Sanford Roth Typed Letter Signed Discussing Picasso

Sanford Roth

Sanford Roth Typed Letter Signed Discussing Picasso - 1952

Close Zoom

$500

Item # 3797

Purchase Inquire

A fantastic and extremely rare typed letter signed by Sanford Roth, one of Hollywood’s most respected glamor photographers during its Golden Age. This is an effusive, richly detailed letter to his friends, James and Barbara Byrnes, from the Hotel Crillon in Madrid, dated June 12, 1952. Roth’s signature—indeed, anything written or signed by him—is one of the more elusive collectibles, since very little of his material has ever come to market.

Roth discusses his new friendship with Pablo Picasso, how Picasso wants to buy several of his photographs with plans to contribute the frontispiece for Roth’s new book; plans for showings throughout Europe; a new photographic series on bullfighting with the matador Pepe Dominguin (whose father, the great Domingo, was chronicled in Ernest Hemingway’s book The Dangerous Summer).

Sanford Roth and his wife Beulah, both extensive world travelers, met, entertained, photographed, and became friends with the who’s who of post World War II Europe and Hollywood-photographic subjects including Albert Einstein, Alfred Hitchcock, James Dean (who became a personal friend), Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Audrey Hepburn, Aldous Huxley, Noël Coward, Jimmy Stewart, Christopher Isherwood, Louis Armstrong, Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Grace Kelly, Sophia Loren, John Wayne, Jean Cocteau, Peter Ustinov, Tennessee Williams, Ava Gardner, Cary Grant, and many others.

Roth first met James Dean on the set of Giant and immediately became friends. Dean often visited their home and treated the Roths as adoptive parents. Poignantly, Sanford Roth was in James Dean’s Ford station wagon driving behind Dean’s new Porsche Spyder on the way to the Salinas Road Races on September 30, 1955, when Dean was killed in a late afternoon traffic accident. Roth took the now famous post-accident photographs.

James B. Byrnes was the first curator of modern and contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1946-1952), and his wife Barbara owned the American Contemporary Gallery on Hollywood Boulevard.

Purchase This Item

Please provide the information requested below to purchase the item you have selected. We accept most major credit cards or wire transfer for select international orders.

PLEASE NOTE: This form is not a binding purchase agreement. You incur no obligation by submitting invoice details. If the invoice has not been paid within three (3) days, it will simply expire, and the item will be returned to inventory.

All Vintage Memorabilia autographs are unconditionally guaranteed to be genuine. This guarantee applies to refund of the purchase price, and is without time limit to the original purchaser. A written and signed unconditional guarantee to that effect accompanies each item we sell.

Contact Information

Fields with * are required.

First Name

Last Name

Phone

How would you prefer to be contacted?

Email Phone

Shipping Address

Where would you like your item shipped (someone may have to sign for it)?

Do you have special shipping instructions?

Payment

An invoice will be sent to the email address indicated above for remittance of payment via Square, our secure payment processor. Once paid, your item will be carefully packaged and prepared for shipment within two business days. Pricing quoted on invoice provided is valid for three (3) days, and unpaid invoices will expire at that time unless other arrangements have been made.

We ship all items by US Postal Service Priority Mail Insured, in most cases with signature required. Such fees will be added to the invoice.

* Our privacy policy ensures complete confidentiality.

Home Inventory Gallery Curiosities About Contact

Toll Free 866.522.4863 or 206.774.2074.
Biographical descriptions on this site may incorporate Creative Commons Licensed content adapted from Wikipedia and other reliable sources.
Terms Of Use & Privacy Policy | Copyright © 1997-2023 Vintage Memorabilia. All Rights Reserved.