120 Years of Pop Culture at Christie's in June
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PRESS RELEASE | SOUTH KENSINGTON 120 YEARS FOR IMMEDIATE OF POPRELEASE : CULTURE4 June 201 3 AT CHRISTIE’S IN JUNE Unreleased Bob Dylan lyrics for anti-nuclear ‘Bomb’ song Elizabeth Taylor’s first wedding dress The Red Ronnie Collection of Rock & Roll memorabilia MADONNA ELIZABETH TAYLOR JOHN LENNON DISNEY BOB DYLAN NIRVANA JAMES BOND MARLENE DIETRICH South Kensington, London - Christie‟s is proud to present Pop Culture, showcasing important memorabilia from every decade of the past 120 years of popular culture. Charting the history of cinema, pop and rock & roll, the sale will comprise 252 lots with estimates for individual items ranging from £600 to £50,000. The sale will also feature The Red Ronnie Collection of Rock & Roll Memorabilia; Red Ronnie, a well-known and much-loved radio personality in Italy, began his collection in 1990 and has amassed a diverse collection of music memorabilia. The collection features items relating to some of the most famous names from Rock and Roll history including: the Beatles, John Lennon, the Rolling Stones, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix, among others. For a dedicated press release please click here. All items on offer will be available to view on exhibition at Christie‟s Old Brompton Road galleries in South Kensington, London, from 22 to 26 June 2013. 1900 - 1930 HARRY HOUDINI, the world‟s most famous escape artist, was born Ehrich Weiss in Budapest, Hungary. His fascination with magic started when he was a child after seeing the travelling magician, Dr. Lynn. In 1900 Martin Beck, Houdini‟s manager, arranged for Houdini to tour Europe where he was a sensation and became widely known as The Handcuff King. He would challenge local policemen to chain him up and sometimes to even lock him in jail. Each time he would escape leaving them amazed. The sale will feature a rare British theatre poster for The Handcuff King tour at the Argyle, Theatre of Varieties Birkenhead in 1905 (estimate: £3,000 – 5,000, illustrated left). Morocco, filmed in 1930, introduced MARLENE DIETRICH to the American public. This watercolour and pencil costume sketch by Travis Banton shows the actress as Amy Jolly, in the now iconic man‟s tuxedo costume which shocked the American public at the time (estimate: £6,000 – 8,000, illustrated right). Dietrich‟s own style was the inspiration for the costume - she wrote: “tomorrow we start work on the costumes. One of them will be my own top hat, white tie, and tails that Jo saw me wear in Berlin at that party.” Dietrich received her only Oscar nomination for her performance in Morocco. 1930s & 1940s Released in 1937, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, based on the fairytale by The Brother‟s Grimm, was the earliest of the WALT DISNEY Animated Classics. At the 11th Academy Awards Walt Disney won an honorary award for which he was given a full size Oscar statuette and seven miniature statuettes. The success of Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs lead to the production of many more full-length features by Disney. This celluloid with key production background shows Dopey carrying a shovelful of diamonds (estimate: £15,000 – 17,000, illustrated left). A rare handwritten letter from MARILYN MONROE as Norma Jeane Baker to her then husband James Dougherty, dated March 14th 1946, give an insight into the end of her first marriage (estimate: £15,000 – 25,000, illustrated right). The letter reads “Dear Jim, I had intended writing you a letter this afternoon in answer to the note you left me... You have done... you thought best and left me no choice, but to carry on as best I can. My only wish is that you will be happy and prosperous in all you do and I‟ll try to be as happy as I can under the circumstances, signed Always lovingly, your wife, Norma Jeane”. 1950s Memorabilia from the 1950s, one of the most glamorous eras of the 20th century, includes an important wedding dress worn by ELIZABETH TAYLOR for her first wedding to Conrad „Nicky‟ Hilton in 1950 (estimate: £30,000 – 50,000). Designed by the legendary costume designer Helen Rose, the dress symbolises one of the most iconic off-screen moments of „Golden Age Hollywood‟. At this time, 18 year old Elizabeth was already a veteran actress and celebrated star and was just a year away from her Oscar-nominated performance in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer‟s A Place in the Sun (1951). For a full press release please click here. A collection of rare early negatives of JOHNNY CASH are to be sold with copyright - the photographs were taken by photographer, William Speer, on various occasions in Memphis, Tennessee between 1955 and 1958 (estimate: £6,000 – 8,000, illustrated right). The photographs were taken during Johnny Cash‟s prolific Sun Records era when he recorded some of his most famous hit songs, including Folsom Prison Blues, Cry! Cry! Cry! and I Walk The Line. His work with Speer ceased when Cash signed with Columbia Records and moved to California. William Speer‟s shots of Johnny Cash are in the permanent collections of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and the Sun Studio Museum. 