Vintage original 14 x 11” (36 x 28 cm.) color photo, USA. Dorothy Dandridge, dir: Otto Preminger; Goldwyn. There is a minor marginal chip on blank middle left border, and some slight signs of very light handling, NEAR FINE.
An exceedingly scarce oversized color photographic portrait of Dandridge as Bess.
Vintage original 9 1/4 x 6 1/2″ (23 x 17 cm.) poster, Hungary. Dorothy Dandridge, dir: John Berry. Unfolded, with one tear along left border, NEAR FINE. Film about a slave revolt, which gave Dandridge a chance to work in a European production (the film was actually a French-Italian co-production). This miniature Hungarian poster is without doubt one of the absolute scarcest ones done in any country.
I’m pleased to to announce my new catalog, which is entirely devoted to African Americana. Visit The Catalog WRITERS—-including an unpublished play (DADDY GOODNESS, 1962) by Richard Wright, a selection of ephemera from his film of NATIVE SON, and such authors as Amiri Baraka,[…]
[New York: Cotton Club, 1940]. Vintage original 12 x 9″ (31 x 23 cm) program, pictorial wrappers, 16 pp. Light discoloration to front wrapper, very good+.
A very scarce program for the legendary Cotton Club, which showcased many of the foremost African American performers of the time. This New York World’s Fair was held in 1939 and 1940. This iteration of the Cotton Club Review featured Cab Calloway and Bill Robinson, as well as Glenn & Jenkins (a minstrel duo, in the traditional burnt cork make up), Sister Tharpe, and Katherine Perry.
This appears to be the final program of the Cotton Club, which closed in 1940. We previously offered a Fifth Edition, which we dated as ca. 1939. That is an entirely different booklet for a quite different review, as it featured the Dandridge Sisters and the Nicholas Brothers, neither of whom appeared in this review. Also, Bill Robinson was not in that 1939 version.
Although the New York World’s Fair was held in 1939 and 1940, we date this as from 1940 (because Bill Robinson was busy in 1939 as the star of The Hot Mikado). All of the various editions of Cotton Club programs are genuinely scarce (OCLC lists only three copies. However, one of the three refers to the Nicholas Brothers and Dandridge Sisters, which tells us that this is from a previous 1939 edition, with very different contents).
-bojangles
[Hollywood]: Twentieth Century Fox, 1954. Set of thirty-four (34) vintage original mostly 8 x 10″ (20 x 25 cm.) black-and-white photos, with a few slightly smaller borderless photos. Near fine.
Otto Preminger directed Dorothy Dandridge in her most legendary film role, supported by Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey and Diahann Carroll.
[Hollywood]: MGM, 1953. Vintage original 11 x 14″ (28 x 36 cm.) lobby card no. 4, JUST ABOUT FINE.
Dorothy Dandridge’s first starring role in a feature film, about a schoolteacher trying to help a wayward student. Harry Belafonte co-starred in his movie debut.
The Decks Ran Red. [Hollywood]: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1958. Set of eight vintage original 11 x 14″ (28 x 36 cm) lobby cards, a few light marginal tears and stains, overall very good+.
Dorothy Dandridge appears in five of these cards, including some nice portrait artwork on the title lobby card, for this film about mutiny on a slave ship.
[New York: Cotton Club, ca. 1939]. Printed wrappers, 12 x 9″ (31 x 23 cm.), 16 pp., JUST ABOUT FINE.
The Cotton Club was a legendary New York nightclub which consistently featured some of the greatest African American performers. It was located in Harlem, on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue, from 1923 to 1935. It moved to the midtown theater district from 1935 until 1940, when it closed.
This program, which is described as for the “Fifth Edition of the Cotton Club Parade” (the name of their review), featured a host of luminaries including Cab Calloway, the Nicholas Brothers, W.C. Handy and the Dandridge Sisters (which included a still-teenaged Dorothy Dandridge).
This is an exceedingly scarce booklet. The OCLC only records one known copy (Harvard). A single known copy is cited of a program from the previous Third Edition, and only single copies are listed of menus for these two reviews.
Anna May Wong was considered to be the first Chinese American Hollywood movie star, as well as the first Chinese American actress to gain international recognition. Her varied career spanned silent film, sound film, vaudeville, cabaret, television, stage and radio.
