Stiff Wraps
Stiff Wraps. Very Good Plus. No title, n.p., n.d. Circa 1930s. (We base the dating on the presence of a hobo -- otherwise, it could easily be from the prior decade.) Narrow 4to. 24 by 12.5 cm, with pull piece of elongating slacks extending length to 43 cm. Unpaginated, 12 pp. Caricatures of a black emcee, a saxophone player, a chinaman, a chef, a captain, a hobo and a wise old man. Notwithstanding the radically different appearance of each of them, they are all wearing the same pants, which can be made absurdly long by pulling a tab in the back -- the same tab works for all the figures. Translating the first four lines of verse, which introduce the work, "Six fellas you find here, all short, pull at their feet, to make them taller." The verse rhymes, and is more graceful, in the original German, needless to say. There is no bibliographic information whatsoever in the booklet, and so we can only speculate as to its origins. We suspect that this might have been produced as a "party favor" for a nightclub or nightclubs and cabarets, both because of the subject matter and the ease by which it can stand upright on a table. Slight bumping to the lower edge of the tab. Otherwise, fine, and incredibly bright.
(Inventory #: 005957)