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Dorothy Lamour's life as a phrase book

Item date(s): 2006

Nöelle Janaczewska  - (poem by)
Mike Hudson
Jadwiga Jarvis


Pages: unpaged
Size: 500mm
Inscription: Signed by all participants.
Edition: #3/30


Place publication: Katoomba, Australia
Publisher: Wayzgoose Press

Additional notes:
Bound as a concertina, the book consists of 11 triple-gate pages, folded, to approx. 45 x 32cm and unfolding to about 5 metres x 65cm.

Colophon: This typographic rendition of the play was conceived, designed and illustrated with linocuts by Mike Hudson and set in a variety of types by Jadwiga Jarvis. The linocuts were further illuminated by hand with additional colours, making each copy in this edition unique. Hand printed on Magnani Incisioni 220 gsm using a Western proof press. The book is contained in a chemise with red ribbon ties in a box with a hinged top made to look like a black and white striped movie set scene marker (clapper-board).

An edition of 30 signed and numbered copies of which numbers I-V are not for sale. Of the remaining 25 copies this is one of three copies in a designer binding by Mike Hudson.

Dorothy Lamour's life as a phrase book was written as a stage play for a solo performer. In it, the actress made famous by her "road movies" in which she co-starred with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, is mistakenly cast in a poem instead of a movie and finds herself marooned in a dingy Sydney hotel. The miscasting leads to much confustion and soul-searching.

Nöelle Janaczewska is an award-winning Sydney based playwright whose work has been staged locally and internationally as well as broadcast on radio. Her play is the third in a series of monologues inspired by Hollywood heroines of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. However, Janaczewski's characters do not conform to the romantic air-head types assigned them in their films.

Extensively illustrated in "The Wayzgoose Affair" by Jadwiga Jarvis with an illustration of the special wooden "clapperboard" binding o page 175.

Included in the special exhibition at the Library of Congress on 19th April, 2013 for CODEX Mexico.

Ref: GB/10959







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