This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/25/2023
FERRY, William (b. 1868). Three Photographs of Frogman Ferry. N.P.: John Taylor, ca. 1930. Three full-length images of the contortionist and vaudeville star who imitated an amphibian in his highly successful vaudeville act, pictured here in full frog mask and spangle-speckled costume, contorted in various poses. 10 x 8”. One image scuffed in upper right. Ferry was perhaps the most famous – but certainly not the only – frog imitator of his generation. He worked in minstrel shows, vaudeville, and with his own company with an act consisting of imitating a frog in every manner, from jumping into a small pond to a pedestal, and executing contorted poses, as shown here. In 1935 he presented an interpretation of The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County for a special tribute to Mark Twain at the Waldorf-Astoria.