?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
CHARLES EVERETT JOHNSON (1866-?)
Miss Simplicity. Lithographed poster. 623x325 mm; 24¾x12¾ inches. 1901.
Advertising Julian Eltinge's second major career performance, the first being for the Boston Cadet Theatricals when he played the role of Mignonette in Miladi and the Musketeer. The musical comedy, Miss Simplicity, written by Robert Ayres Barnet and with music by Harry Lawson Heartz, was sponsored by the Bank Officers' Association and premiered at Boston's Tremont theatre in 1901.
Eltinge enjoyed a long and successful career as a "female impersonator" on stage and screen beginning when he was only ten. In addition to repeatedly playing dual characters (male and female) in the same show, he was also known to play in drag only to unsuspecting audiences, only to dramatically remove his wig at the end of the show, revealing his hidden identity. "Though Eltinge was gay, he wildly overcompensated by frequently getting in fist fights, smoking cigars, and having long 'engagements' with women – all of which were captured in staged publicity photographs." (Quoted from https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/julian-eltinge)
This image of the performer was also used on the cover of sheet music for the musical.
