Almost all "autographed" photos of Andy Griffith were actually signed not by Andy himself, but by his manager, Richard O. Linke (with Andy's permission). When anyone wrote in to ask for an autographed photo, Mr. Linke would do the signature. He could make a near-perfect copy, and he probably still can to this day.
That being said, it is certainly true that there are a few genuine items out there that Andy actually did sign with his own hand. For one thing, according to Mr. Linke, Andy always signed his checks himself. So a cancelled check with Andy's signature is the real thing. I have one, and will be glad to send a picture of it to anybody who wants to see what the genuine signature looks like. Another thing to remember when buying autographs is that a "certificate of authenticity" is worthless. Anyone who would sell fake autographs would not hesitate to print up a fake certificate to go with it. The only way to be absolutely certain that an autograph is authentic is to get it yourself, in person, but to my knowledge Andy has never appeared at any sort of autograph show, and I'm also told that he quit giving out autographs decades ago. Paul Mulik Sent from my U.S. Cellular BlackBerry® smartphone _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
