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BOB MONKHOUSE THE CARTOONIST!?

The television presenter, comedian and one-time actor, Bob Monkhouse is probably pretty much unknown outside of the UK (unless of course, you know better...).  However, I think the man is a God!  Love him or loath him (as many do), you simply have to admit he is one truly talented professional.  Along with the likes of Bruce Forsyth, the man is a genius at what he does... who will replace celebrities like these in the future?  Shane Ritchie?  Chris Evans?  I think not... these great all-round entertainers are surely a dieing breed.

Anyway, I'd sent off one of my standard autograph request letters to Bob, and it took a fair while for a reply (51 days, which puts him in the bottom 10% of my UK successes....).

I received a 6x4" black & white card (scan opposite), which was obviously pre-printed with the words "Thanks! Bob Monkhouse" although he'd written "For David...  TO WISH YOU LOTS OF LOVELY LUCK!" above the printed signature.  Not a bad result, but no a genuine signature after all.

On the reverse of the card however, is a massive series of cartoon doodles...  My first assumption was simply that they were all pre-printed on the card.  Upon further examination, I was delighted to find that all these cartoons have been drawn onto the card, along with Bob's signature along the top right hand edge of the card!

Surely, these must have been drawn by Bob!  If he employed a secretary to sign autograph requests on his behalf, I'm positive the secretary wouldn't have the time (nor the inclination) to spend ages drawing such doodles...

Also, the signature in the corner matches the pre-printed signature on the front of the card.  When purchasing a large number of these cards, Bob Monkhouse wouldn't have them pre-printed with his secretaries forged signature!

In addition, also enclosed was a small rectangular piece of white paper, also covered on both sides with similar  doodles.   Both sides feature cartoon people holding placards with Bob's signature on.   Again, this item was definitely hand-drawn by someone and not pre-printed.   The drawings are in black pen, although the hair of one cartoon character has been added in blue ink!  I'll be adding a scan of this at a later date.

I do really hope these are the genuine article... I can only assume I managed to catch Bob Monkhouse at a particularly quiet moment, perhaps even 'in-studio'...  just like film-making, television production often involves long periods of sitting around, waiting for the set and production team to be ready.  Perhaps he was hanging around with nothing in particular to do, and 'went mad' with my autograph request!

Obviously, other collectors (especially in the UK) must have had success with Bob... have you received anything similar to this?   I'd be most interested to find out.  As it stands, I fully believe that all these items are genuine.  Any information from other collectors would be most appreciated, even if these pieces turn out to be fakes!!