SwingDJs

Hey all,

I thought this might be a fun/interesting thread. Do you own any jazz/swing/big band memorabilia, and if so, what is your favorite piece? I own very little, but my favorites are:

Fletcher Henderson's autograph on a 1937 dance card and a postcard promoting one of his shows, also from 1937.

How about you?

I have a bunch of vintage sheet music and memorabilia that decorates my living room. My favorites are the 'Lucky Lindy' sheet music, 'Ballin the Jack' sheet music, the gorgeous 'Darktown Strutter's Ball' sheet music with 5 black couples dancing on the cover, the Saturday Evening Post cover with a blonde singer in her vintage updo surrounded by the fellas in the band, and a program from the Broadway production of Hellzapoppin. (Whitey's Lindy Hoppers weren't in that one, but it looks cool anyway!)

My school has Charlie Barnet's Yankees hat in the library.

There's a reason, though - the Los Angeles Jazz Institute is in our library. They have all kinds of cool stuff - thousands of tapes of alternate takes and broadcasts, personal memorabilia, color home movies from the 20s (I think?), original sheet music, et cetera et cetera.

Soupbone wrote:Hey all,

I thought this might be a fun/interesting thread. Do you own any jazz/swing/big band memorabilia, and if so, what is your favorite piece? I own very little, but my favorites are:

Fletcher Henderson's autograph on a 1937 dance card and a postcard promoting one of his shows, also from 1937.

How about you?

hELL YEA, I live for this stuff....as for autographs I have alot. You name it I probably have it.

Ella,Woody Herman,Cab, Basie,Goodman,Krupa,Ellington,Sara Vaughn,Eartha Kitt, Helen Forest, the Whole Bob Crosby Band, Harry James etc....to name a few( and they are all period autographs).

I also have alot of Film stars, and dancers like Ginger Rogers,Fred Astair,Jane Powell,Bing Crosby....

I haven;t got Fletcher yet.....lucky bastard if you ever want to part with it, name your $$......

SirScratchAlot wrote: I haven;t got Fletcher yet.....lucky bastard if you ever want to part with it, name your $$......

forty five million dollars.

That was my graduation present to myself after completing my master's degree. I paid $100 for it. A week later, another Fletcher autograph came up on eBay and sold for about $50. DOH!

Oh well, I still own it, and I'm happy to have it, as he's my fave!

(as an aside: my only other autograph from the period is from boogie woogie big band guy Will Bradley)

I saw what I believe to be a recration of a dance poster anouciung a coming battle between Duke Ellington and McKinney's Cotton Pickers. It was too mcuh for a reproduction but really cool.

IU've been trying to track down old letter press posters, especially those done by Hatch Show Prints. So far I haven't turned up much.

main_stem wrote: IU've been trying to track down old letter press posters, especially those done by Hatch Show Prints. So far I haven't turned up much.

Hatch Prints are cool. Did they do a lot of jazz stuff? I knew they did a lot of country stuff, given their location in Nashville. You know they still do prints? I put on a music festival in Chapel Hill NC several years back and had them make the posters. Groovy stuff.

im getting these this week:

falty411 wrote:im getting these this week:

Where did you get them? I've seen all of those with "buy it now" options on eBay. I assume they're repros? They have nice graphics.

The last two I've seen as repros. I haven't seen the Chick Webb one though, it's sweet!

Swifty wrote:The last two I've seen as repros. I haven't seen the Chick Webb one though, it's sweet!

In case folks are interested:

Armstrong
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... gory=34292

Ellington
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... gory=34292

Calloway:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... gory=34292

Basie:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... gory=34292

Webb:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... gory=34292

Goodman:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... gory=34292

These are all repros.

So, what else do people own from back in "the day?"

Soupbone wrote:

main_stem wrote: IU've been trying to track down old letter press posters, especially those done by Hatch Show Prints. So far I haven't turned up much.

Hatch Prints are cool. Did they do a lot of jazz stuff? I knew they did a lot of country stuff, given their location in Nashville. You know they still do prints? I put on a music festival in Chapel Hill NC several years back and had them make the posters. Groovy stuff.

They did about everything. They have some old copper plates of Louis, Cab and Duke. My friend is pretty tight with Jim who runs the place now. I've thought about going down for a week or so and working with them just for fun.

Check out thei book from Chonical Press

yeah they are all repros

just dont bid on the same ones i am!!! there are a couple different options for each poster.

i am falty411 on ebay too

Soupbone wrote:

SirScratchAlot wrote: I haven;t got Fletcher yet.....lucky bastard if you ever want to part with it, name your $$......

forty five million dollars.

That was my graduation present to myself after completing my master's degree. I paid $100 for it. A week later, another Fletcher autograph came up on eBay and sold for about $50. DOH!

Oh well, I still own it, and I'm happy to have it, as he's my fave!

(as an aside: my only other autograph from the period is from boogie woogie big band guy Will Bradley)

Yea, thats about the general worth of most Big band leaders (not all by any means) , they fall into the 50 to 100, unless you run into another crazy fan in a big war. Make sure you keep care of it! don;t let it fade whatever you do..

Damn, you have Will Bradey Too? double bastard! another one of my favs I don;t have, he was a Great Trombone player that went on to be one of the most soight aftre studio musicians after the swing era....

This is the image on my favorite piece. I was in a bidding war against another lindyhopper, but hey, all's fair in love and lindy.