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Lot #623
W. C. Handy

“I had a chance to do my march song ‘The Big Stick Blues March’”

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Estimate: $200+
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Description

“I had a chance to do my march song ‘The Big Stick Blues March’”

TLS, two pages, 8.5 x 11, Handy Brothers Music Co., Inc. letterhead, May 22, 1951. Letter to Edgar Smith, in part: “It was my good fortune to spend a day in Washington making an appearance for the National Association for the Blind through which ‘W. C. Handy Foundation for the Blind’ was incorporated in Washington and New York…I was in Washington when the battle began over the MacArthur incident, I had a chance to do my march song ‘The Big Stick Blues March’ inspired by The Big Stick Policy of Theodore Roosevelt which we seem to have forgotten, and since this song was sent to General MacArthur and other Notables like Ex-President Herbert Hoover, Congressmen, Governors, Senators and four hundred Mayors…you may be hearing it over radio and elsewhere…We have already had replies enough to bind a large book for posterity and all say that the number is timely and terrific. The Mayor of this City emphasized this when speaking of our unpreparedness that forced General MacArthur at Bataan to tell them he would be back, and I was touched by his words, ‘Old Soldiers never die—they just fade away—good bye.’” In fine condition. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.

Auction Info

  • Auction Title: Fine Autographs And Artifacts
  • Dates: #481 - Ended August 10, 2016





This item is Pre-Certified by PSA/DNA
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