* Dwight Frye's autograph on a small piece of stationery signed by most of the cast and crew of one of his most successful stage plays (RITA COVENTRY), during pre-Broadway tryouts in 1923. (More details and a scan are posted in the Autographed Photos thread.) Dwight wasn't mentioned by the seller; I stumbled onto the auction by sheer luck and won it for less than $20.

* Two different autographed cabinet photos of a young, bare-chested athlete posing heroically, signed as "Italian champion wrester (sic) L. Montana." I recognized Bull Montana (real name Luigi Montagna) even though he was years younger than I'd ever seen him before.

* A copy of the spiral-bound, 11x14 promotional book about the 52 horror/mystery films in the SHOCK package released to television by Screen Gems in 1957. Missing the pop-up Frankenstein, but otherwise complete in fine condition. Got it for about $250 -- the price jumped tremendously in the last five seconds, but the rival bidder underbid me by a very small amount. I always ante up as much as I can afford for any important item so I won't regret not bidding more if someone else has deeper pockets.

* A vintage 11x 14 closeup profile portrait of Leslie Banks (from a stage play) inscribed to Merian C. Cooper when they worked together on THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME. From George E. Turner's estate.

* A signed composite fan photo put together by B-movie stalwart I. Stanford Jolley using small photos of himself in a couple dozen movie roles, mostly in westerns, all identified by character name and movie title in Stan's hand lettering (printed in the photo). Right in the center, larger than the other images, is a misfit among the cowboys -- the skull-faced serial villain THE CRIMSON GHOST! Inscribed for a fan in 1955.

* An original 11x14 theatrical promotion photo of Renfield (Bernard Jukes) attacking Dr. Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) in the late-20's Lugosi stage production of DRACULA.

* An 8x10 of the CAPTAIN MARVEL serial villain "The Scorpion," signed "To Alex / Harry Worth / The Scorpion / Capt. Marvel / 1951. From the estate of Alex Gordon. SHAZAM!!!

* A 4.5" x 8" paper photo signed in pencil (c. 1937) by Tom Tyler, smiling for his fans in a natty white cowboy outfit with 10-gallon hat and twin six-shooters. I won it from an elderly lady who "saw him at the Wallace Bros. Circus that came to my hometown, Guntersville, Ala. I am sure we had to pay something for the pictures but I did see him sign it and shook his hand. He was nice to the kids hanging around."

* A very fine condition copy of Jim Warren's Playboy-inspired AFTER HOURS magazine, Vol. 1, #4 -- the famous issue with lots of Forry Ackerman sci-fi/horror content, pre-FM. I found it in the adult section of eBay and won it for peanuts because it wasn't described to attract the right buyers.

* A vintage autographed and lengthily inscribed photo of Tura Satana from her "Miss Japan Beautiful" days in burlesque. I showed it to her at the Chiller show a few Halloweens ago and she told me she was 15 when the photo was taken! They just don't build 'em like that any more.

* A great bunch of signed 8x10 heavyweight photos of Republic contract players Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Ralph Byrd, Kay Hughes and Lois Wilde, inscribed in the 30's to Otto Kupp, who worked in the transportation department at the studio (he's pictured in one of the Jack Mathis books on Republic). From the friendly inscriptions the actors knew Otto well and liked him. The Ralph Byrd and Kay Hughes photo are in-costume portraits from the first DICK TRACY serial; Kay's, in an aviatrix outfit, was used in chapter credits. The seller, Otto's daughter, also threw in some great freebies like behind-the-scenes production photos, cast and crew party photos, and a hand-drawn Christmas card from child star Sammy McKim, later famous as a Disney Imagineer.

* LATE ADDITION: a large felt sheet printed with drawings of "Roland" (John Zacherle) and other images from his original SHOCK THEATRE show in Philadelphia (before he moved to New York City and changed his horror host name to "Zacherley." The sheet, designed to be cut up for patches sewn on clothes, was in the original plastic bag with a printed cardboard header card (torn but complete). Zacherley wasn't mentioned, so the auction attracted no attention and I won this fabulous rare horror host item for an embarrassing low price. In a similar poorly-described auction, I scored two promotional buttons ("I Like Roland" and "Where's Igor?") from the same 1957 SHOCK show.

Things were very different before eBay...