[Rarebooks] SADAKICHI AND HOLLYWOOD

[Norman Kane]

HARTMANN, SADAKICHI.  THE LAST THIRTY DAYS OF CHRIST.  N. Y.:Privately Printed, 1920.  First edition. 
1 0f 3000 copies (this copy unnumbered.)  Approx. 9 1/2 X 6 inches, full leather with Hartmann's name and the owner's name, James Cruze, blindstamped on  the front cover.  Lightly rubbed.  Frontispiece (a photo-portrait of Hartmann whose face and figure seemed to fascinate photographers and artists through the years) by Eickemeyer (corner of adjoining tissue torn.)  xiv, 109 pages. Pencilled gift inscription (by ??) on front blank to "Jimmie" [Cruze] describing him as "a damn good director."  On a rear blank are the signatures of those who had read the book in 1940, presumably with an eye towards making it into a motion picture. The signers are James Beggs [actor], Dixie McCoy [script supervisor], Horace McCoy [author], Myrtle Stedman [actress], Hal Mohr [cinematographer],  Evelyn Venable (Mohr) [actress], Glenn Hunter [actor] & E. D. Leshin [director].   James Cruze (1884-1942)  acted, directed & or produced over 100 films, many during the silent film era; he was the veritable stereotype of the Hollywood drunken hell-raiser, forever in the gossip columns - three times marrried, his last wife was the actress, Alberta McCoy, whom he married in 1941. Hal Mohr was the best man and his wife, Evelyn Venable, was the maid of honor.  Hartmann in his later years was a familiar, if forlorn, character in Hollywood - a drinking companion of his closest friends, John Barrymore and W. C. Fields.  In the Twenties he had appeared  elaborately costumed as a court magician in the Douglas Fairbanks movie "The Thief of Bagdad" - Hollywood couldn't have chosen for him a  more suitably suggestive role.   In his long career, Hartmann had known many of the great and not so great, from Walt Whitman to Guido Bruno, from Mickle Street to The Village - before coming to the last stop on his voyage, Hollywood.  This seems appropriate, since, with all his talent, he was a born poseur, but had made a serious study of the art of photography.  (A unique literary/cinematic memento.)      $450.00      (Trade Discount Available)    

    



THE AMERICANIST (ABAA), 
113 Creeks Edge, Chapel Hill, NC USA 27516-8962
Telephone: 919-967-9287 email: nkane at kanebooks.com. 
Proprietor: Norman Kane (50 years as an antiquarian bookseller.)