[Photo Album]: Alexander Novelty Four on the Chautauqua Circuit

Published by Publication Date: 1924

Oblong quarto. Measuring 10" x 7". Black cloth over stiff paper boards with gilt titles. Contains 175 black and white or sepia-toned photographs measuring between 2" x 3" and 3˝" x 5˝", with captions. Very good album with chips and edgewear with very good or better photographs. An album documenting a touring year of the Alexander Novelty Four on the Chautauqua circuit between 1923 and 1924. The group sometimes performed as the Alexander Novelty Three, the Alexander Novelty Trio, or the Alexander Novelty Ringers, and was active on the Chautauqua circuit from 1922 through the late 1930s. This album follows the group as they crisscrossed the country, seemingly without rest for over the year, stopping in a plethora of states including Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, and even into Mexico. A contemporary account published in *The East Haven Citizen* reads, "The Alexander Novelty Trio has been a feature on the Chautauqua and Lyceum platform for many years. Their program sparkles with novelties, humor, and originality. They are artists on an unusual number of instruments including saxophones, violin, banjo, Hawaiian and Spanish guitars, ukulele, harmonicas, and ocarinas. They also introduce a number of oddities such as music on a hand-saw, wooden spoons, and Felix the Cat costume numbers…vocal selections and ventriloquism round out a program of almost unbelievable variety." The photographs show the troupe traveling by snowshoe after a blizzard had blocked their train; onboard a riverboat down the Ohio River; posing in group with their instruments; erecting big-top tents; preparing for concerts; riding "Mexico ponies" across the border; standing in the mud of a deeply rutted road next to their immovable automobile; as well as visiting with President Coolidge and his family at the Coolidge family homestead in Vermont. A nice collection of images following a vaudeville group on tour in the 1920s. Seller Inventory # 443399

Bibliographic Details

Title: [Photo Album]: Alexander Novelty Four on the...
Publication Date: 1924
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Near Fine