Robert Osborne Estate Auction

Warner Bros., 1938. Pyle, Howard. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1935. 296 pp, 4to. Howard Pyle Brandywine Edition, signed by approximately 108 of the film’s cast and crew members, most in ink, some in pencil, with several small cards throughout identifying various departments’ autographs, with a September 23, 1982, article from the Chico Enterprise newspaper about the filming in Chico. An extraordinary collection of autographs of almost every major cast and crew member of Michael Curtiz’s The Adventures of Robin Hood, most inscribed “To Bob” or “To Bobbie.” From September-November 1937, the film’s company was on location in Chico, California, where they were housed at Richardson Springs, a local resort. The autographs in this book were collected by the son of the resort’s owner. Several cast members signed the book below Howard Pyle’s illustrations of their characters. In Pyle’s frontispiece of Robin Hood, Errol Flynn added an arrow pointing to Robin and quips: “God! Is this me? / Errol Flynn.” Under an illustration of Friar Tuck, Eugene Pallette writes: “For / Bob / Eugene Palette / Friar Tuck / Warner Brothers Productions / Oct 1937 / Richardson Springs Butte Co California”; Pallette signed a second time below another illustration of Tuck. Below Pyle’s depiction of Sir Guy of Gisbourne’s death, Basil Rathbone writes: “He may be dead / but thank God I am / very much alive. I have / greatly enjoyed my stay with your / father. / Sincerely / Basil Rathbone.” The book is also signed by Olivia de Havilland (Maid Marian), Melville Cooper (The Sheriff of Nottingham), co-director William Keighley, Una O’Connor, Alan Hale (who added “Little John”), Patric Knowles, Harry Cording (“Dickon Malbete”), Saul M. Gorss (“Double for Flynn”), Herbert Mundin (added “Much De Malleison / Good Luck”), Fred Cavens (“Fencing Master”), and dozens of others.
8 x 12 x 2 in.