Impossibly rare vintage red ink signature in the dark area of a 2 x 6.5-inch image from Dracula (1931) clipped from a copy of Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine, acquired in-person in childhood by a noted author of a biography about Bela Lugosi, when he was brought to meet Van Sloan by Forrest J. Ackerman not long before Van Sloan's death. (A photograph inscribed by Van Sloan to the same author was offered at auction some years ago for many thousands of dollars.) Being offered at the low price of $650 because the autograph is in the dark area of the image, although legible, especially when angled toward the light-- The second scan shown here, in which the signature is clearly legible, is an enhanced one, to show what the autograph looks like. Best known for his starring role as Dr. Van Helsing in Tod Browning's horror masterpiece Dracula (1931), ever-serious, bespectacled, gray-haired character actor Edward Van Sloan also thrilled audiences in Frankenstein (1931), Behind the Mask (1932), The Mummy (1932), The Black Room (1935), Dracula's Daughter (1936), Before I Hang (1940), The Monster and the Girl (1941), and The Mask of Diijon (1946).  Genuine autographs of the monster movie icon are as rare as hen's teeth.

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