Victoria Wood

I'm a huge fan of hers, I love her stand up shows so I sent Miss Wood a picture along with my letter. It took about a month but I got back the picture I sent as well as a lovely signed headshot. Everything was returned in my SASE although I was slightly disappointed that I didn't get my Housewife 49 pic I sent returned.

I was quite pleased with this although I think I am going to try again after the experiment to get an autographed Housewife 49 picture. I don't blame Victoria, I blame the postal service as the letter was damaged when it arrived.

Result: Definite Success

A Brit actor, Gordon Ramsay & Kate Moss

A Bit part actor: I have not stated his name as he is a small bit-part actor from a TV show I really like. He manages his own website & was kind enough to not only personally reply to the email I sent him but send me a signed pic in the post.

Result: Success
Gordon Ramsay:

I sent an email & just five days later I got an A4 sized picture. The quality is stunning, it's completely beautiful, I can't honestly say whether or not its definitely his signature or his secretary's, but I'm counting it as real. This one is not for me, it's going to be auctioned to raise money for my community centre.

The scan doesn't do it justice.

Result: Success






Kate moss:

Well on the plus side I sent an email so it cost nothing, also it arrived in five days. However this one was supposed to be auctioned off to raise money for the community centre as well but I'm not even going to bother showing it to them. What I got in the post was an extremely low quality post card. The printed sig couldn't pass for real at all. Kate Moss should be ashamed at sending out such low quality picture.

I don't think I'll bother to frame this one, I'll just stick it in the back of the cupboard somewhere. The scan makes it looks a million times better than it really it.

Result: Acceptable (barely)

Rik Mayall

I got one of the SASE's I sent out in the post today. At first I thought it was empty, but I opened it and discovered a PP picture of Rik Mayall inside.

I am quite disappointed with this one. I only sent out a few pictures to be signed because the high quality photo paper I bought is quite expensive so I printed out only a few pictures to be signed. In the letter to Rik I included a small picture to be signed, along with my letter telling him how much I admired his straight performances as well as his comedy roles.

The picture I received in the post was not the usual type of photo card most celebrities have to send out their autographs on. It looked very much like just low quality photo paper with a PP autograph on the bottom.

I half want to class this one as a disappointment because they did not return the picture I had sent which means that the cost of the envelopes, stamps, paper, printer ink, photo paper cost a lot more than the cheap picture I got in the post.

Result: Acceptable

Colin Baker & a fraud spotted on ebay

Got a RTS (Return to Sender) letter today, obviously my research on that address was squiffed. I have found a new one so I am going to resend with next months batch.

Result: Failure (but my fault)

I found a fraudulent autograph on ebay today, I am hoping I'll be able to warn the buyer before they pay for a Pre-print which the seller is claiming to be authentic. I have reported it to ebay but since it's a power seller I doubt they'll do anything about it.

How I rate the responses & The first set of results

How I rate responses:

Success: Authentic signed pic or letter

Acceptable: Pre-Printed (PP) picture or signature

Disappointment: Photocopied/Generic letter of decline

Failure: No response


In mid December I sent my first batch of fan mail out. In total I sent out 25 letters & 4 e-mails.

With a week and a half I received my first two responses.

1. Robbie Coltrane. - I sent a letter saying how I was a big fan of Cracker & I included a SASE. According to the postage stamp a letter was sent back a mere 6 days later. Inside the pre-paid envelope was my SASE & a Pre-Printed (PP) picture of Mr Coltrane as Hagrid in Harry Potter. I hadn't mentioned Potter in my letter but according to the note from his agency saying that due to the popularity of Harry Potter Mr Coltrane is unable to sign pictures.

It was very nice of them to send me my envelope back & the note as well as the PP picture. It's a shame that Mr Coltrane doesn't sign pictures anymore so I'll probably have to meet him in person to get an authentic picture.


Result: Acceptable


2. The second result shall remain nameless. It is a former children's television presenter, I got the address from their official website where it said you could write to the presenter & send requests. I sent a letter, a SASE & a picture. About a week & a half later I got my SASE letter back through my letter box I was very excited until I opened the envelope.

Inside was the picture I'd sent (unsigned) along with a photocopied letter. Let me just stress this, not a print out, a PHOTOCOPY. It said that the former childrens television presenter was ill & unable to sign anything. The letter was very generic, even the name at the bottom was typed. The only blank space was where my name was scribbled in, which was misspelled.

IF this former TV presenter is so ill that all they do is send back a generic photocopy to anyone who writes, maybe they should remove the address from their website. However they won't do that & they are still quite happy to wheel this elderly person out for bookings so that they can make a quick pound.

Result: Disappointment

The rules of the experiment

No experiment can be legitimate without a set of rules to guide it.

The purpose of the experiment is to see if celebrities do care enough about their fans to give their autographs out. I want to see which celebrities seem to respond more, A listers, B listers, faded stars, popular ones, young, old, etc, etc.

