Scarce 8x10-inch sepia-tone publicity portrait, with a stamp from Universal on the verso, boldly signed and inscribed in black fountain pen in the 1930s. In fine condition for its age, with multiple pin holes to all four corners and some mild scattered staining to the border edges, all due to having previously been tacked inside a picture frame. Rangy, rustic-looking George "Slim" Summerville had one of those malleable mugs that made audiences laugh even before he opened his mouth. His film career began at age 19, as a pie-hurling Keystone Kop in Mack Sennett silent comedies. After bit parts in countless slapstick shorts and features, including Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) with Mabel Normand and Charles Chaplin, he became a star in his own right, cast opposite ZaSu Pitts in a series of comedy shorts and Hoot Gibson in numerous westerns. The versatile Summerville also made occasional forays into dramatic films, with supporting roles in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), King of Jazz (1930), The Front Page (1931), Captain January (1936), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938), Tobacco Road (1941), and The Hoodlum Saint (1946). He died tragically of a stroke at age 53 and his autograph is rather elusive in any format.

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