Nine original photographs of Anita O'Day, circa 1950s-1970s

N.p. N.p., 1950s-1970s. Nine vintage photographs of influential jazz vocalist Anita O'Day, dating between 1940s-1970s. Includes four publicity photographs, three photographs of O'Day performing onstage, and two photographs of O'Day in the 1959 documentary film "Jazz on a Summer's Day." Two with mimeo snipes on the verso, two with date stamps, two with photographer credit stamps, and the balance with provenance stamps labels to same.

Born in Kansas City in 1919, Anita O'Day left school at 16 in order to start a singing career, working at Chicago nightclub Off-Beat and with Max Miller's Quartet and Gene Krupa's big band. Her star rose throughout the decade, and by 1947 she had graduated to working primarily as a solo artist. She was an early innovator in the bebop genre, and recorded a number of records with Verve in the 1950s and 1960s, gaining increased popularity after her 1958 performance at the Newport Jazz Festival. A decades-long drug addiction marred her career—later the subject of her 1981 autobiography, "High Times Hard Times"—and she retired from the stage for several years in the late 1960s to recover. She resumed performing in the 1970s, and would release several albums on her own label before passing away in the early 2000s.

10 x 8 inches. Generally Very Good to Very Good plus, one with layout annotations in manuscript pencil to the margins.

[Book #170443]