BENNY

[Benny Hill, English comedian famed for his television series ‘The Benny Hill Show’.] Signed Autograph Inscription to black and white publicity photograph, with Autograph Note Signed on reverse.

Author: 
‘Benny Hill’ [Alfred Hawthorne Hill] (1924-1992), English comedian famed for his television series ‘The Benny Hill Show’, and his use of slapstick, burlesque and double entendre
Publication details: 
No date or place, but the portrait of Hill apparently dating from the 1960s or early 1970s.
£45.00

Despite criticism for his supposedly sexist humour, Hill’s work was admired by men from the novelist Anthony Burgess to Michael Jackson and Burt Reynolds. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged, with light traces of glue from mount on reverse. An 8.5 x 14 cm photographic print, carrying an 8.5 x 10.5 cm black and white head and shoulders shot of a smirking Hill, staring fixedly at the viewer in black top. Inscribed in light ink in the blank patch beneath the image: ‘To Eric / Cheers! / Benny Hill’.

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[Marian McPartland, jazz pianist and composer.] Autograph Letter Signed to Les Tompkins of Jazz magazine ‘Crescendo’, announcing a collaboration with ‘charming’ Benny Goodman, with news of other jazz greats, including Quincy Jones.

Author: 
Marian McPartland [Margaret Marian McPartland, née Turner] (1918-2013), Anglo-American jazz pianist and composer, wife of trumpeter Jimmy McPartland [Les Tomkins; Benny Goodman; Quincy Jones]
Publication details: 
29 September [1963]; 41 Webster Street, Merrick, New York.
£160.00

A good letter, full of content. 2pp, 8vo. Air mail letter with New York postmark, 30 September 1963. Signed ‘Marian’ and addressed to ‘Mr. Les Tompkins / 96, St Helier Ave / Morden / Surrey’. Writing after the publication of an interview with her by Tompkins in ‘Crescendo’, she begins: ‘Dear Les. Thank you, & Tony also, for the copies of Crescendo - Boy! I was verbose, wasn’t I! I got a kick out of the record review, & thought everyone was very complimentary. Wish Steve Race had been there! He always insists you can tell a female player (and of course I think that is a lot of you-know-what)’.

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Manuscript of the United States Corps of Cadets anthem 'Benny Havens, Oh!', dated 'As sung by the U.S. Corps Cadets | 1864'. With explanatory introduction in manuscript, and with the '22nd. verse written at the beginning of the [American Civil] war'.

Author: 
Lieutenant Lucius O'Brien; Ripley Allen Arnold (1817-1853) [Corps of Cadets, United States Military Academy, West Point; Benny Havens (c.1787-1877)]
Publication details: 
[On West Point letterheads?] 1864.
£250.00

8pp., 12mo. On four bifoliums, placed inside one another to make a booklet. Each bifolium with embossed [West Point?] letterhead of a letter 'W' within a shield. A fair copy, with the title reading: 'Benny Havens, Oh! | as sung | by the | U.S. Corps Cadets - | 1864.' The twenty-two line introduction covers the whole of the second page.

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Autograph Letter Signed ('Bob. Crosby') to 'Dear Ken' [Ken Ryan].

Author: 
Bob Crosby (1913-1993), American dixieland bandleader and vocalist, best known for his group 'Bob Crosby and the Bob Cats'
Publication details: 
New Years Eve, 1955.' On letterheads of The Aladdin Hotel, Kansas City, Missouri.
£56.00

4to, 4 pp. Good, on lightly creased paper. From the Ken Ryan collection. Long, rambling, good-humoured letter on the . 'Here it is New Years Eve and I'm at home, and being quiet. - I was tired as we have worked hard all week. - and its good to be quiet. [...] London must have been interesting during the holiday season - I hope to some day see it but when I ever will is the question I'm never to [sic] good to save money. - Next week we have the Monte Carlo Ballet. Russe. and I am looking forward to seeing it. with pleasure. I've always been so fond of ballet.'

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