Album fur Bildnisse und Autographen Mai 1919-August 1920 ("Album of Portraits and Autographs")

Patterned Cloth. Very Good +. Wonderful handmade photo album, consisting of 144 pages of evocative portraits and autographs gathered between May 1919 and August 1920 by professional German dancers Edith & Gaillard. The album profiles colleagues and friends, creative performers of all kinds, including cabaret artists, opera singers, actors, comedians and dancers. Silver gelatin photographs and postcards, all accompanied by warm inscriptions from the subjects. Created at venues such as the Winer Café in Hirschberg, the Apollo Theater in Augsburg, Stuttgart's Savoy Bar, cafes in Nuremberg, Gelsenkirchen and Spremberg, etc. Signatures include: Paul Godoy, Max Drechsler, Emmy Falke, Richard Müller, Lisa Siemon, "3 Girardi's", Roland Marwitz, Karl Sölter, Harry Brade, Eve Kristen, Rudi Reimers, Magdalena Wetta, Marga von Prostka, Traute van der Kerken, Heinz Artus, Margot Radionoff, Otto Hansen and others. The roster of performers --and the album itself-- bridge German turn-of-the-century entertainment, fashion, and aesthetics with the looming, experimental Weimar era. The album has held up nicely and easily merits a VG+. Clean and solid in its patterned cloth, with pasted-on, handwritten title labels to the front panel and the front free endpaper. A fascinating, intimate look at those inhabiting the worlds of music, art and theatre in post-War Germany.