Category Archives: Celebrities

CDVs, Celebrities, Circus Freaks, Collecting, Photography

Admiral Dot, again

January 31, 2013 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

Here is another CDV for your consideration, in rather poorer condition than I normally like to buy, but I hadn’t seen this one before. This is Admiral Dot and his wife, Lottie Swartwood. I’ve inverted the image of the verso so you can at least try to make out the handwriting. From what I can read, it says, “…height 33… age 36…weight 36” (the ellipsis are where I can’t make out for sure what it says).

Admiral Dot & Lottie Swartwood By Chas Eisenmann

If you’ve been following my blog you know that Chas Eisenmann was quite the celebrity photographer specializing in people of the theater, which included the circus and vaudeville. I suppose photographing the Dots would have been a way to compete with Mathew Brady and the Anthonys, who had the Tom Thumb wedding photos in their portfolio.

Cabinet Cards, Celebrities, Circus Freaks, Collecting, Photography

Baron and Count Magri, with Lavinia Warren

December 14, 2012 dcphotoartist 1 Comment

The Magri Brothers with Lavinia Warren, ca. 1895

Here is a cabinet card from the mid 1890s of Lavinia Warren and the Magri Brothers (Baron Littlefinger and Count Rosebud). After Tom Thumb passed away in 1883, the widow Thumb met the Count and (his alleged twin brother) Baron Littlefinger. His real name was Primo Magri. She went on to marry him in July, 1885. They continued performing into old age to the point of appearing in a silent movie in 1915, five years before the Count’s death. Lavinia Warren died in 1919 at the approximate age of 77 (her birth date is unrecorded, so it is possible she was 78 at the time of her passing).

Count Primo Magri

Lavinia Warren

Tom Thumb

actors, CDVs, Celebrities, Collecting, Musicians, Performers/Athletes/Artists, Photography, Tintypes

Performers and People of the Theater

December 9, 2012 dcphotoartist 1 Comment

Peking Opera Performers	Peking Opera Performers
Circus Siblings, Gurney & Son, New York	Trio of Boy Acrobats, by Drew & Maxwell – possibly the O’Briens?
Two Toreadors, by Fredericks of New York, Havana and Paris	Gullie & Lottie Tarkinton
Carte De Visite, Henry Irving, British Actor, by Elliot & Fry	Tintype, Violinist, in presentation mat
Anonymous, Twin(?) brothers, ca. 1870	Musical Duo, Boston
Two actors in costume by Chas. H. Spieler, Philadelphia	C.T. Parsloe, Jr, Actor- by Brady. “Important if true”
Sallie Holman as Ike Pantington, by Fredricks	Cross-dressed Women by Mattheson

I’ve selected this batch to group based on them being people of the theater or in theatrical performances of some kind. I excluded the circus freaks even though many of them were theatrical as well (Tom Thumb was a comic actor as well as a star of Barnum’s circus). I’m grouping the cross-dressed women in this because it may well have been a theatrical role they were playing, like Sallie Holman as Ike Partington. There are also acrobats in this grouping, as many of them performed in vaudeville halls as well as in circuses, so they count as theatricals in a way.

Take a look at the two violinists in the fifth row – I’m wondering if they aren’t in fact two pictures of the same duo, at different times.

CDVs, Celebrities, Circus Freaks, Collecting, Photography

Count Rosebud and Baron Littlefinger

November 18, 2012 dcphotoartist 2 Comments

I realize I just posted this image in my previous entry, but I think it’s worthy of a separate post. Frankly, I’ve had it in my collection for a while but for some reason I didn’t post it at the time I added it. So I’m making up for the past omission. I think it’s worthy of adding a separate entry because their story is interesting. Count Rosebud was an Italian named Primo Magri. He and his brother Giuseppe (or according to some accounts, Ernesto), Baron Littlefinger, were allegedly given actual titles by Pope Pius IX. They toured as performers. In 1885, Count Rosebud married the widow Thumb, Mrs. Lavinia Warren. They had to perform into old age because they supposedly had very lavish tastes and could not afford to retire. I haven’t seen any back story on the rest of the family referenced in this photo – who were they, were they really the Count’s family or just props like the Thumbs’ baby, did he divorce this woman at some point before marrying Lavinia, or was he a widower?

CDVs, Celebrities, Collecting, Photography

Surpise CDV – George Pope Morris, by CD Fredricks

November 4, 2012 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

This was a surprise because my mom bought it for me when she and my dad were at Gettysburg for a little getaway vacation (their home is maybe an hour and a half from Gettysburg). The subject of the card is George Pope Morris, a 19th century American poet, and co-founder of the New York Evening Mirror which you may know of if you’re an Edgar Allan Poe fan, because it was where “The Raven” was first published in 1845, marking the first time the name Edgar Allan Poe was seen in print.

