Thanks for sharing, David. I wish I could go to NY and see these in person.
This reminds of a CASABLANCA auction José Ma Carpio put together sometime in the late 90s. I believe it was in New York, but I don‘t remember if he worked for Christies or Sothebys at the time. Either one of them. José‘s idea was to offer as many CASABLANCA posters as he could get hold of in a single auction, and he managed to find quite a few. This must‘ve been before Mr. Lauder started collecting. I attended the auction, and it was a modest success, to put it mildly. Quite frankly: It turned out to be not a really good idea after all at the time, the market was still way too small for a concept like that. I remember I had a German CASABLANCA in that sale. José had convinced me to get it linenbacked and it passed at $1000 or something. I had this poster for quite a while, and there was ZERO international interest didn‘t have Bogart on it and the collectors in Germany refused it because it was linenbacked, which was totally unacceptable at the time. I eventually re-consigned it to Christies South Kensington and they sold it for something like $7000 or so. I don‘t remember the exact amount, but they sent me a hefty check that came quite unexpected. Helmut www.filmposter.net > Gesendet: Samstag, den 03.12.2022 um 05:00 Uhr > Von: "David Kusumoto" <davidmkusum...@hotmail.com> > An: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU > Betreff: Re: [MOPO] Casablanca collection on display in NYC > > I don't know why I even bother anymore - *he said crankily* - but here it is. > Up on my web host for just a couple of days. The NYT writer couldn't help but > inject a panoply of contemporaneous political "echos" / "teachable moments" > normally reserved for the political opinion pages - nevertheless, the few > pics featured are nice. (If the images don't show up, lemme know and I'll > post direct links.) -d. > > <https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.com%2Fimg923%2F8607%2F8TBDhj.jpg&data=05%7C01%7C%7C397e8f8c298643702bc608dad4e26515%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638056366076954345%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=N94BsNfug6QdFBwoCaY3RtL3XePrR2nN17hn%2B2LxL%2Fg%3D&reserved=0>----- > > [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/8607/8TBDhj.jpg?trnonsuspmrk=1&trfcallwremmrk=1] > > By Jason Farago for the New York Times - Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022 > > [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/4337/LD2iuR.jpg?trnonsuspmrk=1&trfcallwremmrk=1] > > Ronald Lauder's personal collection of memorabilia from "Casablanca" fills a > room of the Neue Galerie, on the Upper East Side. > > > Round up the unusual suspects. "Casablanca" has turned 80, and the most > esteemed of all Hollywood classics enters its octogenarian years with a new > ultra-high-definition DVD release. > > There's also, right now in New York, an engaging new display of "Casablanca" > artifacts, though you won't find it at MoMA or the Museum of the Moving > Image. Of all the joints in all the towns in all the world, the relics of > this paragon of the Hollywood studio system have ended up in … a museum of > German and Austrian modern art. > > That would be the Neue Galerie, conceived by the cosmetics baron Ronald S. > Lauder and the art dealer Serge Sabarsky (1912-1996), which opened in 2001 in > a former Vanderbilt mansion on a prime corner of Fifth Avenue. > > It's celebrating its first 20 years with a showcase of its surviving > founder's own collection: not only jewels of modern Mitteleuropa, but ancient > sculpture, medieval broadswords and reliquaries, and gleaming oddities from > Renaissance cabinets of curiosities. > Least expected are more than five dozen posters, lobby cards, props and press > materials from the collector's favorite movie, which he reports seeing "at > least 25 to 30 times" — and whose memorabilia he has been buying up with > foxhound-grade avidity. > > "The Ronald S. Lauder Collection" had its grand opening on the evening of > November's midterm elections — whose result, by the way, Lauder may have > decisively influenced, having spent millions on lawsuits and campaign > advertising for Republicans in New York, where the G.O.P. flipped four > congressional seats. (Among his animating causes are crime, taxes, and a > proposed wind farm off the Hamptons shoreline.) > > "I'm no ogre," Lauder assured The Times this month in an interview at Café > Sabarsky, the charmingly ersatz Viennese cafe on the Neue Galerie's ground > floor, and, certainly, the 500-odd objects here do not have an outward > suggestion of barbarism. If