This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/4/2017
The Circus Saints & Sinners Club of America, Inc., is a national charitable organization that raises money for local charities and has fun doing it. The club is a non-sectarian, non-political association of successful business and professional men with a four-fold purpose: to perpetuate the cause of entertainment in the spirit of its earliest form—the circus; promote good fellowship; contribute to worthy charities and to have fun. The club’s origins date back to 1926 when a small group of circus enthusiasts in New York City founded the Circus Fans Association of America. In 1929, several of them resigned their membership and formed the Circus Saints and Sinners Club of America.
This lot features a pair of multi-signed original (1-of-1) caricatures of well-known sports personalities Grantland Rice and Jim Crowley who were charcoal drawn by two noted artists of the last century: “Zito” and Bettina Steinke. Both of the caricatures were illustrated on oversized (22” wide by 30” high) illustration board that were then signed in pencil and/or ink not only by the featured new inductee into the CSSC but by all of the organization’s 100-plus living members at that time. The ceremony for Rice, a sportswriter known for his elegant prose, was held at the Hotel Gotham in New York City on May 7, 1936, while the luncheon honoring Crowley, a noted football player and coach who termed the phrase “The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame” as he was one of the four backfield members for the Fighting Irish (1922-24), was held on October 18, 1938, at the Hotel Commodore, also in New York City.
Autographs pre-certified by PSA/DNA.