Wraps
1940
1940. Wraps. Very Good. Folio, 35 by 26.5 cm. 72 pp. Acts include aerialists, acrobats, clowns, animals, singers and dancers, a ventriloquist, and the expected mix of circus and vaudeville novelty acts. The promotions are dominated by either photos or occasionally illustrations which convey a good sense of the particular act. These illustrations are two toned, with the color varying from one to the next promotion. Some of the acts would not pass muster in today's ethos of political correctness. The most conspicuous example of this is surely the "Ruth Pine Sextuplets", billed as "Pachydermia Pulchritude". The act was comprised of six morbidly obese black women, and in the photos, it looks as if they parody, among other things, Josephine Baker. Frank Wirth supposedly was a fourth generation circus denizen, originally from Australia. In the booking business, he had partnered with George Hamid, and in 1939 the two split, each forming their own booking organization. We could find no institutional copies of a Frank Wirth catalogue, and only a single copy of a Wirth & Hamid catalogue, this one being from 1929. Condition: the cloth band along the spine has some roughness and loss. Some bending at the edges, with a few small dog-ears of the leaves within. A few leaves are upside down and not in numeric order -- the pages were clearly gathered hastily -- but no missing pages. Light to moderate wear generally.
(Inventory #: 006814)