anything, its rooms of princely baubles are > rather oversaturated, as if Lauder didn't know where to stop; drawings by > Egon Schiele are hung sky-high, essentially invisible, and stuffed vitrines > induced in me the novel feeling of ivory fatigue. > > The unexpected highlight is the "Casablanca" gallery, the show's smallest and > densest, which in its way fits right into an institution devoted to Central > European genius and American inheritances. > > Its walls are covered with soft-focus images of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid > Bergman, and posters both printed and painted. ("They Have a Date With Fate > in … CASABLANCA," reads one hand-lettered display from 1942, the title > sparkling gold.) > > Lobby cards — those black-and-white stills you'd once see by the popcorn > stand — take us back to the louche purgatory of Rick's Café Américain, where > the dashing Resistance hero Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) is gathering > intelligence, and the charmingly corrupt Captain Renault (Claude Rains) is > sizing up the loveliest exiles. > > > [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/6817/byLD6X.jpg?trnonsuspmrk=1&trfcallwremmrk=1] > > Posters and lobby cards cover the walls with images of the film's stars, > Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. > > [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/9023/F6A2Mi.jpg?trnonsuspmrk=1&trfcallwremmrk=1] > > <https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.com%2Fimg922%2F7039%2FFfMpw7.jpg&data=05%7C01%7C%7C397e8f8c298643702bc608dad4e26515%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638056366076954345%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=0MgfeQh%2F%2FzEdEYk1MiM5NS5FJIl4K5fY2XaSL9qarfU%3D&reserved=0> > Detail of a brass lamp, fringed with imitation jewels, used in the movie. > > [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/7039/FfMpw7.jpg?trnonsuspmrk=1&trfcallwremmrk=1] > > A hand-lettered display from 1942 announces the film's title in sparkling > gold. > > > You'll also find memorabilia from the film's postwar releases in France, > Italy, Czechoslovakia and, by 1952, Germany. > > Bergman appears in solo splendor on the German poster, beaming above a set > piece of fez-topped musicians. There's a brass lamp from Rick's, fringed with > imitation gemstones, and two rattan chairs where Europe's desperate and > displaced drank their cognacs and plotted their escapes. > > Looping in the background is "As Time Goes By," performed by Dooley Wilson, a > veteran of the Negro Theater Unit of the Federal Theater Project, in the role > of the nightclub crooner Sam. > > Lauder apparently also owns the 1940 Buick Phaeton in which Rains drives our > heroes to the Casablanca airport in the film's final act. Lauder wanted to > station the car outside the Neue Galerie for the run of the show, but no > dice. Even with a net worth of $4.5 billion, nobody beats alternate-side > parking regulations. > > "Casablanca" premiered in New York on Nov. 26, 1942; Warner Bros. pushed up > its release date to capitalize on the excitement around that month's Allied > invasion of North Africa. It opened nationally in January 1943, and its tale > of refugees and people smugglers was not only topical; it was nearly > autofiction. > > A stunning number of its performers were Jewish refugees or anti-Nazi exiles > — among them Conrad Veidt, previously a star of the Berlin studio system, who > played Major Strasser; S.Z. Sakall, a Hungarian Jewish actor, as the club's > affable headwaiter; and Peter Lorre in the small but crucial role of Ugarte, > who sells exit visas to the rich and desperate. > > The French actress Madeleine Lebeau, in the small role of Rick's jilted > mistress, cries real tears during the film's stirring performance of "La > Marseillaise"; she too was a refugee, fleeing via Lisbon to Mexico, and then > to Hollywood. She escaped with her husband, Marcel Dalio (born Israel Mosche > Blauschild), who plays the croupier at Rick's, and who left France after > antisemitic critics denounced his appearance in "The Rules of the Game." > > [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/5116/mhV5W9.jpg?trnonsuspmrk=1&trfcallwremmrk=1] > > The production's transit papers for Victor Laszlo, "signed" by Charles de > Gaulle, which Rick finally hands over in "Casablanca." > > > When it plays in the revival houses on Valentine's Day, when it surfaces as > the late movie after "Nightline," "Casablanca" still endures as a wartime > love affair, with Bogie and Bergman letting each other go in the airport fog. > > But for me "Casablanca" has