Kathryn and Arthur Murray Signed Photo – COA JSA

Arthur Murray was an American ballroom dancer and businessman, whose name is most often associated with the dance studio chain that bears his name. On April 24, 1925, Murray married his famous dance partner, Kathryn Kohnfelder (September 15, 1906, Jersey City, New Jersey – August 6, 1999, Honolulu, Hawaii),whom he had met at a radio station in New Jersey. She had been in the audience while he was broadcasting a dance lesson.

Presented is an autographed photo of both Kathryn and Arthur Murray. Both signed the photo (4.75″ x 7.25″) in black felt tip (“9”) clipped delicately from the 1959 book, “Pictorial History of Television.” This photo features the couple doing what they did best – dancing.

The autographs were part of a larger compilation within the book. Note, there were two books in this collection from which these autographs were obtained. Wildly obsessive by a Hollywood insider no doubt it featured the duteous task of 400 signatures of television actors and actresses, nearly all signed by their respective images, with a few adding brief inscriptions in the books. Now, the signatures have been wonderfully conserved from the books and preserved singly for appreciation.

Television’s intention was to revolutionize America’s desire for more entertainment. Previously for enjoyment, Americans were flocking to the theater or stationed next to their radio for their daily broadcasts. Before the end of 1931, as the industry gained a full-steam-ahead approach, CBS President William Paley announced they were, “on the air seven hours daily, seven days a week.”

In 1959, Daniel Blum caught up with the history of the television industry by providing a first look at the medium in the form of a photography book. Titled, “Pictorial History of Television” the publication peeked into the earliest conception in the 1930s toward it’s humble beginnings in the late 1940s into the late 1950s. The hardcover is a heavily photo-illustrated survey of the major programs and personalities of that time period (1930s-50s). Notably, the era of television like the silent film is rapidly vanishing from first-hand accounts and memories as generations get older. So, there is the importance behind this work.

Blum continued his cavalcade of media books later in his career with “A Pictorial History of the Talkies”, “The Silent Screen”, “The American Theatre” and “Television” and of course volumes and volumes of the “Theatre World” and “Screen World” Annuals.

Overall, the autographed photo presents as a reward for the tremendous complication of both television history and the latter arduous task of signature collecting.

Authentication: JSA Basic Cert & Sticker

Kathryn and Arthur Murray Signed Photo