Large Theater History Print - The 1891 Comic Opera WANG - with DeWolf Hopper and Della Fox - Asian Warlord Caricature Meets Navy Drag King

Large Theater History Print - The 1891 Comic Opera WANG - with DeWolf Hopper and Della Fox - Asian Warlord Caricature Meets Navy Drag KingTreasures from THE FILM & THEATRE COLLECTION at The Willing Mind. By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review. Print size 18 x 24, and consciously formatted to work with a standard size store bought frame, or custom framed as you see fit. About two years ago we restored this Sarony CDV of DeWolf Hopper and Della Fox in the comic opera Wang, 1891. The hits included A Pretty Girl, A Summer Night, The Man With An Elephant On His Hands, and Every Rose

Treasures from THE FILM & THEATRE COLLECTION at The Willing Mind.  By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review.  Print size 18 x 24, and consciously formatted to work with a standard size store bought frame, or custom framed as you see fit.

About two years ago we restored this Sarony CDV of DeWolf Hopper and Della Fox in the comic opera Wang, 1891. The hits included A Pretty Girl, A Summer Night, The Man With An Elephant On His Hands, and Every Rose Must Have Its Thorn.

Every Rose Must Have Its Thorn?

151 performances at the Broadway Theatre, then revived for 57 performance in 1904, directed and produced by Sam Shubert.  There was a touring company and the show was a mainstay of the national circuit for several years.

A review from the Ann Arbor Argus in January of 1897 said
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Those who saw it before will all the more anxiously desire to hear 'The Man with an Elephant on His Hands,' 'A Pretty Girl, a Summer Night,' 'You Must Ask of the Man in the Moon,' and all the other catchy songs that have become so popular, but thank fortune have not yet become part of the repertoire of the hand-organ.  The opera's mirth-provoking story, with its complications involving an Oriental prince regent and a Europeanized heir to the throne, French widows and maidens, Parisian dancing girls, Cambodian and Burmese envoys, has never laid claim to depth, but it has given many a person as delightful an evening as he could ask for.
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All that said, I have set this up at shows and gotten pretty much EXACTLY the response I was expecting from NON Asian-American passersby.  Some non Asian-Americans have taken umbrage.  Some have merely looked at me askance, while some will outright give me lip.  Asian-Americans, at least the typically 20 somethings and 30 somethings who notice it and comment, have almost universally roared with glee at such an insane and comically absurd representation of a 19th century Asian warlord, clearly played by a non Asian man.  It sells well, really well, and often to others of mixed race heritage or to folks in relationships where one half of the couple is Asian-American.

It is one of two images in our collection stumbled across with serendipity and chosen as examples of late 19th and early 20th century views of wealthy, powerful Asians as mysterious and possibly sinister caricatures... something we we would never dream of presenting now but were common dramatic 'characters' then.

Again, having weathered real street events and gauging appropriateness based on real reaction from real people for some time before we included Wang in our catalog, I offer to you what I consider my own good taste, sense of humor and desire for racial harmony buoyed by the fact that, among all the prints in our collection, this one often brings, from our Asian-American customers, the public declamation 'That print is AWESOME!" 

Note the other images posted below the main one are there for reference.  Enjoy!
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SHIPPING
All prints are shipped in a sturdy mailing tube for $8, which covers postage, tube and S & H.

BUYING MORE THAN ONE PRINT?  Add a second print or any number thereafter of this or any other prints in our catalog and shipping is still just $8, total!!!

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A NOTE ON OUR PROCESS, OUR CHOICES AND THE QUALITY OF THE GRAPHIC CRAFTSMANSHIP THAT GOES INTO OUR PRINTS.

Every print we deem exciting enough to present to the public via our Etsy store or available here at our studio has gone through a number of steps.  The first of those is always discovering and falling in love with an obscure image, always an original that we can hold in our hands.  That image is speaking to us, sometime screaming “Don’t leave me here.  See what I am, what I was, what I can be, what I SHOULD be!”

There is a real sense of excitement involved, and a great many smiles and knowing grins when we make that deal and bring that ancient print, that battered photo, that scrap of ephemera that contains some scrap of genius from an unknown commercial artist home with us, knowing already how we mean to approach its restoration.

There is the heady promise of a further hunt just as real as what drags a weekend fisherman out of bed at 3AM to work a favorite brook as we start our research, looking for that great backstory, and both ready and willing to tumble down as many rabbit holes as are revealed to us to get that story.

Then there is a meticulous digital restoration that is as often as much fun as riding a vintage Moto Guzzi on a winding coastal road.  I don’t care if that sounds crazy, it really is like jumping in the saddle!  So many choices, so many chances to take to subtly or spectacularly give new life to otherwise permanently obscure images.

This dedication and the ongoing rush of joy in the accomplishment of it, and the opportunity to share the results in our studio and here on Etsy, is the fire of passion that keeps these engines roaring. We make every effort to ensure our customers are not just satisfied but thrilled, and we happily stand 100% behind our work.