What They Are, Their History, and the Famous People Who Used Them

When collectors encounter a celebrity signature that was not actually written by the celebrity, the item is often described as a secretarial autograph or secretarial signature.

Although the term may sound modern, the practice of having another person sign on someone’s behalf has a surprisingly long history. Kings, presidents, military leaders, authors, entertainers, athletes, and other prominent figures have all relied on secretaries, assistants, family members, office staff, or representatives to handle large volumes of correspondence and autograph requests.

For today’s autograph collector, understanding secretarial signatures is important. A secretarial signature is not the same thing as a genuine autograph, but it is also not necessarily the same thing as an outright fraudulent forgery. In many cases, the person signing was authorized or expected to handle correspondence for the celebrity or public figure.

What Is a Secretarial Autograph?

A secretarial autograph is a signature written by someone other than the person whose name appears on the item, generally on that person’s behalf.

In the autograph-collecting world, the term is most commonly used when a secretary, assistant, family member, employee, or other representative imitates a famous person’s signature on photographs, letters, cards, books, documents, or other collectible material.

The important distinction is who actually held the pen.

If Marilyn Monroe personally signed a photograph, it is a genuine Marilyn Monroe autograph.

If a member of her staff signed “Marilyn Monroe” on her behalf, the signature is considered secretarial.

The same principle applies to politicians, athletes, musicians, authors, actors, and other public figures.

Secretarial signatures can sometimes be remarkably convincing. A secretary who signs the same name hundreds or thousands of times may develop a remarkably consistent imitation of the person’s handwriting. In some cases, this makes secretarial signatures considerably more difficult to identify than an obvious modern forgery.

Secretarial Signatures Are Not Necessarily Forgeries

This distinction is particularly important for collectors.

The word “forgery” generally implies an intent to deceive or misrepresent an unauthorized signature as genuine. A secretarial signature can have a different origin.

Historically, prominent individuals often received enormous quantities of correspondence. Their offices needed systems for dealing with this volume. Having an assistant sign routine correspondence could save an enormous amount of time.

In other circumstances, the celebrity or public figure may have knowingly permitted an employee to sign photographs or respond to fan mail.

The collector therefore needs to consider the circumstances surrounding the signature.

A secretarial signature can be:

• Authorized by the celebrity
• Produced by an employee or assistant
• Produced by a family member
• Used to answer fan mail
• Used on routine correspondence
• Used on publicity photographs
• Used because the celebrity could not personally answer every request
• Used as part of an organized studio or office fan-mail operation

That does not make the signature a genuine autograph. The person whose name appears on the item still did not personally write it.

How Far Back Do Secretarial Signatures Go?

The practice of signing documents on behalf of important individuals is centuries old.

Historical references to secretaries and clerks signing documents for rulers and government officials go back well before the modern celebrity autograph era. The Raab Collection notes examples involving European monarchs and states that secretarial signatures were used by French rulers through at least the reign of Louis XVI.

The practice also became established in American government.

By the 19th century, clerks were signing certain documents on behalf of U.S. presidents. For example, after approximately 1833, presidential land grants could be signed by clerks rather than personally by the president. Some of these clerks became extremely skilled at reproducing the president’s signature.

This history is important because it demonstrates that signing on behalf of another person was not invented by Hollywood or the modern autograph industry.

What changed dramatically during the late 19th and early 20th centuries was the volume of requests.

The Rise of the Celebrity Secretarial

The development of mass communication, inexpensive photography, the postal system, newspapers, magazines, radio, film, and eventually television created an entirely new problem for famous people.

People could now write directly to celebrities.

Fans sent letters asking actors, actresses, musicians, athletes, authors, politicians, and other public figures for photographs and autographs.

By the early 20th century, autograph collecting had expanded beyond wealthy scholars and collectors. The public increasingly sought signatures from famous personalities, and signed photographs became an important part of popular culture.

Hollywood accelerated this trend dramatically.

Movie studios had enormous publicity departments and received large quantities of fan mail. Stars could receive hundreds or even thousands of requests for photographs and autographs.

A celebrity simply could not personally sign everything.

The solution was sometimes to have staff members handle the requests.

Hollywood and Secretarial Autographs

Secretarial signatures became particularly common in the entertainment industry.

During Hollywood’s Golden Age, studios maintained publicity departments responsible for distributing photographs and responding to fan correspondence. Some stars personally signed photographs, while others relied heavily on assistants or studio employees.

Vintage Hollywood photographs therefore require particular caution.

