Possibly The BEST LOA Ever! (Not A Bogus LOA Post, I Promise)

[MooseDog]

Not sports but one of the "coolest" items I've ever come across.

This came from the family of one of the early mayors of San Francisco, "Sunny" Jim Rolph who later successfully ran for governor.

In 1919 Albert I, King of the Belgians, along with Queen Elisabeth and son Leopold came to the United States on a state tour. For those too young, having a head of state visit the US was a HUGE deal. One of the stops was in San Francisco where he was warmly received.

The wife of the mayor had been keeping a book with all the signatures of those who had visited their home, and although the King and family didn't actually visit the home, Mrs. Rolph apparently had the collecting bug and wanted the King's autograph in her book. She sent a blank page to the King's representatives and got back her page signed by all three members of the royal family along with the letter from the King's secretary.

[isaac2004]

now that is awesome

[sports-rings]

thanks for sharing, it's an interesting story and I agree, a great LOA!

[drc]

I had two fancy envelopes signed by a Nobel Prize winner when he was in his 80s in the 1940s. The came with a vintage letter from his personal secretary that said she gave the envelopes to him to sign, but he was nearly blind and half missed one. She said he did his best. One of the envelopes has most of his signature as he wrote over the edge.

[thenavarro]

JFK's staff used to send out letters on White House stationary which attested to JFK signing the item that was included. Problem was, JFK didn't sign the item, but many times the same secretary did. I've seen several bogus JFK souvenir items such as photos, books, postal covers, etc accompanied by one of these letters. It's often fairly difficult to convince the owner that the item is in fact bogus.