[Rarebooks] FS: Inscribed Irving Berlin to general who recommended first employment of black troops in WWII
Charles Agvent
agvent at erols.com
Thu May 5 09:07:11 EDT 2005
One of many fine Spring New Arrivals posted on our web site
http://www.erols.com/agvent
BERLIN, Irving. SONGS FROM "THIS IS THE ARMY". n.p. [New York]:
1942. First Edition. Small folio (9" x 12") bound in full "army
khaki" flexible leather with gilt lettering on the front cover.
Includes sheet music for 19 of Berlin's songs, including "This Is the
Army, Mr. Jones" and "Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" from
the Broadway musical that later toured the nation and the world and
was made into a movie starring Ronald Reagan with much of the
proceeds from all of its various guises donated to the U.S. Army. At
the time of the original production, the U.S. Armed Forces were
segregated; as a result of Berlin's insistence, the unit performing
THIS IS THE ARMY became the only integrated company in uniform. Which
leads to an interesting connection with the SIGNED INSCRIPTION by the
great composer in this volume: "To Roy Lord/with gratitude/for
helping to make/'This is the Army'/what it was in/the U.K./Irving
Berlin." General Roy[al] Lord was the chief of staff to General John
C. H. Lee, nicknamed "Jesus Christ Himself" for his arrogance. Lee
had a number of roles in World War II including commander of the
supply services for the U.S. Army in the European Theater and General
Eisenhower's deputy commander. It was at Lee's suggestion that Black
troops were allowed to serve in combat for the first time in the war
in the Battle of the Bulge after 50,000 soldiers were killed or
wounded in the first week of action. He received an Honor Roll of
Race Relations from the New York Public Library's Schomberg
Collection of Negro Literature for this action. Light rubbing to
edges and spine with slight loss at the tips. Despite the light wear,
Near Fine with a superb inscription. $4500.00
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CHARLES AGVENT
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