The Raab Collection notes that secretarial and facsimile signatures are especially common in entertainment-related signed photographs. It also observes that smaller publicity photographs from the vintage Hollywood era can have a particularly high incidence of secretarial signatures because studios distributed them in large quantities.

This is one reason a vintage photograph bearing a famous actor’s name should not automatically be assumed to have been personally signed by that actor.

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe provides one of the most interesting examples.

Secretarial Marilyn Monroe signatures are well documented within the collecting community. Monroe’s enormous popularity generated substantial demand for photographs and fan correspondence, and examples exist of photographs signed by people working on her behalf.

Research into Monroe’s secretarial signatures has identified different signing hands associated with her professional operations, including people working through 20th Century Fox and Monroe’s own production company.

This makes Marilyn Monroe an excellent example of why collectors should study known authentic signatures and known secretarial examples rather than simply comparing a signature to a single photograph found online.

Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford is another important example.

Although Crawford personally signed many autographs, researchers have documented the use of secretarial assistance, particularly as her career progressed.

Autograph research indicates that Crawford employed secretarial assistance beginning in the 1930s and increasingly later in her career. Examples can therefore exist in the marketplace that appear superficially similar to her authentic signature but were actually produced by someone working on her behalf.

Walt Disney

Walt Disney presents another fascinating case.

Some photographs bearing Disney’s signature were reportedly signed by fellow Disney artists and employees rather than Disney himself. The practice makes particular sense when considering the enormous volume of correspondence generated by the Disney organization.

Collectors should therefore be especially cautious with Walt Disney signatures appearing on routine photographs or fan-mail material.

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan provides an unusual example because secretarial signing occurred in different periods of his life.

During Reagan’s Hollywood years, his mother sometimes answered correspondence and signed his name for him. Later, as a political figure, Reagan’s offices also made use of staff assistance, including secretarial signing.

This demonstrates an important point for collectors:

The same celebrity can have genuine, secretarial, autopen, stamped, and forged signatures depending on the period and type of item.

Dating an autograph is therefore extremely important.

Presidents and Political Figures

Secretarial signatures are particularly significant when collecting U.S. presidential material.

Presidents receive enormous quantities of correspondence, requests, invitations, photographs, cards, and documents. It has therefore been common for presidential offices to employ systems for handling signatures.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt used secretarial assistance before becoming president, and secretarial signing continued to be an issue in presidential autograph collecting.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Eisenhower also had secretaries who signed on his behalf during portions of his career, including around his political campaigns and presidency.

John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy is another significant example.

Kennedy had numerous staff members who handled correspondence, and secretarial signatures can be found on Kennedy material.

A documented example sold by Heritage Auctions consists of a 1959 Kennedy letter on U.S. Senate letterhead bearing a secretarial signature. The letter concerns permission to use a photograph of Kennedy and Richard Nixon in advertising.

This is an excellent reminder that a secretarial signature does not necessarily mean that the underlying letter is unimportant or fraudulent. The document itself can be genuine even though the signature was written by someone else.

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson is particularly notable among presidential collectors.

Johnson used both autopens and secretaries extensively. Documented examples include letters, photographs, and other presidential material carrying secretarial signatures. One known secretary was White House aide Bruce Thomas.

Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon is another major name for collectors to understand.

Nixon used both autopen signatures and secretarial signatures extensively. His longtime secretary Rose Mary Woods is particularly well known in autograph research for reproducing Nixon’s signature. Her version reportedly contains distinctive characteristics, including a noticeably elevated “d” in “Richard.”

Because Nixon generated such a large volume of correspondence and official material, collectors should be especially cautious when evaluating unsigned or minimally personalized Nixon documents.

Secretarial Signatures in Sports

The phenomenon was not limited to Hollywood and politics.

Sports collectors encounter a related form of signing commonly known as a clubhouse signature.

A clubhouse signature occurs when someone associated with a team—such as a clubhouse attendant, coach, trainer, manager, or other employee—signs an athlete’s name on items intended for fans or collectors.

The practice was particularly useful when a star player was overwhelmed by autograph requests.

Clubhouse signatures therefore occupy a similar place in autograph collecting to secretarial signatures, although collectors generally use the term “clubhouse” specifically for sports.

The distinction is important because a clubhouse signature is not a personally signed autograph from the athlete.

Famous Athletes With Known Secretarial or Clubhouse Examples

Baseball has an especially well-documented history of this phenomenon.

Collectors can encounter clubhouse or secretarial examples associated with famous players, particularly on team-signed items, correspondence, and material obtained through the mail.

For example, PSA’s research on Sandy Koufax specifically notes that collectors may encounter secretarial signatures, particularly on autographs obtained through the mail during the 1980s.

