FATS WALLER

WALLER, Thomas “Fats” (1904-1943).

Two original black and white publicity portraits, c.1930s, signed by Fats Waller: the first showing the marvellous jazz pianist and composer in snappily dressed smiling pose, inscribed in blue ink ‘To Clarinda, With Best Wishes, “Fats” Waller’, an early image by Fan Foto Co., c.1935, vintage sepia-toned gelatin silver print, 253 x 202 mm; the second featuring a wide-eyed Fats gaping at a film camera during an appearance on the BBC television programme Melody Out Of The Sky, recorded at Alexandra Palace Studios, London, and broadcast on 29 September 1938, the photo inscribed in black ink ‘To Fern:- Best Wishes, Yes! Yes! Yes!!! Sincerely, Thomas ‘Fats’ Waller’, additionally inscribed ‘Ow!!!’ at lower right, vintage gelatin silver print, 205 x 253 mm, in window mount (280 x 356 mm).

[With:] – Boogie Woogie with ‘Fats’ Waller. New York: Mills Music, 1941. First edition piano sheet-music folio, signed in blue ink by Fats Waller on the front cover, wire-stitched in the original brown pictorial wraps, 300 x 230 mm.

[With:] an original table card for the Zanzibar Room, Hollywood, California, c.1940, signed in pencil by Fats Waller below his portrait, 146 x 96 mm. The Zanzibar became the location of Fats’ last ever engagement in December 1943, when he became very ill with influenza and was forced to cancel the rest of his performance, eventually succumbing to his illness in a train compartment en route home to New York on 15 December 1943, at just 39 years old.

[And:] a vintage photo postcard of Fats Waller at a white piano, 1930s, signed by Fats in black ink, 138 x 88 mm.