Original pictorial wrappers (covers detached but present), front cover African-style illustration signed “ESC”. Approx. 44 unnumbered pages, mostly congratulatory ads.
Newly-formed during the Depression when no Black actor or actress had as yet become a Hollywood star, the group boasted among its officers Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, with “Honorary Life Memberships” presented to Marian Anderson, Ethel Waters - and, curiously, boxer Joe Louis and white performers Eddie Cantor and Tyrone Power.
Most interesting is the diverse group of congratulatory ads from both Black cultural figures and white entertainment celebrities – James Weldon Johnson, Arthur Schomburg, Paul Whiteman, Sol Hurok, Milton Berle, Edward G. Robinson, Walter Huston, Frank Capra, Claudette Colbert, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Daryl Zanuck, Jack Benny, and Paul Muni.
A rare memento (OCLC locates no copy) of the year before “Gone With The Wind” - which brought Hattie McDaniel the first Academy Award ever given to an African-American.