Connie Mack is another documented example. PSA notes that collectors can encounter occasional clubhouse autographs on team-signed material and secretarial signatures on correspondence.

These examples illustrate why autograph authentication requires more than simply asking whether the signature “looks right.”

Why Would Someone Use a Secretarial Signature?

There were many reasons.

1. Too Much Fan Mail

Perhaps the most obvious reason was volume.

A major celebrity could receive enormous quantities of mail. Personally signing every photograph could consume hours every day.

2. Publicity

Studios and publicity departments wanted fans to remain engaged with their stars.

Sending an autographed photograph was an inexpensive way of maintaining the relationship between the fan and the celebrity.

3. Routine Correspondence

Politicians, business leaders, military officers, and other prominent individuals received large quantities of routine correspondence.

Not every letter required the individual’s personal signature.

4. Physical Limitations

Illness, injury, age, exhaustion, or other circumstances could make signing difficult.

5. Time

A famous person might be traveling, filming, campaigning, performing, or working under an extremely demanding schedule.

Delegating routine signing allowed them to concentrate on more important matters.

6. Organized Fan-Mail Operations

Hollywood studios could receive autograph requests in such volume that signing became an organized administrative function.

In some cases, photographs were distributed in large quantities with signatures that were either printed, stamped, secretarial, or personally signed depending upon the circumstances.

Secretarial vs. Autopen vs. Facsimile

Collectors frequently confuse these terms.

They are not interchangeable.

Genuine Autograph

The celebrity personally writes the signature.

Example: Marilyn Monroe personally signs a photograph.

Secretarial Signature

Another person physically writes the celebrity’s signature.

Example: An employee signs “Marilyn Monroe” on Monroe’s behalf.

Autopen

A mechanical device reproduces a signature using an actual writing instrument.

Autopen signatures became particularly important among politicians and other people who needed to sign large volumes of correspondence.

Facsimile or Printed Signature

The signature is reproduced through printing or another reproduction process rather than being individually written onto the item.

Rubber Stamp

A signature image is transferred onto the item using a stamp.

Forgery

Someone writes another person’s signature without authorization and presents or sells it as though it were genuine.

These distinctions matter enormously when assigning value to an autograph.

Why Are Secretarial Autographs Important to Collectors?

Secretarial signatures generally do not carry the same value as genuine autographs from the person named on the item.

However, they can still be historically interesting.

A secretarial photograph may provide evidence of:

• How a celebrity handled fan mail
• How a studio operated
• The structure of a celebrity’s office
• Publicity practices
• The history of autograph collecting
• The development of celebrity culture
• The work performed by assistants and secretaries
• How political offices managed correspondence

In some cases, the underlying document can be highly significant even though the signature is secretarial.

A letter written by a president, for example, may contain historically important information despite being signed by an assistant.

Why Can Secretarial Signatures Be Difficult to Identify?

One of the biggest challenges is repetition.

A secretary who signs a celebrity’s name every day can become extremely familiar with the signature.

Unlike a random forger who may attempt to reproduce a signature only once or twice, a professional secretary could potentially produce hundreds or thousands of examples.

This repetition can create a recognizable “secretarial hand.”

Collectors and authenticators therefore look for recurring characteristics.

These may include:

• Letter formation
• Pen pressure
• Slant
• Spacing
• Connecting strokes
• Loops
• Crossings
• Initials
• Baseline
• Size relationships
• Unusual flourishes
• Consistency between examples

The key is not simply whether a signature looks similar to the celebrity’s handwriting.

Instead, researchers may compare multiple known examples from the same period.

A secretarial signature can be remarkably consistent because the same individual may have produced many examples.

Dating the Signature Is Critical

One of the most important principles in autograph research is:

A signature should be evaluated in the context of its date.

Celebrities’ signatures change.

A person’s signature at age 25 may look substantially different from their signature at age 55.

Writing instruments also changed.

A 1930s signature written with a fountain pen may look different from a 1970s signature written with a felt-tip pen.

The type of photograph matters too.

A studio publicity photograph from the 1930s may have a very different signing history from a privately presented 11 x 14 photograph.

The Raab Collection notes that the format of vintage Hollywood photographs can provide useful context. Smaller publicity photographs were frequently distributed in large quantities, while larger photographs were more often presented personally to friends, colleagues, or other individuals.

This does not mean that size alone proves whether a signature is genuine. It is simply another piece of evidence.

Secretarial Autographs and the Vintage Hollywood Era

The Golden Age of Hollywood is one of the richest areas for studying secretarial signatures.

