A most extraordinary autograph album that originally served as a guest register for the popular Russian restaurant Bublichki on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, red imitation leather, 10.25 x 8, approximately 90 leaves, late 1930s–early 1940s. That Bublichki and its owners—an immigrant couple known in the Hollywood community as “Mama” and “Papa”—were well loved is at once evident from the warm, affectionate inscriptions by the scores of showbiz luminaries who signed the register. Apart from the number and magnitude of the stars represented, the book’s most notable feature is the many original sketches, including self-portraits and caricatures, musical quotations, and a few risqué vignettes. Nearly all of the inscriptions are in ink; most of the pages are inscribed on both sides, with a few single-sided examples, and a number of the pages bear inscriptions from multiple signers. Among the more prominent personalities represented: Ida Lupino, Myrna Loy, Humphrey Bogart, Reginald Gardiner (pencil rear-view sketch of a woman bending over), Leo Carrillo (with self-portrait sketch as Pancho), Jean Parker (with lovely sketch of a nude dancer), Anthony Quinn (with accomplished sketch of a steaming cup of coffee), Melvyn Douglas, Paul Muni, Edmund Lowe, Francis Lederer, Robert Benchley, Dolores Del Rio, Norma Shearer, Johnny Weissmuller, Martha Raye (with sketch), Lupe Velez, Ginger Rogers, Loretta Young, Chester Morris (with sketch), Ralph Bellamy, Brian Aherne (with sketch), Marlene Dietrich, Adolphe Menjou, Stan Laurel, Gloria Swanson, Dorothy Lamour, Errol Flynn, Charles Starrett, Hedy Lamarr (twice, once with then-husband John Loder), Rouben Mamoulian (with sketch), Joan Crawford (with then-husband Franchot Tone, Crawford adding a self-portrait sketch), Allan Jones, Tyrone Power, Madeleine Carroll, Fritz Feld (with sketch), Robert Montgomery, Boris Karloff, Roland Young (with sketch), Lucille Ball, Olivia de Havilland and Bill Bakewell (the GWTW stars together, with sketch), Dorothy Parker, Victor Young (with AMQS), John Carradine, Merle Oberon, Mary Martin, Alice Faye, Lawrence Tibbett, Edward Everett Horton, Dolores Costello, Burgess Meredith (lengthy ANS), Joan Fontaine, Conrad Nagel, Mickey Rooney, David Niven, Lionel Atwill, George Brent, Erich von Stroheim, Deanna Durbin, Ruth Hussey, Judy Garland, Carlos Montoya, Emmerich Kálmán (AMQS), Tallulah Bankhead, Carole Landis, Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman (together), Rosalind Russell, Linda Darnell, George McManus (with sketch of Jiggs), Nelson Eddy, and Arthur Rubinstein. In fine condition overall, with mild rubbing to extremities of covers, mild toning and a few spots to interior, occasional brushes, smudges, and blots, and a few edge tears. R&R COA.
