Is Copying Really the Best Compliment?

I have always admired Bob's autograph, the one he developed in the early 1930s.  This 1933 version is a little sloppy compared to the one you see later in the 1930s, it is not written in a perfectly straight line.  It was also written in a book from his library, so perhaps he just did not feel it had to be all that neat.  He does use the line he always draws under his name.  It can vary a little, but the consistent part of the line is the two short marks cutting through the middle of the line.  At one point, I thought it might stand for "H", or Henry, his real first name.  But then I realized it was a somewhat common mark, so had to toss the Henry theory, although I prefer it. 

The actor Louis Mann (Sins of the Children, 1930), had a similar autograph. 

And Chester Morris, a good buddy of Bob's during the time he was developing his autograph, happened to underline his name in a very similar way.  Hmm...