IvtdelibP.,9 Goias
case this doesn't make Mr.
Burstyn's political leanings per-
fectly clear, he adds: "You know
what really ticks me off?
Binyamin Netanyahu is worth
only about $25 or $30 on the
open market — and he's the
leader of a major nation! —
while Yassir Arafat goes for
maybe $500. Now, does that
seem right?"
Sp aim Y in g
Yassir may be up and Bibi down
this week, but the autograph in-
dustry as a whole has seen con-
sistently escalating prices for a
number of years. Some 35 years
ago, a Mark Twain signature
sold for about $1, and you could
pick up Abraham Lincoln auto-
graphs for about $10 each, ac-
cording to Autograph Collector
magazine.
Today a Twain signature is
worth over $600, and President
Lincoln's autograph starts at
about $3,000.
Detroiter Eddie Jaye has
watched the rise, and even con-
tributes to it in a different way.
Mr. Jaye creates "ARTographs"
— professionally framed, one-of-
a-kind montages incorporating
autographs, photographs and au-
thentic mementos of historic fig-
ures.
He will display 20 of his Jew-
ish-themed items at the Temple
Israel Sisterhood Art Show this
weekend.
His ARTographs run the Above: Eddie Jaye holds his Israeli leaders'
ARTograph.
gamut, from Jewish comedians
George Bums, the Marx Broth-
ers and others — priced starting
Right: The Hank Greenberg montage.
at $100 — to a montage on Jew-
ish escape artist Harry Houdini,
complete with authentic hand-
thing no one else
cuffs that Houdini used, famous pictures and, of has, which makes
course, Houdini's autograph. The Houdini AR- his custom designs
Tograph is listed at $5,500.
so popular. He au-
For the Temple Israel show, Mr. Jaye created thenticates every au-
an Israeli leaders' montage, including autographs tograph and
and photographs of David Ben-Gurion, Golda collectible that he
Meir, Menachem Begin, Moshe Dayan and uses, and gives a
.4=1:1113=-
Yitzhak Rabin. It written, lifetime,
comes complete money-back guaran-
with a miniature tee of authenticity.
Israeli flag, and Eddie Jaye has
Dayan's autograph been a life-long col-
is on the official in-
lector. But it was
vitation for the only four years ago
"Face the Nation" that he started his
television program Royal Oak auto-
that followed the graph business.
1967 Six-Day war. The entire collection is matted
A comedian by
in white and framed in blue in honor of Israel.
trade who opens for
Most people, said Mr. Jaye, want to own some-
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other acts and does corporate work,
Mr. Jaye found that six or seven
comic dates a month left him with
lots of time. His ARTograph idea de-
veloped from a birthday present for
a friend who admired boxer Joe
Louis.
Mr. Jaye found an autographed
photograph of Louis, but then added
a ticket stub from one of his fights,
a World War II photograph of Sgt.
Louis, and a cover from Ring maga-
zine. The friend couldn't stop thank-
ing him, but Mr. Jaye learned the
extent of his friend's appreciation
weeks later when he saw the Joe
Louis ARTograph on the friend's
wall with a brass sign below. The
sign reads: "In Case Of Fire, Save
This First."
Mr. Jaye sells most of his works
through auctions or by commission.
Last year's Temple Israel show was
a first for him, and he was surprised
by the number of males who crowd-
ed his display. "An awful lot of guys
are shlepped by their wives," he said.
Mr. Jaye usually shies away from
doing current sports figures because
their signatures are so readily avail-
able. "If I do sports, it has to be an
icon like Hank Greenberg or Babe
Ruth. People who are not autograph
collectors like my work because they
want a piece of someone they love.
Price isn't the deciding factor. It's
how much they admire the subject
of the piece."
V< His Hank Greenberg montage
features the Detroit Tiger Hall of
igFamer's photograph, 1940 baseball
± card and a brief biography.
"There's no un-
derstanding what
people will like,"
said Mr. Jaye. He
once prepared a
montage of Jack
Benny for a cus-
tomer, but then
found additional
material that in-
cluded Rochester,
Don Wilson, Rose-
marie Livingston
and other show cast
members. When he
asked the customer
if he would like that
material included,
"the customer didn't
know who those
people were," said
Mr. Jaye.
Alan Hitsky
contributed to this
article.