The above pictorial handbill, measuring 9-inch by 6-inch, is for the Music Corporation of America promoted one-night appearance of “Jelly Roll” Morton and his Red Hot Peppers at the Royal Palais Ballroom, Galena, Illinois, on Tuesday, 30th August 1927.
The handbill is one of a number of additional loose documents, which in addition to a 58-page scrapbook, compiled by Jelly Roll Morton, forms the central feature of the Henry Villalapando (Villalpando) Ford Collection. [17]
It was Music Corporation of America artist Edouarde, who was a sort of Chicago John Held, Jr., who created the wonderful poster — a frantic futuristic caricature of a lean Jelly Roll pounding on a mystic keyboard, surrounded by fat little pepper musicians, who looked like they had just finished an engagement on Mars. courtesy of Mike Montgomery & Alfred Lemmon
© 2003 Historic New Orleans Collection
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