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Vintage panoramic photo of 1939 Hollywood Cads Review benefit performance for Bundles for Britain

Currency:USD Category:Memorabilia Start Price:400.00 USD Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
Vintage panoramic photo of 1939 Hollywood Cads Review benefit performance for Bundles for Britain
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Before America involved itself directly in the European conflict, England was well entrenched and receiving heavy losses to Germany, inspiring British citizens in the US (as well as many generous US citizens) to help the struggling Brits in any way they could, with shipments of medicine, food, clothes, and of course financial donations. This cast of mainly British actors (complemented by some well-known Americans) all acting as “Hollywood Cads” was a stage performance fund-raiser for the wartime charity which called itself “Bundles for Britain”. This unusual (and quite likely unique) artifact was the property of British ex-patriot in Hollywood, Henry Wilcoxon, who received his big break in film by accident when Cecil B. DeMille overheard his voice while impatiently waiting for a screening booth, prompting DeMille to immediately cast him in a lead role for the 1934 Cleopatra. Wilcoxon became a standard repertory player for DeMille, as well as a producer for him in later years, but is likely best remembered by younger audiences as the Lutheran Bishop in the 1980 comedy classic Caddyshack. Pictured here with Wilcoxon are: Reginald Gardiner, Chester Morris, Charles Farrell, George Sanders (who made an entire career playing British-accented cads), Rod La Rocque, Mischa Auer, Alan Mowbray, Cedric Hardwicke, and Henry Fonda, all with jaded aristocratic looks of arrogance, cigarettes, and very British dressing robes. Photo measuring 11.5 x 30” is framed in black wood, and appears to be Very Fine(not inspected out of frame).