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Gordon MacRae was born Albert Gordon MacRae in East Orange, New Jersey in 1921, but his parents moved to Syracuse, New York when he was young. His father was a radio star, "Wee Willie" MacRae, and his mother was a concert pianist. MacRae did not inherit their musical talents, because he was adopted, but he WAS very talented in the arts in school, being in the drama club, singing in choir, and playing several musical instruments (and he also played many sports as well!). At 18, he won a local singing talent contest and the prize was getting to sing at the 1939 New York World's Fair for several weeks. Next, Big Band leader Horace Heidt hired MacRae as a vocalist. A couple of years later, MacRae met Sheila Margaret Stephens, an amateur singer and actress, and they were married (he had just turned 20 and she was just 16, but World War II was about to begin, and once it did, McRae enlisted). After the war, the couple soon had two children (and later two more), and MacRae began singing in revues on Broadway, while his wife remained home taking care of their children. In 1947, he was signed by Capitol Records, and the next year he starred on the radio show "The Railroad Hour", which had operettas and musical dramatizations, all featuring McRae and different leading ladies. Later that year, he was signed to a contract by Warner Bros. and among other movies, he made five very popular movies that paired him with beautiful young Doris Day. In 1955, he had his best role ever, as Curly in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma, opposite Shirley Jones as Laurey. The following year, filming began on Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, and Frank Sinatra was intended to play the lead role of Billy Bigelow. But Sinatra, who had a notoriously short fuse, blew up when he found out (on the first day of filming) that they needed to shoot each scene twice, once for regular CinemaScope and once for CinemaScope 55, and he quit! In just three days, the producers signed McRae, and even though he had not played the part, he did a great job (and ironically, the cameramen found a way to only shoot the scenes once!). After two of the greatest movie musical successes ever, MacRae seemed poised for a long distinguished career, and yet after Carousel, he essentially retired from movies completely, appearing in two movies two decades later. He spent much of the remainder of his life performing in dinner theater (often with his wife), and appearing on TV and radio. What happened? MacRae had become an alcoholic early in his career, and it spiraled out of control just when he reached the height of his fame (he later revealed he had been picked up for drunk driving during the filming of "Carousel"). By the time he got his drinking under control, the era of movie musicals had passed. In 1967, he and his wife divorced, and he remarried and had another child, and his ex-wife went on the replace Audrey Meadows as Alice in the last version of The Honeymooners. Two of his children, Meredith and Heather became actresses. MacRae passed away in 1986 at the age of 64. He had a very notable career, but he starred in just 14 movies in his prime, and one can only wonder how much more he might have accomplished had his personal problems not derailed him!

Important Added Info: Note that this still has been personally autographed (signed) by Gordon MacRae! Note that this autographed 8x10 is one of 91 that were consigned to us by a former theater owner. He owned two different major theaters in Louisiana from the 1940s through the 1970s, and he sometimes had premieres of movies at his theaters, at which time some of the celebrities connected to the movies would appear in person (this was often done in the 1950s and 1960s). When celebrities came to his theater, he would have them autograph 8x10 stills for him in person, and that got him started collecting signed stills, so at some point in the 1950s, he began requesting the studios to have them send him stills signed by the stars of movies he had recently shown at his theater when he was holding a special event or having the anniversary of his theater's opening! Over the next decade, he collected 91 signed stills that were sent to him by the studios through the mail, as well as several dozen that he obtained in person. We auctioned those "in person" signed stills in our previous auctions, and now we are auctioning the 91 stills where he obtained the signatures through the mail from the studios.

We know for certain that he received these stills directly from the studios, but we can't say for certain if the stills were signed by the stars or if they were signed by secretaries. But since he owned a major theater, and since many of the stills were personalized to him (or to his theater), we would think it likely that most, if not all, of these 91 stills have genuine signatures that are NOT secretarial signatures. But we suggest that anyone bidding on these stills compare their signatures to other examples of that star's signature, so they can best determine if the signature is from that star.

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