We learn that Mr Robert Donat, the film actor - who was, naturally, mobbed on several occasions by enthusiastic autograph hunters - before he left Dublin, went "back-stage" in the Abbey Theatre to collect the signatures of the players. There is nothing particularly strange in the fact that Mr Donat's autograph should be in great demand, but that he himself should go out of his way to collect autographs from the Abbey players shows not only the high opinion which British actors must hold of our national theatre, but also indicates that autograph hunting is a sport by no means confined to the schoolgirls who cluster around the stage door of the Gate Theatre in the hope of obtaining a glimpse of Micheal MacLiammoir, or to the small boys who with such enthusiasm collect the signatures of athletes and racing motorists. Autograph hunting, it seems, has its devotees among the older and more responsible members of the community. One can readily understand why an actor should collect autographs or signed photographs - apart, that is, from the fact that theatrical people are somewhat sentimental by nature and given to the practice of collecting "relics." The actor who spends so much of his time in travelling from place to place meets many fellow-actors, who work with him for a week as colleagues and then go their separate ways. He cannot, like a bank clerk, invite his new friends out to dinner the next week; for in most cases they are miles away. So, in order to keep some track of the number of people who have acted with him, he collects their signatures.
The Irish Times, May 3rd, 1941