This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/28/2018
Photo Archive Documenting the 1930s—50s Chicago Jazz and Night Club Scene. A tremendous archive consisting of several hundred silver gelatin and some color prints (most 8 x 10”) either taken by or from the collection of jazz organist, pianist, saxophonist, and photographer Lonnie Simmons, at various lounges and cabarets in Chicago and concentrated at the Club DeLisa and Biasetti’s Steak House. Subjects include Sammy Davis Jr., Miles Davis, Count Basie, Fats Waller, Jimmy Smith, Pearl Bailey, Joe Louis (boxer), Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Redd Foxx, Isaac Hayes, Red Saunders Orchestra, Lonnie Simmons Quartet, and others, including many unidentified musicians and dancers. Organized in photo scrapbooks, filled with a wonderful array of performance photographs and portraits including burlesque and strip tease dancers, as well as “female impersonators” from the Jewel Box Revue, plus other dancers and a few crime scene images; a group of photos signed or inscribed to Simmons, including Lena Horne [2], Joyce Bryant, The Sharps and Flats Trio, The Original Dynettes, Eileen Romey, Enzo Stuarti, Art Biasetti, and others; a scrapbook of related ephemera including programs and clippings; plus two small boxes and a leather scrapbook containing snapshots and mementos of Simmons’ family and friends, including portraits of Lonnie’s father Peter Simmons, and friend Philip Simmons (no relation), both noted blacksmiths. Includes duplication of material. An important and extensive collection that should be seen.