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EQUITY OF CHICAGO ARTISTS: 1935 SOUVENIR PROGRAM FOR THEIR 2ND ANNUAL JUNGLE BALL
Equity of Chicago Artists, The. Chicago: The Equity of Chicago Artists, 1935. Edition Not Stated - Presumed First. 4to. Stapled Illustrated Wrappers. Souvenir Program. Very Good.. np (8pp), I b&w illustration + color cover illustration. In a protective clear acetate dustwrapper. This is the graphically striking souvenir program for 1935's Second Annual Equity of Chicago Artists "Jungle Ball." Held at the fabled Beaux-Arts Stevens Hotel - the largest hotel in the world at the time - the Ball was an evening of Art, Ballet and modern Dance, and hot music to benefit the local artistic community. As the foreword states "The Equity of Chicago Artists is a body of some three hundred artists of Chicago and vicinity. Their platform is broad and humanitarian. The all-inclusive purpose is promoting general art and protecting the interests of the artists." While the work of most of the Equity members involved has been all but forgotten over time, some still-recognizable names from the program include Gertrude Abercrombie, Charles Seebree (misspelled here as Seebrie), Mitchell Siporin, Morris Topchevsky, and Emerson Woelffer - from whom we acquired this. The evening's performers included Olga Valentine, Fara Lynn, Madam Barry-Orlova, Nicola Bernardinelli, The Frances Allis Dance Group, Anita Cook, Henry Lotz, Jimmy Bell and his Floridians with Sandy Allen, and most notably Noble Sissle, conducting. In addition there is a "pleasurable remembrance" of composer Eleanor Everest Freer's recent concert at Grant Park, and two dozen quaint advertisements for local art-friendly concerns. The program's uncredited, vibrant orange and purple blockprint cover design appropriates imagery inspired by African and Oceanic material culture in a fashion that will be deemed unacceptable by 2021 standards, but is nonetheless amazing! A bright, well-preserved example of this exceedingly uncommon document showing some overall light wear and an internal dampstain in the shape of the bottom a glass. Inventory Number: 026947