All about Alaska, the Klondike gold fields, and the wonderful talking machine : to Klondike and return in one hundred and twenty minutes, and stop at all principal stations : a grand illustrated lecture and musical entertainment.
Chicago: Sears, Roebuck and Company Feb. 1898. First Edition. Large poster. 18 1/8 x 24 1/4 inches. Printed on thin pink paper in black ink. A few soft creases (the worst across the middle, another upper left), excellent condition overall. The printing impression is nice and dark. Both illustrations (panning for gold and the talking machine) are noted as "Copyrighted, Feb., 1898". At bottom of poster is noted "Sears, Roebuck & Co., Chicago." Upper left is printed "A705-4-28-98-100M" presumably a printing code. Near Fine. [27894]
A wonderful poster designed by Sears, Roebuck and Co as ephemeral support for entrepeneurs who were purchasing entertainment equipment and programs from them, and then using those setups to put on local entertainments. The bottom of the poster has spots to note the costs for Adults and children (in cents), and a fill in spot for the location of the entertainment. Apparently concerned about when the projection viewers might be used, they specify 8 PM as the starting point. The poster notes the entertainment will take 120 minutes, and will "Stop at all Principal Stations." The lecture to be illustrated throughout with 50 magnificent views, and will "render a high-class Musical Programme...the reproduction of the voice in either song or speech is so natural and the articulation so distinct that anyone would believe it is a human being...."
A Sears & Roebuck Co advertisement in the Comfort Magazine, 1899, p222 makes the pitch to potential vendors opposite an article on the Klondike: "DEAR EDITOR If there are any men among your readers who are making less than $200.00 per month and who would like to investigate a clean legitimate no fake opportunity to start in a splendid money making business where nothing is risked and very little cash is required we wish such men would write to us. A number of our customers without any previous experience whatever have gone into the great paying public entertainment business with exhibition outfits which we furnish complete at $15.25 and upwards and now write us that they are making the biggest kind of a success clearing from $50.00 to $200.00 every week. The business is new the field is big and not crowded. The public interest in the wonderful talking machine, stereopticon, and lecture outfits and the sensational moving pictures is greater than ever and you have no idea how easy it is to give one or two entertainments every day and make big money. This month we are making special inside cut prices on such entertainment outfits are sending them anywhere for thorough examination before one cent of money is paid and can save your readers nearly one half the price on an outfit Please print this letter in your paper and anyone interested can cut it out and mail it to us and we will send him free of charge our catalogue of the latest public exhibition outfits and full particulars of his month's big special liberal offer Yours very truly SEARs Roebuck & Co CHICAGO"
Few copies are in institutional collections (less than a dozen as of this writing). The visual appeal is unmistakeable, the illustration of how mail order catalogues were trying to sell their wares far and wide interesting and worth studying. It is, in effect, an extension of the gentleman's parlor entertainments, but now in the local halls as technology has advanced. A few different colors are extant (tan, brown and pink) but this pink one appeals to us very much, and the condition is quite nice.
ITEM SOLD