Magic Collection of Jim Rawlins Part III

Blackstone, Harry. Harry Blackstone Lincoln Theatre Fire Photographs and Clippings. [Decatur, IL, 1942]. Including a photograph of the Lincoln Theatre façade and marquee bearing Blackstone’s name, and the smoke-filled street outside, captured on the day of the fire (5 ½ x 9 ½”), mounted to mat board with printer’s slips affixed; 28 photographs and snapshots taken on the day of the fire (most vintage prints, but a portion being later printings), including additional street and alley views of Blackstone and his assistants removing props from the theater, evacuated audience members and crowds gathered outside, police, and others; and a group of clippings from the Decatur Herald reporting on the event. Sold with a first edition copy of The Blackstone Book of Magic & Illusion. This first photograph in this lot was the copy reproduced on page 63 of Harry Blackstone Jr.’s book “The Blackstone Book of Magic & Illusion” (1985), and includes a COA signed by Gay Blackstone. In the accompanying chapter of the same book, Blackstone Jr. writes that his father’s orderly evacuation of the theater was perhaps his “greatest feat.” The remainder of the archive was from the collection of George Johnstone, an assistant of Blackstone’s, and many of the prints bear Johnstone’s ownership label and bear affixed handwritten captions.