REA Gary Cooper

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by shelly

Gary Cooper’s daughter, Maria Cooper-Janis, responded to our inquiry and said, “I, of course, have seen that photograph in our family archives, (and) have several shots of Gary Cooper and Babe Ruth at some moment, but none of them are autographed and the picture you refer to was never in our possession.”

Going back to Shelly's original quote from Cooper's daughter, it sounds to me like this is a little different than someone's grandchild saying "Grandaddy never signed with that nickname" or something similar. I would also note that Cooper's daughter did not make any statement, yea or nea, as to whether she thought the autograph was authentic or not (at least, not in the quote). No offense intended to Rhys, but I think this situation is a little different. What she did say is that there has never been a Ruth-signed photo of Cooper and Ruth in their archives.

I don't know what the "family archives" of the Cooper family look like, or how they are catalogued, but it strikes me they are probably a bit more organized than the typical photo album and firebox full of important papers that most families keep. Even if not, as Jim said originally, "Certainly this photo would have been one of her most PRIZED rememberences of her father." Moreover, this doesn't seem like something that Cooper would have given away before his passing, given that it was personalized, and that he kept other, unsigned photos.

Bottom line is, you can poke at the reliability of provenance and question relatives' memories all you want, but I don't think this is as easy to dismiss. Cooper's daughter doesn't have anything to gain either way, and her remembering whether or not her daddy had a photo signed by arguably the most famous baseball player in history is a different thing altogether than her looking at a Gary Cooper signature and opining whether her daddy signed it or not. The latter requires training and experience. The former requires an average ability to remember very basic details.

Just my 2 cents on it