Cat. #00132111: CHARLES DRAKE

Rare vintage fountain pen signature on a 2.75 x 5.25-inch portion of a lined notebook page.  In good condition, with just a hint of soiling in spots and very minor show-through from an inscribed Jeffrey Lynn in green marker on the opposite side, obviously acquired decades after the Drake.  In films from 1939, handsome Charles Drake was signed to a Warner Brothers contract and appeared in such films as The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Now, Voyager (1942), Dive Bomber (1942), Air Force (1943), and Mr. Skeffington (1944).  He was thereafter a freelancer, memorable as the romantic lead in the Marx Brothers flick A Night in Casablanca (1946), Dr. Sanderson in Harvey (1950) and the thoroughly despicable paramour of dance-hall girl Shelley Winters in Winchester '73 (1950).  One of his most unusual portrayals was that of the ostensible hero in You Never Can Tell (1951), who, after spending two reels convincing the viewer that he's a prince of a fellow, turns out to