CBS Radio Show "Request Performance" Log, ca. 1945
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GUEST:
What I brought for you today is a sign-in log sheet from a radio show called Request Performance by Campbell Soup Company. It was broadcast on Sunday nights in... starting in October 1945.
APPRAISER:
What network and what time?
GUEST:
It was on CBS at 9:00 p.m.
APPRAISER:
So it was like, what, a variety show or...
GUEST:
Yeah, it was a comedy variety show.
APPRAISER:
And what I like about it is that they signed in after a show and made comments about what they performed.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Where did the show originate from?
GUEST:
It was taped at the Masquers Club of Hollywood.
APPRAISER:
And where did you come by it?
GUEST:
I actually bought it at a flea market from someone who saved it out of the garbage from being thrown away.
APPRAISER:
And what did you pay for it?
GUEST:
I paid $600 for it.
APPRAISER:
Whoa.
GUEST:
About 15 years ago.
APPRAISER:
So, for example, here's Mel Blanc, the famous voice of Bugs Bunny. You can move this over here. There's Orson Welles. And they're all dated. This is October 21. Yes, each sheet was a different week's performance. It was the whole show. Yes. So all these guests were on there. Who do you have? Orson Welles, Virginia O'Brien, Eddie Bracken and Johnny Mercer. Strange groups of people they got together. June Allyson. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce together, of course.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
They were Sherlock Holmes and Watson in the famous film series. And... here's Rita Hayworth. And Garry Moore. Edward Everett Horton in 1945. Here's Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, the team, together. What I like is it had Dale Evans on there also.
GUEST:
Oh, yeah.
APPRAISER:
Gracie Allen and George Burns, again, the team together. Dennis Morgan. And I should mention this is just a sampling of the number of pages you have.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
The show was on how long? Was it an entire season?
GUEST:
It was on for 29 weeks. So it ended in 1946.
APPRAISER:
And who do we have here? There's Spike Jones, and he says "Skelton kills me." And then Red Skelton... Had a comment to him. "Lover of great music." And the final page has one of the... One of the oddest combinations. Allan Jones, Roy Rogers and Boris Karloff. I got to hear the transcripts of this program.
GUEST:
(laughing) Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Now, when I talked to the other appraisers about the value of this, we were really in a quandary. Because a Karloff autograph by itself is worth $1,000.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
But to get it by itself, you would have to very carefully slice it out of there.
GUEST:
Yeah, you wouldn't want to do that.
APPRAISER:
Well, that's the problem. There might be dealers who would buy it and do exactly that, but you really can't separate this thing with the other pages that we're not seeing here. Some of these people signed twice. I mean, they were on more than once. Yes, Abbott and Costello, and Frank Morgan. So there was about 150 people, and it turned up to be roughly 200 autographs. So, we were thinking the autographs alone, in this format, would be about $4,000.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
But there's another factor here of the whole collection as a log book of a very famous radio program and as a piece of radio history, which is really where its value lies.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And I think that in an entertainment auction, it would sell for $6,000 to $7,000.
GUEST:
Okay, thank you.
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