1960s In 1963 BOB DYLAN wrote a „Bomb‟ song, Go Away you Bomb, for an unpublished book of anti-nuclear protest songs in when he was working on his seminal album The Freewheelin Bob Dylan. They were never released and have never before been seen on the market. The lyrics include handwritten deletions and alterations, providing invaluable insight into the mindset of the Dylan as he composed. They are being sold by Israel „Izzy‟ Young, founder of the Folklore Center in Greenwich Village, New York, who organized Bob Dylan‟s first ever concert. The lyrics are estimated to realise between £25,000 and £35,000 and proceeds will benefit the Folklore Center in Stockholm. For a full press release please click here. The Breitling Top Time, worn by SEAN CONNERY during JAMES BOND‟s mission to find two NATO atomic bombs stolen by SPECTRE in the 1965 movie Thunderball, was recently bought for £25 at a car boot sale and is estimated to realise between £40,000 and £60,000 (illustrated left). It was the first watch to be modified by the famous „Q‟ Branch and was equipped with a „Geiger counter‟ which detected the emission of nuclear radiation. Made by Breitling in 1962 it was adapted by the James Bond art department and was the only example produced for the movie. The historic 1969 festival, Woodstock, is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in Rock and Roll history. A page of notes in Jimi Hendrix‟s hand titled Unfinished Rough Sketch of Woodstock Festival represents Hendrix‟s initial impressions and observations of Woodstock (estimate: £25,000 – 35,000, illustrated right). Hendrix‟s rendition of the U.S. national anthem was branded as a political manifesto against the Vietnam War, though Hendrix himself said it “was like „Go America!‟... We play it the way the air is in America today. The air is slightly static, see.” The song was captured in the Woodstock film and the image of Hendrix performing this song wearing a fringed white leather jacket and a red headscarf has since been regarded as a defining moment of the 1960s. Released in 1969, True Grit sees JOHN WAYNE as US Marshal Rooster Cogburn, a role for which he won his only Academy Award. This eye patch still shows sign of make-up residue on the inside of the patch (estimate: £6,000 – 8,000, illustrated left). This prop eye patch worn by Wayne in the movie is one of a number of patches that were hand-made for the film by John Wayne‟s costumier, Luster Bayless, who recalls that he “needed a fresh patch every day. Every morning he‟d check the thing to see if there was any makeup inside it”. 1970s JOHN LENNON entered the U.S.A. with Yoko Ono in August, 1971, on a non-immigrant visa and having decided to make New York his home, he petitioned for a Green Card when his visa expired in February, 1972. His application for a Green Card was denied, the official reason given being his November, 1968, conviction in the U.K. for possession of cannabis resin. Lennon hired renowned immigration lawyer, Leon Wildes to fight his deportation case and it was later revealed that Lennon‟s immigration case was blocked by the Nixon administration because he was deemed to be anti-war and could harm the U.S. efforts in the Vietnam War. After nearly two years of court appearances and appeals, Lennon‟s deportation order was finally overturned in October, 1975 and he was presented with his Green Card the following year. A two-piece tweed suit worn by Lennon during his immigration trial is expected to fetch between £15,000 and £25,000 (illustrated right). From The Red Ronnie Collection comes a rare and important set of handwritten lyrics for L.A. Woman, the title track on THE DOORS album of the same name released in 1971, the final album before Jim Morrison‟s untimely death on 3 July, 1971 (estimate: £25,000 – 35,000, illustrated left). The song was recorded at The Doors Workshop on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, between December 1970 and January 1971. Morrison recorded his vocal part in the bathroom of the makeshift studio due to the room‟s natural reverb. 1980s Highlighting a selection of memorabilia form the 1980s is a page of handwritten lyrics by RICK JAMES for the hit single Super Freak, 1981 (estimate: £4,000 – 6,000, illustrated right).