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- TANK GREE, IN BERG tk,v: t.,n Smesh. Phlyni 19:t,1917 '403 B40.;uy a■ yr6g, 16. .w Iclet, • ',SY, R1r., tine woe:, a •6 Ametvil ;or 0,64,s0 Gmenherg tolawrYY'rrt rhr li,en 1as ~ err 1413 ay.t.yit,4thsznaxey fig Giura ?SKI Al. iatv 44 6 Ames Va:It in.:, itn. .V<‘•: garioth the un N' Y&ra Ow Rag raiarwriz 195 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.