subject: A Celebrity Signature Is More Than Just An Autograph [print this page] A celebrity signature is much more than just an autograph its tangible, provable evidence that these people really do exist: that theyre not, somehow, just myth. For a true fan, ownership of a genuine signature is like being party to a vision. The signature is proof that the adored singer, or sports person, or actress, or whoever, is real that he, or she, too, is just like us. Thats not a devaluation at all: far from it. The celebrity autograph is one of the most valuable commodities in the modern world. There is an undeniable frisson even in the thought of owning an autograph signed by, say, Al Pacino or Ingrid Bergman. Or a modern pop star; or a sporting legend. These people have the ability and power to enrich hundreds of thousands of lives just by being who they are. They can make the loneliest fan feel loved; and they can inspire, just by having done the things theyve done, others to make themselves the best that they can be. No wonder the celebrity culture is so huge: and no wonder, then, that celebrity autographs continue to be treated as treasured rarities even though they are technically extremely commonplace.
If all that is true, which it is, then a proliferation of available autographs simply bolsters the illusion by allowing more people, more often, to come into that vicarious contact with fame. So the celebrity myth continues, amplified by availability. And if the public demands frequent contact with its idols why not? It is, after all, the public that makes them so. No film star can be a film star unless people go to see his or her films. Collectors of autographs still gather on the long red carpets outside theatres in the hope of having their favourite star sign an autograph for them but now though, with celebrity a household word, autographs are big business. Stars and starlets from every walk of stage, screen and sporting endeavour expect to spend some time signing photographs, bits of sports kit and general memorabilia. Its part of the job of being famous. Question, then since the autograph became common property, did it get devalued?
Celebrity autographs, these days, are pretty commonplace but still as magical as they ever were and the relative ease by which a person can come by a celebrity signature does nothing to remove the thrill that person feels at owning an object on which that signature reposes. If anything, the current profusion of celebrity autographs increases that thrill because it amplifies the myth of celebrity. The idea of celebrity, and its power, is tied up with the thought that each and every one of these people could be one of us: or, rather, that an average everyday guy or gal could be one of them. Celebrity tantalises because it can happen to anyone. The celebrity autograph seems to pass some kind of power between signatory and purchaser: as though owning and touching something that has, in turn, been touched by the star, somehow reinforces the idea that the fan could just as easily be the celeb.
