Dante Poster attached - Is it a sole survivor?

[James Prince]

Dante Poster attached - Is it a sole survivor?

Background - in the 1970s, I picked up an old poster in a sale

At the time I was told it had no particular value

I recently ran into Eddie Dawes at one of my lectures

Eddie is well known in the UK for his deep knowledge of magical history

When we chatted he offered to look into the history of my poster

I now know that it was printed in London, either for Dante's pre-war (1936-39) tour of the UK, or from the post-war one (1946-7). Of the two, I'm led to believe the pre-war one is the most likely

A similar poster was sold in the Christian Fechner auction, in 2006

The poster in the auction is in two pieces the upper two thirds showing Dante and his Stratosphere illusion, the lower third continuing the Stratosphere theme

My poster has an identical top two thirds but the lower third is completely different, bearing the slogan SIM SALA BIM and clearly showing a spirit cabinet style effect

This raises questions –

The first for any Dante enthusiasts must be – Is the lower third a sole survivor?

If it is then how do I make sure that this is in the public domain and forms part of any Dante archive?

The two sections join perfectly but are they one poster or two halves of different posters?
The latter seems unlikely as some forgotten magician has signed the two halves back in the 1950s

Did Dante commission different bottom sections for whatever reason?

Grateful for any information and thoughts

James

[Brad Jeffers]

Your poster is in two sections, correct? The upper section being 60" and the lower 30".
This is an interesting poster, which I have not seen before. The concept of having different bottom sections for a poster is intriguing. It would seem more logical to have one 90" poster made, and have 30" overlays printed, which could be pasted onto the original (rather than having two different 30" sections printed).
This could be two parts of separate posters. Why would Ted Henty sign one poster "Sincerely Yours" twice in different locations.

[James Prince]

Thanks for your reply Brad

This time I have attached a picture of the other poster

This is also printed in two sections

The colours in my poster are just as bright but mine is a kitchen floor photo

James

[Brad Henderson]

It appears as if you have what is known as a three sheet poster. These large posters were printed in two sections, the upperhalf being the larger of the two. Every three sheet poster I have seen (bear in mind I am not a poster expert) was printed in this format. The two pieces would then be pasted one above the other to create the completed image. Consequently it is very reasonable to assume that these are two halves of different poster, that they line up so well being a happy coincidence. Having said that, it is also not unreasonable to assume that a smart magician who had an excess of one poster might find it wise to merely print a new bottom half in order to be able to present a new piece of visual advertising at (presumably) one third of the cost. Was this Dante's intent? No idea. Perhaps this is mentioned in the Dante/Thurston correspondence somewhere. Based on the stories surrounding his famous trunk book, it seems Dante was a savvy man when it came to taking advantage of the value of printing. Then again, all of my information is second and third hand having never really studied Dante per se. All that taken together the only real information I may be offering (and which you may have already known) which is the nature of the three sheet itself.

[James Prince]

Does anyone know if Phil Temple who wrote - Dante: the devil himself, or
Marion S. Trikosko who wrote - Trouping With Dante: Travels With Dante's Sim Sala Bim in the Golden Age of Big Illusion Shows, are still with us and even better how they might be contacted?

[Bill Mullins]

Trikosko seems to have passed away.

[Bill Mullins]

As recently as 2007, Temple was advertising copies of his book in Genii, selling them from Novato, CA. Superpages.com shows a current address and phone number for him, so I suppose he is still reachable.

[James Prince]

Thanks for all the information Bill

I appreciate the time you took

James

[Ken Trombly]

Phil is still very much alive. While I am not in touch with him, I believe that his old friend Byron Walker is. You can google Byron, who lives in CA and find his contact info. He should get you to Phil.

As to the poster, while I have a number of Dantes and have seen many more over the years, I do not recall seeing this particular image before!

By the way, if you are interested in magic posters, collecting, Dante....or even magic in general, you ought to check this upcoming conference out;


http://www.magicposters.com/conference_2013/main/index.cfm?PageID=1