[Photo Album]: German and English Motordrome

1931.

Price: $2,500.00

Hardcover. Oblong octavo. String-tied reddish-brown leatherette album with faux alligator pattern. Contains 36 black and white photographs, both tipped-in and loose, measuring between 3" x 2.25" to 8.25" x 6.25". The album also includes a folded 17.75” x 30” German broadside, various German newspaper clippings, Parr's ID card, his cut paper silhouette, exhibition tickets, and a Wall of Death postcard advertising the sideshow. Very good with moderate rubbing to the edges and with some toning and soiling to a few of the photographs.

A photo album and scrapbook created by German motorcycle stunt rider Johnny Parr who performed in the motordrome carnival sideshow, aka the Wall of Death, in which a person rides a motorcycle inside a cylindrical room as high as 30 feet off the ground and is held in place by centripetal force. The trick started at Coney Island in the early 1900s, becoming a sideshow staple around America before spreading to England and Europe. There appears to be little information on Parr outside of this album which shows that he performed in the early 1930s around Germany (Wismar, Berlin, Grohn, Kiel), England (Scarborough, Leicester, Blackpool), France, and Sweden. The album show him with other riders, including Gene Shumway, William Ames, and Kitty Müller, with whom he performed tricks, as well as photos of fairs, various motordromes (with one under construction), standing by his bike, performing tricks, and with a sideshow barker before a crowd. There are also a few additional loose photos of the sea and a group of women dressed in 16th Century period garb. The best photo from the album is a wonderful image of a group of riders who performed in Scarborough, England in 1930 made up of a mix of American, English, and European riders, including Parr, posing under signs that read "Wizards of the Wall," with the town name incorrectly spelled "Scarboro." A wonderful collection of images of a traveling German daredevil in the early 1930s.


Item #396022

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Item #396022 [Photo Album]: German and English Motordrome. Johnny PARR.
[Photo Album]: German and English Motordrome
[Photo Album]: German and English Motordrome
[Photo Album]: German and English Motordrome
[Photo Album]: German and English Motordrome
[Photo Album]: German and English Motordrome