Highly rare vintage inscribed signature in red pencil on a roughly 4x7-inch light grey sheet of hotel stationery, dated 1947. In good condition, with two gentle mailing folds, from having been sent to the original recipient. Although she was almost always cast as stereotypical maids and servants, she was, in fact, the first African-American woman to sing on the radio and the first Black performer to win an Academy Award. Before coming to Hollywood, she was a popular blues singer and toured as Queenie in the stage production of "Show Boat," a role she recreated in the 1936 film adaptation. Her numerous movie credits include Blonde Venus (1932), I'm No Angel (1933), Murder by Television (1935), the Our Gang short Arbor Day (1937), Nothing Sacred (1937), Stella Dallas (1937), the sci-fi flick Sky Racket (1937), The Shopworn Angel (1938), They Died with Their Boots On (1941), The Great Lie (1941), The Male Animal (1942), In This Our Life (1942), Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), Since You Went Away (1944), Disney's Song of the South (1946), and Mr. Blanding Builds His Dream House (1948), and she was also memorable as the star of T.V.'s "Beulah" (1952). She died of cancer at the age of 60.

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