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Irving Berlin

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
Irving Berlin

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Auction Date:2010 Jun 16 @ 10:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Bid online at www.rrauction.com. Auction closes June 16.

Dark and brooding AMQS on an off-white 7.5 x 4.75 album page. Berlin pens a one-bar quote from his early song “My Wife’s Gone to the Country,” signed and inscribed “To Marcia, May you never die till I kill you, Irving Berlin.” Page also bears an AMQS by George Botsford. Mild toning working in from edges, and slight show-through from signatures on reverse, otherwise fine condition.

It may sound harmless today but in fact at that time it wasn't. According to Berlin “ministers preached about” the song (Kimball/Emmett, p. 7) and they were surely not fond of its message. A critic from around that time complained about songs laughing “openly at the institution of marriage,” “blamed the entire shameful state of American popular songs on the ‘disciples of Irving Berlin & Co.’” (Jablonski, p. 47, see Hamm, p. 56) and even called for censorship upon this kind of dangerous music. This is the first Berlin AMQS we have offered, made all the more desirable with his cryptic inscription.