Date of Printing: c. 1962 • Medium: Photograph, RC print (B&W) • Subject Category: Bizarre & Oddities • Signed: • Plate signed, Lower Left Period • Created: Post-Modern (1950 - 1999) • Plate Size HxWxD cm: NA • Leaf Paper Size HxW cm: 29 x 24.5 • Style: Original Vintage • Print on Verso: Blank on verso • Condition: Excellent • Edition Type: Limited Edition • Paper Type: Woven, modern paper • Framed: Not Applicable
This item is an exceptionally rare jewel in our collection! This is an actual pitch portfolio (used to get bookings at other theaters) created by the notorious and legendary 500 Club in New Orleans, for burlesque dancer Linda Brigette, "The Cupid Doll". In EXCELLENT condition!Inside are FIVE different Maurice Seymour photographs, ORIGINAL prints. This has a TRIPLE COLLECTOR'S VALUE: for burlesque, for rock n' roll collectors, and for Kennedy Conspiration collectors! The folder is a ring-spiral, with gold text on front on top of black thick paper. Inside the five photos are encased in plastic folders and each can be removed. Please see photos.
The 500 Club is the legendary burlesque club started by Louis Prima's brother, Leon, and has not only burlesque value but historical value as well.With ties to the mob, the club gained even more notoriety by it being the haunt of Lee Harvey Oswald, reputed to have assassinated president J.F. Kennedy."The burlesque 500 Club was run for years by Carlos Marcello associate Frank Caracci. In ‘Me and Lee,’ Judith Vary Baker writes that Jack Ruby took her there with David Ferrie and Lee Oswald. In that same summer of 1963, Jack Ruby traveled to New Orleans to hire Bourbon Street dancer Janet Conforto, a.k.a. “Jada” from The 500 Club. Jada appeared in the Warren Commission Report but later they “couldn’t find her” for questioning."The club is now owned and run by Chris Owens.This is a RARE piece of original history that won't be on the market again!
This is part our LEGENDS OF BURLESQUE series of collectibles on Antinous.
Maurice (1900-1993) and Seymour Zeldman (1902-1995), Russian expatriate photographers, formed the "Maurice Seymour" studio in 1929. Inspired by the example of Maurice Goldberg, the foremost photographer of classical dancers and concert musicians of the 1920s and regular contributor to the New York Times, the brothers chose to make a particular forte of ballet dancers. From 1929 to 1950 they plied their trade in a studio at the St. Clair Hotel in Chicago. In 1950 Seymour Zeldman moved to New York City; both men at this juncture legally changed their names to Maurice Seymour.
The New York brother expanded his clientele from dancers and actors to singers, jazz musicians, and burlesque stars in the 1950s. He for a period partnered with James Kriegsmann, successor to Herbert Mitchell, and a practitioner of in situ photography of singers and musicians in their performance venues. The Chicago Maurice Seymour continued specializing in dance and theatrical photography, although he had, for a period of time in the 1930s, a healthy business from radio personalities as well. Both shuttered their studios in the 1970s.
When in Chicago, they collaborated completely when creating images, sharing the posing and developing work. The images tended to be brightly illuminated, posed against neutral featureless backgrounds, and developed on glossy paper. The studio's skill at retouching was particularly well known. All of the Chicago portraits were taken with a large accordion portrait camera using 8x10 negatives. From 1935 onward, the brothers were the prefered portraitists of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. In 1947 the studio published Seymour on Ballet, a set of photographic studies, with a foreward by Leonid Massine (Chicago: Pelligrini & Cudahy), and in 1952, an expanded portfolio, Ballet Portraits, featuring Margot Fonteyn (Chicago: Pelligrini & Cudahy). Also known for their photos of Edith Piaf.