?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 500
JULIAN ELTINGE (1881-1941)
Signed Promotional Photograph for Cousin Lucy from the William Morris Agency. Large format sepia-tone image by Strauss-Peyton circa 1917 showing Eltinge in the two roles he portrays in the show: as a man and a woman; with stamped signature on recto; signed in pencil on verso, with notation of the play, Cousin Lucy, its 1916-1917 run at the George M. Cohan Theater in another hand; with his agent's rubber stamp on verso, 203x254mm, 8x10 inches.
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)
