Chris Daughtry

American Idol has been one of my favorite TV shows since it began in 2002. I’m a fan of many past contestants like Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Kimberly Locke, Carrie Underwood and Bo Bice. This season Chris Daughtry was one of my favorite contestants! He stood out to me from his audition and I really enjoyed his performances, especially his cover of rock songs such “Hemorrhage (In My Hands)” by Fuel and “Wanted Dead or Alive” by Bon Jovi. I was disappointed that he didn’t make it into the finale, as I really thought he had a good chance of winning the competition! Regardless, I think he has a successful career ahead of him and look forward to him releasing an album! As soon as I saw that someone posted online a success for Chris, I wrote him a letter and sent out a request. I was happy to receive this nice signed color photo from him, as opposed to the computer printed photos others received. However, it’s hard for me to tell whether it is authentic or pre-printed. If anyone knows, please comment and let me know! Thanks! :)

Betty White

Some of my requests that I sent out are beginning to come back...I was excited to see not one, but two manila envelopes waiting for me when I came home from work! The first one is from actress Betty White. I loved watching the show Golden Girls when I was younger, and she was one of my favorites. I also enjoyed her in the movie Retrievers because I love dogs, especially Golden Retrievers! I’m glad to add this cute signed and inscribed black & white photograph of her with her Golden Retriever Kitta to my collection!

Letters Sent...

It's been kind of slow with sucesses recently, because I was away at school and haven't really sent a lot of requests out during the year. I started up again since I returned home last month. Here is a list of people I have sent letters to recently:

• Bo Bice [Finalist on American Idol- Season 4]
• Howie Day [Singer; "Collide"]
• Chris Daughtry [Finalist on American Idol- Season 5]
• Sidney Sheldon [Creator of 'I Dream Of Jeannie']
• Jennie Garth [Actress; 'What I Like About You']
• Pat Sajak & Vanna White ['Wheel of Fortune']
• Katelyn Tarver [Finalist on American Idol Juniors]

In other news, I received a signed photo back from Mel Stuart today after emailing him last week. However, my mailman folded the envelope when he put it in my mailbox, so the photo has a crease going down it. I also didn't receive a signed replica of the golden ticket like others have. I really wanted that too, so I'm going to send Mr.Stuart another request via snail mail, and include a piece of cardboard to prevent damage. I will post a scan when I receive an undamged photo, and hopefully a golden ticket as well!

Flashback: Aaron Carter

In April of 2001, I saw that Aaron Carter was starring in "Sessical the Musical" on Broadway. I am a fan of the Backstreet Boys, and Nick Carter was my favorite at the time. I liked Aaron as well, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to get his autograph. At the time I was a beginner, and sent him a newspaper ad, which wasn't the best idea since newspaper doesn't age well. Oh well, you learn from your mistakes. I take good care of my autographs though, storing them all in plastics sleeves in a three-ring binder, so for being 5 years old it is in great condition! I was suprised to get this one back a short while after sending it off to the Richard Rogers Theater, and deicded to start sending out requests as regularly as possible from that point on.

Welcome!

Hi, I’m Shelley. Welcome to my autograph blog! I'll start my first entry with a little bit about my autograph collecting and how I started. I sent my first autograph request out in 1999. It was shortly after I came back from a family vacation at Disney World, during which I had seen Davy Jones (from the Monkees) perform in concert there at Epcot. I was in elementary school at the time, and oddly a big fan of the Monkees. I really wanted Davy Jones autograph but had been unable to get it. My Dad told me how one of his friends collected celebrity autographs through the mail, and he suggested I write a letter to Davy. I searched online and came across the database The Star Archive as well as collector's personal websites. I found an address for Davy, wrote and letter and sent along a brochure from Epcot and a photo. Months later I received both of my items back in the SASE I provided along with a black and white postcard size picture that he included- all authentically signed. I don’t have a scan of any of these as they are packed away separately from the rest of my autographs, since it was before I really began to collect.

Then in April of 2001 I decided to send out some more requests. As I received responses back I became hooked on the hobby and have been sending out requests ever since. Once I began collecting I wanted to construct a website to share my successes with other collectors, but it became to time consuming and I was never quite happy with the results so it never really took off. Then recently I came across autograph collectors who displayed their successes through blogs. It seemed like a creative and less time consuming way to share my successes with other collectors, so I'm going to give it a try! I collect autographs of everyone from Actors, Actresses, Voice Actors/Actresses from Disney movies to singers and American Idol contestants. I even have a few off-beat oddities like ex-con man Frank Abagnale-from whom the movie Catch Me If You Can is based after, Art Clokey- the creator of claymation shows such as Gumby and David and Goliath to Marcus Hamilton and Ron Ferdinand- cartoonists of the comic strip Dennis the Menace...I will be posting the new successes I receive as well as those that I have already collected thus far. I will work on getting scans of my autographs up on my blog. In the meantime, you can check out some of my favorite autograph collecting sites under my links section!

Happy Collecting! :)