign of the Cross (1932), and earned an Oscar nod for Dynamite (1929).  It was in the early 1930s that Leisen turned his hand to directing, scoring with the horror-themed allegory Death Takes a Holiday (1934) and the bizarre mystery musical Murder at the Vanities (1934).  He showed a special flair for comedy in the late 1930s and early 1940s, with marvelous output like Easy Living (1937), Midnight (1939), Arise My Love (1940), Remember the Night (1940), Hold Back the Dawn (1941).  His notable later films include Lady in the Dark (1944), To Each His Own (1946) and Golden Earrings (1947).  This is just the fourth example of his autograph we have ever encountered!