2008 American Idols in autographs

As a former New York City area medical event videographer (mostly at Columbia University Medical Center from 1997-2009), I had the opportunity to do some important and fulfilling videotaping at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital there. One of my favorite assignments took place from 2004 until 2009 when I covered hundreds of musical, theatrical, literary and other festive occasions held regularly for the young children at the hospital. Always held in the hospital's huge ground floor Wintergarden event space, I was there to capture the performances Live for broadcast to the rooms of the sicker children and their families on the upper floors.

One of the regularly scheduled series of performances which take place each year is of the American Idol show finalists and winner. Idol fans will recall, once voted off the show (or it ends), each Idol is flown to New York City the following Monday to make various public and private appearances, including on certain television shows.

One of the scheduled stops by the Idols during their visit to the Big Apple is at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital where they are invited to sing one to three songs, answer questions from the always huge and excited audience of young patients, their parents or other family members and hospital staff, and sign autographs – an especially memorable moment for each child when they finally get to meet their favorite current season American Idol up close.

One particular year, from March 17 - May 30, 2008, and for fun, I took the time to gather hospital fliers which announced the approaching performances of all twelve Season 7 Idols (and the broadcast of it on the in-hospital getwell network) and tried to obtain their autographs just as the children do.

And so, how did I do?

Well, I gathered:

• Twenty four signed and unsigned hospital-created fliers.
• Five photographs of four of the contestants in action, given to me by a hospital employee.
• The autographs of 10 of the 12 contestants. Missing are those of Kristy Lee Cook and Michael Johns.
• Thirteen autographs in total (a few duplicates).
• Two autographs of American Idol winner David Cook.
• And one autograph of then controversial Idol parent Jeff Archuleta, the father of David Archuleta, who was often at odds with certain members of the media and Idol producers. After introducing myself to Jeff, talking with him awhile, and then explaining my collecting effort, he agreed to sign a flier announcing his son’s appearance.

And here is the collection. Enjoy.

I hope you enjoyed looking the collection over. I certainly enjoyed videotaping the Idols in action, hearing them talk with their huge hospital audiences, and collecting all the materials and autographs I could.

Please tell others about it.