Signed: Billie Holiday, March 23. 1949, III g9.11(in ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 101 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)
Size: H: 9 3/8” x W: 6 11/16”
Billie Holiday (1915-1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed Lady Day by her sometime collaborator Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz, and pop singers’ critic John Bush wrote that she “changed the art of American pop vocals forever.” Her vocal style — strongly inspired by instrumentalists — pioneered a new way of manipulating wording and tempo, and also popularized a more personal and intimate approach to singing.
Signed: PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 101 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back); VII . CC . 12 (in ink on back)
Size: H: 9 15/16” x W: 7 15/16”
Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August 17, 1990) was an American singer and actress. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968. In 1987, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special, Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale. Her rendition of “Takes Two to Tango” hit the top ten in 1952.
Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. Van Vechten took photographs of many the major artists and intellectuals of the first half of the 20th century. The importance of these images is twofold; they document a specific time and milieu in 20th-century American history that was neglected by others, and they are among some of the earliest art photography images created.
Signed: Roy Atkins (in black ink on back); Roy Atkins (in pencil on back); Jan. 19. 1934, I u ji12 (in red ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)
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