Sonny Liston - Champion
United States
Scroll to the bottom of page for a
Geraldine Liston-Sonny Liston
signature comparison!
Availability 3
Cost- signed cut 3 - 3.5
Cost- signed photo 5
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signed 'Charles' Sonny Liston on a contract
image courtesy of Jeff Budnick
image courtesy of Josportsinc.com
authentic signature is at the upper right
authentic Liston signature
image courtesy of fighttoys.com
image courtesy of Vinny Connor
circa 1958
image courtesy of Josh Grayfer
image courtesy of Peter Mueller
image courtesy of fighttoys.com
One of very few inscriptions signed by Liston himself
image courtesy of Mark Ogren - fighttoys.com
another rare inscription
image courtesy of Mark Ogren - fighttoys.com
Below is a signature comparison of Geraldine Liston, Sonny's wife.
This one was sold at an auction as an example of a genuine Liston
signature. It is not authentic but is an example of Geraldine writing a
letter for Sonny and signing his name for him. Sonny would never and
could never write a letter like this. He was basically illeterate and only
learned how to sign his name, and he needed advanced preparation to
do so. He liked people but didn't like to sign his name, and avoided signing
autographs when he could. For him to write a long letter like the one
below is impossible and he obviously wouldn't and couldn't do that.
Beware of a Geraldine ghost signed Liston signature being presented as
an authentic Sonny Liston signature.
In the signed letter above, two Sonny Liston signatures signed by his
wife, Geraldine, on a letter and an envelope, the name Liston in the letter matches exactly with
Geraldine's signature, presented immediately above.
Notice how the n in Liston is more upright, the L in
Liston has more of a loop on the bottom, and the entire signature is more
straight across, not going uphill as Sonny's signature is usually doing.
The Y in Sonny also has more of a circle reverse loop on it, unlike Sonny's
who usually omits the loop, or makes a up and down oblong loop.
Here are the the two Listons on the envelope and letter in closeup.
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Another wife signed Liston autograph. Notice the words are fairly smooth, and
the capital L in Liston connects directly to the i in Liston, and does not break,
like authentic Sonny Liston autographs do.
image courtesy of fighttoys.com
Geraldine signed "Sonny Liston" signed 8 x 10 photo. Not authentically signed
by Sonny Liston.
Below is an boxing application filled out by Geraldine, but signed twice by
Sonny at the end. Notice the name filled out at the beginning of the application
is the same as the Geraldine signed Liston, while the twice signed autograph
at the end is a genuine Sonny Liston signature.
Notice Charles Sonny Liston above is not authentic. The word Liston matches exactly with Geraldine's
name at the bottom, where it says "next of kin". Now either Sonny Liston filled out this entire form by hand,
but signing it different at the end (see below) than at the beginning, or someone else filled it out for him.
Of course Geraldine filled it out for him. The capital S in Sonny is a dead giveaway, it matches the capital S
in other Geraldine "Sonny Liston" signatures, especially the one in the ghost letter he wrote to a fan above.
(Written by Geraldine)
The end of the application is signed twice, this time by Sonny himself. These two are good Liston
signatures.
The last piece to the Geraldine ghost signed Sonny Liston autograph is below. It is a photo with a pre-printed
Sonny Liston autograph that was made up by Sonny and handed to people that would ask for an autograph.
Now the autograph is IN the photo, not on top, and it was also originally signed by Geraldine. Note the capital
S in Sonny, a dead giveaway, and the word Liston matches the other Geraldine signed Listons.
This is the same Geraldine signed autograph as on the letter and the application.
Other parts of the incription, like the capital R, also match other Geraldine samples.
Notice the fancy script on the capital F in FROM. Obviously not signed by Sonny
as even his own authentic signature is shaky at best, and there is no way he could
have inscribed a fancy capital F like that. Sonny also almost always signed his name
on an upward slant, and this Liston is falling at a large downward slant.
On rare, rare ocassions, you will see this exact same preprinted inscription ghost
signed by Geraldine with a real Sonny Liston signature just below the fake. Of course
the signatures do not look the same, and the authentic Liston signature will look like
all of the others presented at the very top of this page.
Below is a closeup of another preprinted photo of Liston that he used to hand out also. Notice how
it has the exact same inscription and "signature" as the one above. It not only made out
by the same hand (Geraldine's)as the photo directly above, IT IS THE EXACT SAME
INSCRIPTION AND SIGNATURE. Evidently the same inscription was somehow overlayed
on this photo too and used to send out and hand out to people as promotional signed photos
of Liston, even though the writing is not on top of the photo, but IN the photo as a reprint.
Here is another "ROBE" photo below, with Geraldine's signature on the left, again, going downhill,
but with a genuine Sonny Liston signature on the lower right. Notice how this genuine Sonny Liston
signature looks nothing like all of the Geraldine ghost signed Liston signatures I have presented above.
Again, the authentic Sonny Liston signature below slants uphill as was his custom. Notice the capital
S in the authentic Sonny Liston signature below is in no way similar to the capital S as signed by his
wife Geraldine, directly above. The capital S is one of the biggest giveaways in determining an authentic
Sonny Liston signature as compared to a Geraldine ghost signed signature of Liston. Also the last name
Liston does not break at all in a wife signed autograph. Genuine Liston autographs break after the capital
L in nearly every instance. Also the double n's in Sonny are full n's, and Sonny almost always connected
the second n in Sonny with the y in Sonny.