The quotation on the back of the CDV is the title of one of George P. Morris’ most famous poems, “Woodman, Spare That Tree”, which was also made into a popular song. The image must be from the last years of his life, as he died in 1864.

George Pope Morris, Poet and Publisher, by C.D. Fredricks

For more information about George Pope Morris, Wikipedia entry, George Pope Morris. From the accolades he received from his peers, it sounds like he’s yet another 19th century American (not to mention English) verist whose oeuvre is better off forgotten. If you really want to torture yourself, click here to hear a contemporary performance of the song. Trust me, you’ll need to cleanse your auditory palate afterward with a good dose of heavy metal or Justin Bieber or even cats having sex. But it’s informative as to the mindset and taste of the early Victorians when it came to popular entertainment.

"gay interest", actors, CDVs, Celebrities, Collecting, Occupationals, Performers/Athletes/Artists, Photography

Sallie Holman as Ike Partington

September 17, 2012 dcphotoartist 4 Comments

Another actor in costume photo from the golden age of CDVs. Miss Sallie Holman dressed as Ike Partington (if you couldn’t tell from the name, a comedic role involving gender confusion/cross-dressing). This one hits on all the notes – a great CDV of a performer in costume, cross-dressing, “gay interest”, celebrity photographer. This is somewhat equivalent to the famous Garbo-in-a-tux photo of the 1930s, or Dustin Hoffman as Tootsie.

CORRECTION: It is Ike Partington, so I have corrected the title and elsewhere to reflect that.

CDVs, Celebrities, Circus Freaks, Collecting, Photography

Lavinia Warren Stratton, by Charles Fredricks, “Specialité”.

August 24, 2012 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

Lavinia Warren Stratton, by C.D. Fredricks

Another CDV by C.D. Fredricks, of Lavinia Warren Stratton, Mrs. Tom Thumb. It’s an interesting addition to the Tom Thumb collection, as it shows they (the Thumbs) were very much the same as 21st century celebrities, getting photographed by all the fashionable photographers and trying to capitalize on their fame while it lasted. They seem to have had a particular loyalty to Brady, as this is the first definitive non-Brady I own of them. Can’t wait to find more

CDVs, Celebrities, Circus Freaks, Collecting, Photography

Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren hit the Baltimore scene

August 20, 2012 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

Tom Thumb & Lavinia Warren - Walzl, Photographer, Baltimore — Tom Thumb & Lavinia Warren – Walzl, Photographer, Baltimore

Here’s a photo of Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren, NOT by Mathew Brady, Gurney & Sons, Eisenmann or C.D. Fredericks. I’ve seen a few by the other photographers, but the Brady ones are the most common. This is cool to me as it shows them being photographed in other cities as they toured – celebrity culture is not a new thing, but at least back in that day, technology largely excluded the possibility of ambush paparazzi.

Funny story about that though – back when the White House did not have a secure perimeter with heavily armed guards, one of Abraham Lincoln’s boys was out playing in the yard. An enterprising and rather self-assured photographer approached the boy and talked him in to sitting for some pictures, and then sent him inside to get his dad to pay. Needless to say, Mr. Lincoln was NOT happy about this, and came out to confront the photographer. The photographer consented to not charge Mr. Lincoln if he would sit for a few himself, which he grudgingly did. Try doing that to the first family today!

actors, Cabinet Cards, Celebrities, Circus Freaks, Collecting

J. Gurney & Sons – Midget Actor

August 19, 2012 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

This is a cabinet card by J. Gurney & Sons of a midget actor in full theatrical costume. I wish I knew the identity of the actor. He must have been famous in the day, because he had Gurney photograph him. Going to Gurney would be somewhat akin to having Richard Avedon or Annie Liebowitz photograph you today. Well, maybe not Richard Avedon, as he’s dead now. But you get the idea.

CDVs, Celebrities, Collecting, Occupationals, Photography

J. Gurney & Sons CDV – Arthur Cleveland Coxe

August 12, 2012 dcphotoartist 2 Comments

Here is a remarkably well-preserved CDV of Arthur Cleveland Coxe, the second Episcopal bishop of New York. He was also known as a poet, and from the titles and descriptions of the works, he sounds like a typical mid-19th century American author, which is to say long-winded and basically unreadable to today’s audiences. This must have been a well-known image of him; if you go to Wikipedia to read his biography, you’ll see a copy of this same portrait.

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