Mar 21, 2024 - Sale 2663

Sale 2663 - Lot 217

Price Realized: $ 688
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(ENTERTAINMENT--MUSIC.) Photographs and research notes on blues and jazz singer Hannah Sylvester. 3 photographs and 16 pages of research notes; generally moderate wear. No place, circa 1940s-1962
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Additional Details

Hannah Sylvester (1903-1973) was a working singer from about 1920 to 1950. She recorded with Fletcher Henderson in 1923 and toured widely in jazz acts and revues. In 1962 she was rediscovered, joined the X-Glamour Girls revue, and recorded again with Spivey Records.

Offered here are three photographs of Sylvester: an uncredited 7 x 5-inch portrait; as part of a group portrait of friends taken at the Caribbean Club circa 1950s; and as part of a group portrait circa the early 1960s, possibly the X-Glamour Girls Revue.

Also included are 16 pages of interview and research notes on Sylvester, tracing her career through 1962 (but not including her Spivey Records project). Most of the information appears unpublished; the birthdate of 25 October 1903 given here appears to be generally unknown. We suspect these notes are the work of tireless record historian Len Kunstadt, who wrote the liner notes on her 1962 Spivey release.