always been a movie of visas and exit stamps, > embassies and expediters, bribed officials and underground operators. It > paints the modern world as the province of emigrants and evacuees, and > subordinates the most enthralling of all Hollywood romances to the welfare of > the persecuted. > Which is why I was so astonished to discover, in Lauder's collection, an > extraordinary relic: the original (prop) letter of transit that sets the plot > in motion, made out to Victor Laszlo and "signed" by General de Gaulle. The > prop passports are here too, with Bergman's and Henreid's photographs stamped > with the seal of the Casablanca colonial administration. > > I couldn't believe I was seeing them, and seeing them here, in a museum of > German and Austrian art. It was as if these fictional travel documents > concentrated all the exiles and displacements that built midcentury American > culture, of Mies van der Rohe and Marlene Dietrich, of "Doctor Faustus" and > "Broadway Boogie-Woogie." > > They burn, especially, with the shame of knowing that a contemporary > "Casablanca" cast member could probably not procure one. Even before the > Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has forced an estimated five million to > flee, the world has been shaken by the largest refugee crisis since everybody > came to Rick's. The United Nations now puts the number of displaced at 100 > million — one in every 78 people on Earth — from Afghanistan and Venezuela, > from Central America and Myanmar, and above all from Syria, whose civil war > will soon enter its 12th year. > > [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/3595/XLgBgp.jpg?trnonsuspmrk=1&trfcallwremmrk=1] > > The prop passport for Ilsa Lund, Ingrid Bergman's character. > > > Nevertheless, under President Donald J. Trump, the United States cut its > quotas for refugee admissions to the lowest level ever. The numbers have > barely budged under his successor. Though President Biden increased the cap > of the refugee admissions program, his government has come nowhere close to > fulfilling it; just 25,400 refugees were admitted in the last fiscal year, > leaving 80 percent of the places unfilled. > > The fundamental things apply. In "Casablanca" the Hollywood system reached > the acme of its artistic and civic potential, and on that Orientalist > soundstage, as the displaced of Europe oscillated in and out of character, > these foreigners offered America a new self-portrait. It taught us that love > and displacement went hand in hand, that ideals were thicker than blood. > > "I bet they're asleep in New York," Bogie mopes into his tumbler of whisky at > the end of the first reel. "I bet they're asleep all over America." But the > passionate clarity of "Casablanca" was not something we only dreamed. > > The Ronald S. Lauder Collection - Through Feb. 13, Neue Galerie New York, > 1048 Fifth Avenue, 212-628-6200; > neuegalerie.org<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fneuegalerie.org%2F&data=05%7C01%7C%7C397e8f8c298643702bc608dad4e26515%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638056366076954345%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=kERIzZ2s8KjjZ7WM06L0Y%2Fcf4e7rDrZ74PrVOn461pc%3D&reserved=0>. > > > > ________________________________ > From: MoPo List <mopo-l@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU> on behalf of Tom Martin > <dreamfact...@hollywooddreamfactory.com> > Sent: Friday, December 2, 2022 5:07 PM > To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU <MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU> > Subject: Re: [MOPO] Casablanca collection on display in NYC > > could not see the article unless i subscribed ,,,,,oh well > Iam not wanting more mail soguess i dont get to see\ > > Thanks Charles for the Kindness > Tom > Hollywood dream factory® > since 1977 > > > On 2022-12-02 15:53, Christopher Quarles wrote: > https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/01/arts/design/casablanca-neue-galerie-lauder.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2022%2F12%2F01%2Farts%2Fdesign%2Fcasablanca-neue-galerie-lauder.html%3Fsmid%3Dnytcore-ios-share%26referringSource%3DarticleShare&data=05%7C01%7C%7C397e8f8c298643702bc608dad4e26515%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638056366076954345%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=QzvmXVk87WMP92sq6ppeAJvES0fGp2HSLfKu9j05Wsw%3D&reserved=0> > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > > Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu > In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > > The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