Collectors can encounter secretarial examples associated with many major stars of the 1920s through the 1950s.

Auction records demonstrate how frequently secretarial examples appear within vintage entertainment collections. Christie’s, for example, has cataloged large collections containing both genuine and secretarial signatures from figures including Charlie Chaplin, Bette Davis, Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Frank Sinatra, Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Gregory Peck, Bob Hope, Judy Garland, Spencer Tracy, and many others.

That does not mean that every autograph from these celebrities is secretarial.

Rather, it demonstrates the importance of evaluating individual pieces instead of assuming that every signature from a particular celebrity was personally written.

Secretarials Can Be Period-Correct

Another misconception is that a secretarial signature must be modern.

That is incorrect.

A secretarial signature can be completely contemporary with the celebrity.

A 1935 photograph can have a secretarial signature produced in 1935.

A 1950 letter can have a secretarial signature produced in 1950.

A 1960 political document can contain a secretarial signature produced in 1960.

This makes secretarial signatures particularly interesting—and sometimes particularly difficult—to identify.

The age of the ink or paper alone does not prove that the celebrity personally signed the item.

The Difference Between a Secretarial and a Forgery

This is perhaps the most important distinction for collectors.

Consider two scenarios:

Scenario A

A movie star receives 500 autograph requests. Her secretary signs 300 photographs on her behalf, with the knowledge of the star.

Those photographs contain secretarial signatures.

Scenario B

A dealer takes 300 unsigned photographs and personally signs the celebrity’s name, then sells them as authentic.

Those are forgeries.

The physical appearance of the signatures could potentially be similar, but the circumstances are completely different.

For collectors, provenance and context can therefore be just as important as handwriting analysis.

Not Every Unusual Signature Is a Secretarial

Collectors should also avoid the opposite mistake.

A signature that looks different from the examples they have seen is not automatically secretarial.

People naturally vary their signatures.

Signatures can become:

• Faster
• Sloppier
• More abbreviated
• More elaborate
• Larger
• Smaller
• More angular
• More compressed

The celebrity may also have intentionally changed their signature over time.

Therefore, identifying a secretarial signature should ideally involve comparison against multiple authenticated examples and period-specific material.

Some Famous Examples Worth Researching

Collectors interested in secretarial signatures may want to study the documented histories of:

Entertainment

• Marilyn Monroe
• Joan Crawford
• Walt Disney
• Ronald Reagan
• Bette Davis
• Charlie Chaplin
• Bing Crosby
• Judy Garland
• Spencer Tracy
• Jackie Gleason
• And numerous other Hollywood personalities

Politics and government

• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Dwight D. Eisenhower
• John F. Kennedy
• Lyndon B. Johnson
• Richard Nixon
• Jimmy Carter
• Ronald Reagan

Sports

• Sandy Koufax
• Connie Mack
• Various baseball players represented by clubhouse signatures
• Other athletes whose mail or team material was handled by staff

The existence of secretarial examples for a particular celebrity should never be interpreted to mean that the celebrity never signed personally. In many cases, both genuine and secretarial examples exist.

Why Collectors Should Care

Secretarial autographs are an important part of autograph history.

They tell us something about the enormous demand placed upon famous people long before email, social media, and modern celebrity management existed.

A Hollywood star could be thousands of miles away on a film set while hundreds of letters arrived at a studio office.

A president could be occupied with matters of state while assistants handled routine correspondence.

An athlete could be traveling with a team while staff members dealt with autograph requests.

The signature may not have been personally written, but the item can still tell an important story about the person, their career, their fans, and the culture surrounding them.

Final Thoughts

A secretarial autograph should not simply be dismissed as “fake.”

It is more accurately understood as a signature written by someone other than the named individual, often as part of an established system for handling correspondence, publicity, or autograph requests.

Secretarial signing has existed for centuries, but it became particularly important during the rise of modern government, mass communication, Hollywood, professional sports, and celebrity culture.

For collectors, the challenge is understanding the difference between:

Genuine autograph → Secretarial signature → Autopen → Facsimile → Stamp → Forgery

Each represents something different, and each can have a different place in the collecting world.

The most important lesson is simple:

Never assume that a signature is genuine merely because it looks right.

Study the person’s signature across different periods. Examine the item itself. Consider its provenance, format, date, ink, handwriting characteristics, and historical context. Most importantly, compare it against well-documented genuine and secretarial examples whenever possible.

For collectors of vintage celebrity and historical autographs, learning to recognize secretarial signatures is not merely a way to avoid mistakes—it is an essential part of understanding the history of the hobby itself.