Mar 01, 2012 - Sale 2271

Sale 2271 - Lot 468

Price Realized: $ 11,400
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
AN HISTORIC COLLECTION (MUSIC--MINSTRELSY AND VAUDEVILLE.) GUNN, LOUISE JACKSON. Archive of vintage photographs of black Vaudeville and Minstrel performers, from the estate of Louise Jackson Gunn, many signed; with two scrap books containing smaller photographs and ephemera. Includes 85 large silver prints, average size 8x10, some with water damage; the scrap books in fine condition. condition varies, should be seen. Vp, circa 1900-1920s

Additional Details

A truly historic collection that belonged to Louise Gunn, mother of William H. "Bill" Gunn (1930-1989), playwright and actor. Mrs. Gunn was an actress herself and beauty contest winner, and there are several photographs of her in this archive. These photographs, though some are not in the best of condition, remain extremely scarce. Some of the performers included here are Valaida Snow, (from Sissle and Blake's "Chocolate Dandies"), Ida Cox, Ben Bernie's "Sepia Nephews," numerous images of "hard Tack" Jackson and members of his troupe, [Al] Benson and Roy, Johnny Woods and Little Henry [ventriloquist], Tressie and Edna with the "Shake Your Feet Revue," and many more. Also included are two scrap books, one with early snapshots and ephemera and the other with more recent bits and pieces on Mrs. Gunn's later years.
The 85 vintage images represent an era in African-American theatre that has been for the most part, overshadowed by its white counterpart, the "Black-face" minstrel show. Ironically, African-American minstrels, the very source of the medium, were forced to blacken their faces with burnt cork in order to perform before white audiences. But just as minstrelsy itself evolved and became a part of "vaudeville," so did many of the black performers here. A wonderful collection with great potential for scholars of the period.