: About Me

Hailing from a rather quiet, unassuming town in southern New Jersey, I enjoyed having catches and hitting a ball around - and became a self-professed hobby fanatic early on, at five and six years old, when the stamp and coin collecting bug hit. First day covers followed at around eight or nine years of age.

They remained favorites (and now there's a bit of a resurgence collecting them); but by age 16, the autograph collecting drive got in my blood during the mid-1970s and remains strong. Mainly through my letters with research of their careers - and later through personal appearances - legendary stars such as Groucho Marx, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Dorothy Lamour, George Burns . . . have complied, while the overall collection of signed pictures, letters, cards, and some books totals around the 4,000 mark at this point.

Humbly stated, through some fortunate (and very grateful) circumstances came my induction into volumes of "The International Who's Who of Business Professionals" (2000-2001); "Who's Who in America" (2001-2005, 2008); and "Who's Who in the World" (2005).

During much of the 1990s and into the new millennium, I was a regular columnist profiling silent film personnel for a unique publication, "The Silent Film Monthly" (later known as "The Silent Film Annual"), based in New York City and Pennsylvania, up to the publisher's untimely passing in 2001. Subscribers had reached well into Europe, too.

At this time, though, I am trying hard, on a freelance basis, to grow a career out of my writing, both through continuing my columns about silent film personnel and by attempting to expand on manuscripts about the latter and on veteran film comedians.

(If anyone shares a similar endeavor or has some insights, it would be a pleasure to hear from you: mikeparker12@yahoo.com.)

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