Cat. #00160111: DAVID LANDAU

RARE vintage inscribed black fountain pen signature on a 4x6-inch tan album page, acquired in-person by an autograph hound named Ethel in the early 1930s. In good condition, with some toning in spots and a stain left by the writing on the preceding page in the book. Excellent character actor David Landau had a long but unremarkable stage career until 1930, when he played the murderous cuckold Mr. Murrant in the national touring company production of Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Street Scene." He powerfully recreated the role in director King Vidor's 1931 film adaptation. Armed with a menacing look and a cavernous bass speaking voice, Landau became a steadily employed Hollywood heavy until his premature death at age 56-- perhaps most memorably playing Jennings in the Marx Brothers classic Horsefeathers (1932), the warden in I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) and Dan Flynn in Mae West's She Done Him Wrong (1933).