This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/12/2020
Dunninger, Joseph. Important Early Dunninger Escape Artist and Magic Scrapbook. American, ca. 1911-17. Contemporary half-cloth folio scrapbook, 60 leaves, filled with letters, photographs, and clippings, including an early photograph of Dunninger completely shackled at the wrists and elbows; a letter from an officer of the Peekskill N.Y. Police Department (1915) that Dunninger “experienced no difficulty in releasing himself from any of the handcuffs that I submitted to him…”; and similar letters on official departmental letterhead with testaments from officers, captains, sheriffs, and chiefs of police in Yonkers, Worcester, Bridgeport, Orange, N.J., North Tarrytown (2), Tarrytown, Schenectady, Hightstown, Perth Amboy, Haverstraw (accompanied by four small snapshots of his escape), and Rockland County; escape handbills and clipped vaudeville programs; (2) photostats of letters from Harry Kellar; and many newspaper and periodical clippings (many from New England and New York papers) reporting or advertising Dunninger’s escapes and magic act. Mounted on the inside rear cover are four photographs of Dunninger, including two escape act, a headshot, and Water Torture Cell. Items neatly affixed on rectos only. Fascinating record of Dunninger’s early exploits as an escape artist and vaudeville act.