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Personal and unique Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles family scrapbook for their daughter Rebecca

Currency:USD Category:Memorabilia Start Price:2,000.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
Personal and unique Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles family scrapbook for their daughter Rebecca
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Extraordinary and absolutely unique beyond any stretch of the imagination is an understatement for this oversize, custom-crafted (almost certainly by Columbia Studios prop dept.) scrapbook album of fairytale wood with hand-hammered brass hinges and nameplate, measuring 13.5 x 20” and weighing in at 8 lbs. Writer, director, actor, and father Orson Welles and his actress wife Rita Hayworth created this for the only child which they produced during their all-too brief marriage, Rebecca Welles. Though the binding strings have vanished over the years(likely because the original red paper pages were supplemented when exhausted by addition of green paper in same size) the contents are not only exceptionally well preserved and retained, but also expanded with numerous photo and negative envelopes, principally of Rita Hayworth without her family in the French Riviera. The majority of the early portraits were shot and stamped/blindstamped by Columbia’s master photographer(and Hayworth’s favorite) Robert Coburn, and many are on doubleweight matte paper from the custom lab. The later portraits are principally credited to Cronenweth. This intimate representation of the Welles family personal life begins with Rebecca at 4 ½ weeks old, and continues for about 3 years, not only of Rebecca with either or both of her very famous parents at home and on the set, but of Welles performing Around the World in 80 Days on stage, Hayworth meeting military servicemen (presumably overseas), and Hayworth’s stay at Hotel du Cap in the South of France. In addition to the impressive range of photographs, other documentation of this time includes: a hand-drawn self portrait Christmas card/(pending)birth announcement by Orson Welles as Santa Claus, blocking the chimney with his girth, preventing the stork from delivering baby Rebecca(who did end up arriving just days before Christmas on 12/17/44); an original memo on Mercury Productions letterhead from Welles’ personal secretary Rose Hebert which details the scrapbook and its creation; a facsimile photograph of Rita Hayworth in her home, leafing through this very same scrapbook; an Easter card signed “Love from Grandmother”; Rebecca Welles chest X-rays; plus guest and entertainment lists for Rebecca’s birthday parties of 1947 and 1948, mentioning the children of Harry Cohn, Fred MacMurray, Joan Crawford, Paul Henreid, and Artur Rubenstein. The baby photographs are too numerous to detail, but also included are approx. 50 of Hayworth and/or Welles in the 8 x 10” size, and at least 50 or more of one or both of them in smaller sizes. All in all, an exceptional and uniquely historic time capsule of the intimate, private family moments(and so much more) of very public figures. Custom-crafted covers are virtually mint; original paper of scrapbook pages is brittle and chipped, mainly at external edges; photographs and documents are in excellent condition throughout.