Beschreibung:

ASTAIRE, Fred (1899-1987). Group of four large format publicity portraits of Fred and Adele Astaire for Broadway musical productions, 1917-1931: the first for Sigmund Romberg’s patriotic revue Over the Top, the Astaires’ first Broadway show, which ran for 78 performances at Lew Fields’ 44th Street Roof Garden between November 1917 and February 1918, signed in the print ‘White N.Y.’; the second for George and Ira Gershwin’s Lady Be Good!, the Gershwin’s first Broadway collaboration, which ran for 330 performances at the Liberty Theatre between December 1924 and September 1925, signed in the print ‘White Studio. N.Y.’; the next for the Gershwin’s hit musical Funny Face, which saw Fred appear for the first time in his iconic top hat and tails, running for 244 performances from November 1927 to summer 1928, signed in the print ‘White Studio. N.Y.’; the last for musical revue The Band Wagon, with music and lyrics by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz, the Astaires' last Broadway appearance together, which ran for 260 performances from June 1931 to January 1932, with ‘Vandamm, New York’ studio blindstamp lower left recto. The images by White and Vandamm studios, New York, four vintage gelatin silver prints, three measuring approx. 345 x 273 mm, the other 331 x 256 mm, with stamped agency credits for Culver Pictures, Inc., New York, and various pencil and ink annotations verso. [With:] – The Astaire Story. Mercury Records, 1953. Limited edition four-record album portfolio, number 1339 of 1384 copies signed by Astaire and artist David Stone Martin, additionally inscribed to lyricist Johnny Mercer on the limitation leaf ‘Johnny from Fred, ‘54’. Produced by Norman Granz, this album set provides a celebratory overview of Astaire’s career – demonstrating his tap dancing on three tracks – and an informal jam session with the Oscar Peterson Quintet. The album won the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999, a special award established in 1973 to honour ‘recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old.’ The masters for this portfolio recording were destroyed in 1952. Square folio album (310 x 305 mm). 14 plates, one of them coloured, portfolio of 7 plates on unbleached Arnold after drawings by David Stone Martin, 6 of them from line drawings, 281 x 215 mm, and one a folding pochoir, opening 635 x 300 mm., signed in pencil by the artist. Original red coarse-weave cloth with title and blue dancer motif to the upper board, comb-bound accompanying text and plates, with 4 LP records in pockets. [With:] – Steps in Time. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959. First edition, with two vintage gelatin silver photo postcards of the young Fred and Adele Astaire pasted to the half-title and colophon, respectively signed in black ink by Fred and Adele Astaire. Octavo. Original black cloth with dust-jacket. [With:] – They Can’t Take That Away From Me. New York: Chappell & Co., 1937. Printed piano-vocal score, signed on the front cover in black ink by Fred Astaire, 304 x 229 mm. [With:] an original theatre programme from the first London production of the Gershwin brothers’ celebrated musical Lady, Be Good! at the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square. [And:] DECKER, Todd. Music Makes Me: Fred Astaire and Jazz. University of California Press, 2011.