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Ian Ehling
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Lot 37
An original Hilary Knight watercolor, "A Night with Mae West." Two sketches on one sheet of the legendary sex symbol in the "Belle of the Nineties" number in a fantasy appearance at Radio City Music Hall, watercolor, crayon and pencil highlighted with rhinestones, 460 x 305 mm, signed and dated lower left, Hilary Knight 1979," framed.
5 December 2018, 10:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$1,250 inc. premium
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An original Hilary Knight watercolor, "A Night with Mae West."
Two sketches on one sheet of the legendary sex symbol in the "Belle of the Nineties" number in a fantasy appearance at Radio City Music Hall, watercolor, crayon and pencil highlighted with rhinestones, 460 x 305 mm, signed and dated lower left, Hilary Knight 1979," framed.
WITH: Inscribed photograph ("Mae West"), a publicity still, inscribed in pen lower right, "To Hilary Knight Best Wishes Mae West," matted with some water damage not affecting photograph.
Mr. Knight has often made costume and set designs for unrealized shows. One of his fantasies was to design a gala night at Radio City Music Hall for Mae West where she would reprise highlights from her movies. "Miss West, now well past the bloom of youth, would be lip-syncing her songs, dressed extravagantly in parodies of her famous clothes ... But she would be covered in diamonds and live." He notes on the drawing that in this opening number from the 1934 comedy she would be decked in a gown made of black velvet and sapphire satin and a black and blue tulle cape lined with black velvet. She would have been returning to the scene of the crime where in December 1937 she told the notorious Adam and Eve skit on national radio. She died a year after these drawings were made. "I was in L.A. during the pre-Broadway tour of Sugar Babies, all plans to meet M. W. and show her my drawings," then "all cancelled the final chance on my last day in L.A. A note at the front desk said, 'Mae West unable to keep appointment.'"
On the photograph: "I was fascinated by M.W. going back to 1932 in Roslyn, LI, where Mae's Night After Night was playing at the town's tiny movie house," Mr. Knight admits. "At six I was forbidden to see it. I had to wait five years for a signed photo arranged by my father through his friend Bogart." Bogart Rogers flew with Clayton Knight in the war, and was the cousin of Humphrey Bogart, and a producer and screenwriter. Mae West was reported to be one of his many conquests.
WITH: Inscribed photograph ("Mae West"), a publicity still, inscribed in pen lower right, "To Hilary Knight Best Wishes Mae West," matted with some water damage not affecting photograph.
Mr. Knight has often made costume and set designs for unrealized shows. One of his fantasies was to design a gala night at Radio City Music Hall for Mae West where she would reprise highlights from her movies. "Miss West, now well past the bloom of youth, would be lip-syncing her songs, dressed extravagantly in parodies of her famous clothes ... But she would be covered in diamonds and live." He notes on the drawing that in this opening number from the 1934 comedy she would be decked in a gown made of black velvet and sapphire satin and a black and blue tulle cape lined with black velvet. She would have been returning to the scene of the crime where in December 1937 she told the notorious Adam and Eve skit on national radio. She died a year after these drawings were made. "I was in L.A. during the pre-Broadway tour of Sugar Babies, all plans to meet M. W. and show her my drawings," then "all cancelled the final chance on my last day in L.A. A note at the front desk said, 'Mae West unable to keep appointment.'"
On the photograph: "I was fascinated by M.W. going back to 1932 in Roslyn, LI, where Mae's Night After Night was playing at the town's tiny movie house," Mr. Knight admits. "At six I was forbidden to see it. I had to wait five years for a signed photo arranged by my father through his friend Bogart." Bogart Rogers flew with Clayton Knight in the war, and was the cousin of Humphrey Bogart, and a producer and screenwriter. Mae West was reported to be one of his many conquests.