Politicians, royalty and celebrities are all found within the Niagara Parks Commission s official guest book. Communications manager Tony Baldinelli oversees the 90-year-old book, asking all dignitaries to sign it during their visits.

niagarafallsreview - It's a leather-bound relic stuck on the top shelf of a basement room at Oak Hall.

It's tucked behind a sheet of plastic, barely noticeable among the binders, filing cabinets and film canisters.

But it just might be the most impressive autograph collection in Niagara Falls.

The first signature in the Niagara Parks Commission's official guest book is illegible. It was someone from England who visited on Aug. 8, 1920. The next dozen or so pages are the same thing -- quickly-scrawled names of people who passed through the Commission's 62.2-hectare park named for Queen Victoria, which opened in May 1888.

It was an unremarkable tome, notable only to mark the distances people travelled to see Niagara Falls.

Then in 1923, former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George became the first famous visitor to sign the book. It wasn't flashy -- no witty message attached -- but it was history.

Since then, the rich and famous alike have been jotting their names in the same book, compiling a roll call any autograph collector would covet.

In 1971, the Parks Commission realized the big names were getting lost in the mix, and decided to ask only celebrities and dignitaries to sign. They also scoured the pages to find every famous name already in there.

The list includes Danny Kaye (1958) and Princess Mary (1955).

Since then, all famous visitors usually get a page to themselves. And it falls to Tony Baldinelli to keep the collection growing.

"For most visits, we'll do the traditional walk about Table Rock, then we'll go down to the Journey Behind the Falls tunnels," says Baldinelli, communications manager for the Parks Commission. "After the tunnels, there's a little room with a table, and I have the ability to put the book there for signature before they leave.

"We've been fortunate."

Since he started overseeing the hefty brown book in 2002, Baldinelli has gathered the signatures of Chinese president Hu Jintao (2005), Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama (2006), and Sweden's King Gustaf and Queen Silvia (2006).

"We ask them to write whatever they like," says Baldinelli. Most, however, are content to just sign their name.

Perusing the book is a history buff's dream. The most popular page, and the one autograph hounds salivate over, is the page signed by Princess Diana during her Niagara Falls visit in October 1991. Diana's signature has skyrocketed in value since her 1997 death, and is currently worth about $14,000.

In 1996, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau signed the book. Both signatures are worth about $100 each.

But Baldinelli says the value of the signatures isn't important.

"We haven't even thought of that," he says. "(The signatures) are an important symbol and part of our history here at the Parks. It's something we're proud of and want to keep."

Despite its vast collection, the book is missing the names of some of Niagara's most famous visitors. Winston Churchill is nowhere to be found, despite his oft-used description of the Niagara Parkway as "the prettiest Sunday drive in the world" after a 1944 visit.

Marilyn Monroe is also absent. The legendary sex symbol filmed Niagara here in 1952, and posed for a classic photo on the guardrail in front of the American Falls.

Not everyone can sign the book. Some were never asked, or didn't have time. Modern celebrities have publicists who insist on secrecy and are whisked through Niagara Parks attractions with minimal contact.

Baldinelli would have loved to get Brad Pitt to sign the book during his visit last summer with his kids, but there was no chance. "A lot of those visits, you'll find out at the last minute. So, it's usually impossible to get these signed in time," he says.

"We were not given the name of the star until that day by the people who arranged it. They were going to the Maid (of the Mist), they wanted no media attention. They just wanted a private visit. We try to comply with their wishes."

The celebrities are nice, but it's the political dignitaries who generate the biggest media exposure. Hu Jintao's visit was huge news back in China.

"We couldn't buy that kind of media coverage."

Baldinelli is holding out hope U.S. president Barack Obama will visit some day -- and sign the book.

"We've let the (U. S.) Federal government know we're open to do any kind of hosting."

The book is not open to the public, he adds. It can be viewed by appointment, in the presence of Parks staff.

And as the list of signatures grows, Baldinelli gets more and more nervous taking it out of Oak Hall. "(Losing it) would be one of my worst nightmares," he says. "When I take it out, I don't leave it out of my sight."