I am a firm believer that if the general public watch the tv shows or films and buy the dvds and merchandise, then the celebrities wouldn't have the money that a lot of them have. No one forces anyone to become and actor or a singer, if you put yourself in the public eye you not only put yourself up for scrutiny but you have a responsibility to pay to your fans. If someone has paid over £120 on your albums and £30+ a go to see your concerts, then the least you can do for someone is sign a measly bit of paper.

The Rules:

1. Autographs can only be obtained two ways, by writing fan mail or meeting someone in person. None can be purchased either at a shop or online store like ebay, neither can I attend a signing event where the celebrity asks for payment in exchange for their signature.

2. Only one batch of letters can be sent a month, (any email requests must be sent on the same day) that way it will be easy to track the length of time a response takes.

3. Only GENUINE letters will be sent. I will not write to anyone whom I don't like or admire just for the sake of a signed picture. All letters must be from the heart, no copy & pasting allowed. I will be typing all the letters as my handwriting is illegible.

4. If there is no response after 3 months, then I will count those letters as having failed to get a response. (If a response is received later than this, I will over turn it.)

5. All celebrities will named unless there are extenuating circumstances.

6. Nothing I have obtained during the experiment will be sold on. As I am only going to obtain things from people I admire, there will be no reason for me to part with them.

7. Although I will not be mentioning specific dates on sending or receiving, each batch of letters will have a three month review. For example, in March I will post a full review of Decembers letters, stating which were successful & which weren't.

8. The sending of letters will go on for one year, December 2008 - December 2009, though it is likely I will still be receiving letters into 2010 so the blog will be updated regularly.

9. I can only find fan mail addresses by doing my own research. Checking fansites or agent/managment websites is fine, using websites which list hundreds of celebrity addresses is not fine. I know these websites are very handy for people who collect autographs as a hobby, however since this is an experiment I feel I should work hard for the addresses I find.

10. I will not be giving out celebrity addresses or information, if you want to write to someone a website like Movie Eye will probably be best for you.

(I may add to these rules as the experiment goes on.)

The Experiment's beginnings

What is 'The Big Autograph Experiment' - ?

I shall tell you. I was talking to my friend about her experiences at Reading festival earlier this year and she told me the story of trying to get an autograph which set my mind working. Me and my friend are both big fans of a rather obscure American band (who shall remain nameless.) The lead singer of this band was playing at Reading this year with his new side project, which are ok but don't really compare to the band which made us love him.

After the gig my friend went on a hunt to find the singer and grab us both an autograph, I wasn't at the festival but it's nice she thinks of me. She tracked down the head of security and managed to get him to agree to go backstage and ask for the autograph. She pulled about five pages from a pocket diary she had and handed them to the head of security who kindly went back to get the paper signed for her.

After waiting for about twenty minutes the man came back and handed my friend the signed pieces of paper. He then told my friend that the singer had not been happy to sign the five autographs, in fact, the head of security told her that he had had to do some persuading to get the singer to put his signature on five little bits of paper. (Just so you know the bits of paper were smaller than a standard sized post-it.)

The singers main band, the one which made him famous and put money in his pocket, aren't that famous in his homeland of America, they are even less famous here in England. They never do signings and very rarely tour over here, so the chance of a fan getting an autograph is very small, so the fact that he begrudged five measly fans his signature really annoyed me. The people who put his money in his pocket deserve an occasion autograph, the band only played a 30 minute set so he could hardly put it down to tiredness.

When my friend gave me my autograph and she told me this story, it got me thinking. Do all famous people shun their fans? Does writing fan mail ever produce genuine results?

Aside from buying one from ebay, the average person has little chance of meeting a personal hero on the street and obtaining an autograph that way and official signing events can be expensive to get to in themselves, before you take into consideration a lot of people charge for their autograph.

To date I have met ten celebrities. Jean Boht (Nellie Boswell in the tv show Bread) & our regions newsreader in the 80's came to my primary school and talked to all the students. We said hello to Robson Greene & Jimmy Nail (on seperate occasions) in Newcastle airport in the early nineties. On a family day out we once randomly ran into David Bellamy the botonist and he was lovely, he stood and talked to us for ages. On a school trip to Granada Studios I met Bruce Jones & Georgia Taylor who were lovely and talked to the fans for ages and gladly posed for pictures and handed out autographs. James Herriot (all creatures great and small & Doctors) was a friend of my senior schools Principle and he came to our school and did a talk & signed a few autographs, I've lost mine all I had on me at the time was a reciet and I have no idea where it went. The children's author Susan Gates was a friend of my English teacher and she came to our school as well, I still have her autograph somewhere, I think its inside one of her books. The final celebrity was Hattie Hayridge who played Holly in Red Dwarf, she had nothing but time for me and signed a postcard for me, I have no idea where it is, but I cannot praise the woman enough for her time.

So, that's what I have to start my collection. The next blog I post will be the rules of The Big Autograph experiment.