Scarce vintage blue fountain pen signature on a 4x6-inch light blue autograph album page, acquired in-person in the late 1920s and decorated wit a magazine image. In fine condition, with minor surface creases and two tape stains. After a decade of playing bit parts, good-looking Ramon Novarro landed the title role in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ in 1925. Despite the religious subject of the film, his skimpy outfits and dark, good looks propelled him to sex icon status among both female and male viewers, and he was thereafter hailed as the New Valentino in the press.  He went on to star in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927), Across to Singapore (1928), the musical Call of the Flesh (1930), and Mata Hari (1931), but, by the early 1930s, he had fallen out of favor with moviegoers. His career was further impeded by scandal surrounding his openly gay lifestyle. On the eve of Halloween in 1968, the long-retired Novarro was savagely beaten in his North Hollywood home by two young hustlers who had heard, in error, that he had thousands of dollars locked away in his home. They found absolutely nothing and his battered body lay undiscovered until the following day, when one of his servants reported for duty.

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