Ragland, Rags - Uncommon Signed Album Page with Orig. 1942 Still Photo - d. 1946
Ink signed 4 1/2 x 5 3/4 album page taken from a 1940's autograph album. w/ orig. 1942 8x10 still, showing Connie Gilchrist and Rags Ragland "Sunday Punch". This vintage still has tape repair to upper right corner and on verso along right edge. Printed studio descriptive blurb on verso. Very fine. Uncommon signature.
Rags Ragland (1905 - 1946) was a comedic actor who was close friends with Frank Sinatra. After returning from an alcoholic bender with Orson Welles in Mexico in 1946, Ragland was scheduled to revive his New York nightclub act with friend Phil Silvers at the Copacabana. He began experiencing pain in his abdomen and was hospitalized. Good friend Frank Sinatra called in a specialist, but the doctors determined that Ragland's liver and kidneys had been destroyed by years of alcohol abuse. After falling into a coma, he died three days before his 41st birthday of uremia. Silvers and Sinatra were by his bedside. Many Hollywood celebrities attended Ragland's funeral – Sinatra sang at the service and Silvers delivered the eulogy