Montreal's original autograph hound: who has Jack Campbell's autograph collection?

 

 So now for the burning question that nobody but Coolopolis and its unpaid interns have the guts to ask: what became of Jack Campbell's autograph collection? 

  If anybody has Campbell's collection stored in a box in their basement, be advised that it's worth quite a lot of money. 

  Jack Campbell (1880-19??) was a mere hard-working exploited humble working man from grimy, soot-covered Point St. Charles, toiling away endless hours of backbreaking labour as a machinist at the Canadian National Railway when newspaper reporter John Ayer brought Campbell's impressive hobby to the world in a newspaper article on 20 February 1952.

  Campbell, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, had a hobby of scoring autographs on photos, collecting about 700 names between when he started in 1936 to this year, 1952. (it's 1952 now? 1952 was 70 years ago in case you haven't looked at a calendar lately - Chimples)  

 Campbell started the pasttime as a way to entertain his ailing wife. 

  Campbell snagged signatures from celebrities including:  Albert Einstein, Jack Dempsey, Fred Perry, Ignace Jan Padereweki, Mary Pickford, Ethel Barrymore, Harry Truman, Harry Hoover, Eisenhower, Clement Atlee, Pandit Nehru, Shah of Iran, Vincent Auriol, Marshal Tito, Andrei Gromyko, Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Aga Khan, William Lyon Mackenzie King, Alexander Kerensky, Jan Christan Smuts, Field Marshal Lord Alexander, General Eisenhower, MacArthur, De Gaulle, Montgomery, Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, Air Marshal W. A. Bishop, George Bernard Shaw, Rachmaninoff, Crown Prince of Norway and a lot of others. 

  A cursory peek on ebay suggests that the most valuable signature in his collection might take the form of Einstein, which sells for about $45,000 on Ebay.

  Campbell said the Gromyko autograph brought him the most pride, which he obtained by writing to the Soviet leader at the United Nations but that autograph appears to be worth relatively little today.  

 Campbell, could see out only one eye and who retired in 1945, would seek out the celebrity in person and push past any assistants, "always go straight for the quarry," he advised.  

  Campbell put significant effort into getting Ed Sullivan's autograph in Toronto and appeared on CBC TV to talk about the quest. He said the toughest signatures to get were of King Paul and Queen Frederika of Greece, which required nine months of letter-writing to get. 

  Campbell once disrupted a press conference with Lord Mountbatten in his quest for a signature. The war hero chatted with Campbell for about five minutes. 

  Campbell failed in his efforts to obtain autographs from the Pope and Churchil in spite of much effort. Campbell said he was uninterested in Hollywood stars. "They're a dime a dozen. I'm intersted only in the biggest."

  Campbell became a bit of a celebrity himself in his time. He was featured in at least three newspaper articles and surely other media. He notes that he was not sufficiently famous for anybody to have ever asked him for his autograph.