Peck's Bad Boy: RARE POSTER FOR PLAY
[None Stated]: [None Stated], [1884]. First Edition. No Binding. A Very Good RARE ORIGINAL WOODBLOCK POSTER for a stage play featuring Peck's Bad Boy. Civil War Veteran, Politician, and Author George Wilbur Peck (1840-1916), who owned a Wisconsin newspaper known as the "Sun", authored a humorous weekly newspaper column which often featured a character of his own invention named Henry "Hennery" Peck who first appeared in 1882. The character was tremendously popular and became known as "Peck's Bad Boy". Peck went on to write a series of books' featuring Hennery Peck who was known for pulling pranks on members of the town, but most especially on his father, for the pure joy of causing trouble and chaos. Peck began writing these stories, which were turned into books as well, in the early 1880s. 'Peck's Bad Boy' became a household name in the United States and was so popular that he entered the American lexicon with the dictionary definition of "Peck's bad boy" being "one whose bad behavior is a source of embarrassment or annoyance". Charles E. Pidgin adapted the first story into a stage play, and various companies began performing the Play around the country. In 1891, then teenager and vaudeville actor George M. Cohan toured for thirty-five weeks in the role of Hennery. After many of Cohan's performances, he had to fight his way out of the theater as neighborhood boys would be waiting in alleyways to test their fighting abilities against those of Hennery Peck, who ended the Play by stating 'I can still lick any kid in town!'. Notably, these Bad Boy stories became so fashionable for a time that Mark Twain was criticized for jumping on the bandwagon with Huck Finn and the New York World published a review which said: "Were Mark Twain's reputation as a humorist less well founded and established, we might say that this cheap and pernicious stuff is conclusive evidence that its author has no claim to be ranked with Artemus Ward, Sydney Smith, Dean Swift, John Hay, or any other recognized humorist above the grade of the author of that outrageous fiction, 'Peck's Bad Boy.'" [A silent film was made in 1921 starring Jackie Coogan. After Peck's death, his "Peck's Bad Boy" writings became the basis for several films and a television show.] This is a Very Good copy of this RARE poster showing some mild scattered water staining as well as some edge wear and chipping, folds, and some compete and some partial tears within the sections, but with the colors remaining rather rich and vibrant. The Poster is comprised of six (6) sections and was designed to be posted outside where it would be subject to the sunlight, rain, snow, and other weather conditions. The sections have interior margins whereupon the adjoining section(s) would be laid such that the final complete poster -- which would have glue applied to each section's verso for mounting to a wall or other surface -- once mounted, would show only the exterior margin. Once thusly prepared and mounted, the Poster could not be removed without destroying it. (The Poster remains in its original six sections. We have left some interior margin exposed in two of the photographs posted with this listing.) Consequently, few copies would have survived to the present day. This copy never was used and is a REMARKABLE SURVIVOR which was found in a barn and thus was neither vulnerable to the fading caused by sunlight nor to the other damage that it would have suffered had it been exposed to the weather. Once properly arranged as if it were to be posted, the Poster measures approximately 6 feet 10 inches X 6 feet 10 inches. A RARE UNSOPHISTICATED POSTER AND A REMARKABLE SURVIVOR. RARE INDEED. Very good. Item #2758
Price: $1,410.00