The Corner Penthouse

For over a decade now, I've posted "Shopping Reports" on The Corner Penthouse Facebook page, and Spook Central's social media pages. These photographic reports are meant to document the items I find, and usually buy, from my trips to various stores, usually Five Below and assorted thrift stores. They not only help me to keep a history of what I buy, for how much, and when and where, but I hope they will also alert others to some of the good stuff that is out there. I make these posts to social media because it's just quicker and easier to upload some photos, add a little bit of text, and call it a day. The item I bought recently is such a damn good find that I just had to give it a proper article here on The Corner Penthouse.

Every Summer since 2008 I have visited the Sacred Heart church in Island Park, New York for their White Elephant Sale. A "White Elephant Sale" is, in essence, a pop-up thrift store; though I think the church now holds it all year long. Items are donated to the church, and then they sell them, with the proceeds going to help fund the church. For many years, the church priced things dirt cheap. A few years ago, they started to think they're "IRL eBay", with some rather outrageous prices for things like used board games ($15-$20 each) and used loose Funko Pops ($10-$15 each), among other things. So, I was rather surprised when on my most recent visit (on Saturday July 26, 2025) I found a framed signed photo of actor Gene Kelly priced at $5.00.


I was really skeptical at first, given the dirt cheap price, and that the church's price tag was marked "photo of his signature". I took this to mean "reprint", which is a signed item where the signature is part of the item itself. A reprint is not an authentically-signed item, obviously.


While I don't claim to be an autograph expert, I have been an autograph collector for decades. Sadly, I had to sell most of my collection after my father passed away in 2014, but I still have a nice collection of Ghostbusters and non-Ghostbusters autographs. I can easily tell when a glossy photo, such as this one, has a signature that is part of the photo, and when it was actually signed by a (blue) marker. The trick is to hold it at an angle so the light reflects off of the signature, and see if the light shows a difference of depth between the signature and the photo, or if the light reflects off the signature and the photo on one depth/layer. As I was holding this framed photo in the church annex, I could definitely tell it wasn't a reprint. It was just a matter of trying to figure out if it was authentic. I looked up some examples of Gene Kelly autographs and it was a good match. Given that it was only five Dollars, I figured that it was worth taking a chance.


I knew that I wasn't going to keep it in the frame for a few reasons. First, I keep all of my signed photos in protected sleeves in a binder. I never display them, as light can cause the colors to fade, and I want to keep them in a safe place. Second, the glass on this frame is cracked. Third, this frame is way too large for the 8"x10" photo. Lastly, I could not get the church's price sticker to cleanly come off the front of the glass.

I opened up the back of the frame and was utterly FLOORED by what I saw. No, it wasn't some long lost Rembrandt. It was a clear plastic sleeve with a Certificate of Authenticity peeking out of it.


I pulled it out, and it was a Certificate of Authenticity from World Wide Graphs Inc. (in Secaucus, New Jersey), accompanied by a generic 2003-dated letter from company president Anthony J. Barone thanking the "eBay auction winner" for buying the signed photo. Apparently, back in 2003, World Wide Graphs operated under the eBay ID "worldwidegraphs". That account doesn't exist now.


The letter states that "every autographed item we sell has been signed in the presence of an authorized World Wide Graphs representative". I don't know when Anthony J. Barone started World Wide Graphs Inc., but Gene Kelly died on February 2, 1996, which was seven years before this item was sold on eBay. Of course, the letter is generic and not meant to be specific to this Gene Kelly photo. It's possible that Gene signed the photo in 1995 and that the company existed at the time. I'm not trying to read too much into this, as Gene Kelly being dead for years doesn't mean that the autograph is illegitimate. There is a matching hologram sticker on the back of the photo and the COA which reads, "WORLDWIDEGRAPHS 4116 AUTHENTICATED"; not that that automatically makes it legit.


From what I can tell, this is an authentic Gene Kelly signed photo. The fact that the World Wide Graphs eBay account is no longer there does give me reason for concern, but there are many eBay accounts from 22 years ago that are now closed, so that doesn't necessarily mean anything bad. It's certainly possible that Anthony J. Barone closed his World Wide Graphs business for legitimate reasons sometime over the past two decades. I tried to learn more about World Wide Graphs, but the only thing I could find are two old Autograph Magazine forum threads where the eBay seller is mentioned in an unfavorable light: June 3, 2013 and August 14, 2016. So, it's possible that this Gene Kelly autograph is a fake, but I'm inclined to believe that it's not. I've reached out to the person who runs the official Gene Kelly website and Facebook page to try to get a definitive answer.

[UPDATE - 8/11/2025]
Sorry to report this, but Gene Kelly's widow Patricia Kelly, or his estate, says that the signature is NOT real. I asked via a comment on the official Gene Kelly Facebook page on August 11, 2025. I was told, "It is a great photo. I'm afraid the signature is not Gene's however. But enjoy the smile anyway! xxx"


From Sacred Heart church, I also bought a near-complete set of Annie Collector's Plate by Knowles for $21 ($3 each). These plates, featuring drawings of scenes from the 1982 Columbia Pictures film, were released from 1982 to 1986. I just need to buy plate #8 to complete the set.


They don't have the Certificate of Authenticity documents or the original boxes, but that's still a good price for 40-year-old plates. So, I guess not everything at the church is overpriced.