Mar 21, 2024 - Sale 2663

Sale 2663 - Lot 344

Price Realized: $ 500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 700 - $ 1,000
(PHOTOGRAPHY.) Photographs from Philadelphia's elite Pyramid Club, by Mosley and other noted photographers.  14 photographs, each about 8 x 10 inches, most signed in the negative with inked photographer stamps on verso, some captioned in verso in pencil; condition varies but generally strong. Philadelphia, circa 1940s-1950s
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Additional Details

The Pyramid Club served Philadelphia's Black elite from 1937 to 1963, with its own bar and restaurant and hosting art exhibitions and concerts. One image shows Duke Ellington posed with members by a staircase, in front of the club's membership list. One shows Temple University basketball stars Guy Rodgers and Hal Lear in formal wear with their dates, and another shows Lear receiving a Pyramid Club trophy; the two played together in 1955 and 1956. Other identified figures are Judge Hobson Reynolds and Alton C. Berry. 4 of the photos were taken by John W. Mosley (the club's staff photographer for many years). Other photographers include Malcolm Poindexter (better known as a radio and television personality), Smith's Photo Service, and Marvin E. Beatty, Jr.