ARETHA FRANKLIN SGD. C1972 1ST 'WOMEN OF DISTINCTION' W FRANKLIN- $30K APPRAISAL VALUE

   One extremely rare, unusual, collectible, and possibly unique, original 11-page program, Women of Distinction, quotation marks, close quotes, their first annual ball. This is the first one they ever made honoring these women and honoring and awarding one of the world's greatest singers, Miss Aretha Franklin, exclamation point. Rolling Stone Magazine twice named her the greatest singer of all time. Again, the greatest singer of all time. That is crazy. Okay, one of the best-selling music artists ever with over 75 million records sold. She was a child prodigy and she started singing for her church, the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, when she was a very, very young girl. Her father was the minister at the church and she was so good that at age 18, she signed a recording contract to be represented by Columbia Records. And then in 1966, she made some of the great songs ever and recorded, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You, Respect, You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman, Chain of Fools, I Say a Little Prayer, et cetera, et cetera. During the height of her tremendous success and accomplishments, she was requested and honored to perform and to be honored at the Women of Distinction Ball in Queens, New York on 166th Street and Jamaica Avenue. And this event was founded by Lon DeLeon, who was a very famous man in his own right, who put together this program. He was nicknamed the Man of Action and he wanted a plateau and place to present and honor these black women of distinction. And he was awarding them, this as a way to get more women involved and try to be successful and in their cause of how difficult it was for a black woman to achieve success at that time. In addition to this program being super rare in its own right, it was clearly, it's an 11-page program. It was put together by hand and stapled in the top left corner to show you it was done by hand. Lon De Leon's picture appears and his page appears on pages exactly two and three. So they made a mistake and put two of them together here. And really an amazing piece of the events. These are also, we are listing the other women that were the other five women that were honored at the event as well, all special in their own right. An incredibly super rare piece. So, in our estimation, this was a ball and event and it was made circa 1972, which is about 50 years old. And our estimate is that they probably made over only 250. A program would be given, you understand, not to everyone that went, but to every couple. So they probably didn't anticipate more than 150 to 200 couples, right? So they probably only made 150 to 200 of these programs. And that was it. So these programs honoring Ms. Aretha Franklin are by themselves with her black and white picture on the cover and her name as shown here in the pictures are extraordinarily rare and unique. We believe this possibly could be the only program that exists today. Again, this was hand put together, hand stapled with no heavy cover on it, no book binding, nothing like that. So this had to be treated delicately over the many years. So again, this is possibly the only one in existence. In addition to that, it is probably the only one that is signed by the great Aretha Franklin in the top left corner. It says there, Sincerely and Best Wishes, Aretha Franklin with her beautiful drawing of a face there as well. And it is also signed on the top right by, what's his name? Frank Willis, who who achieved notoriety as being the security guard for the Watergate break-ins in the Democratic, what's it called? Offices of Watergate in 1970, 1972. So it has his signature as well. So this is by, we think we can clearly, we think we can say with certainty that this is the only program possibly that exists and certainly the only one that has her signature and his signature there as well. It is overall in extremely fine condition as issued over 50 years ago. One of the great pieces of memorabilia of Aretha Franklin and any sort of black history buff or somebody who collects black collectibles would be astounded to own this type of piece. It would be an amazing piece in any collection. 

 

This item will ship exactly as photographed in overall Very Fine Condition. It also comes with:  

FREE $30,000.00 Certified Insurance Appraisal, &
Certificate of Authenticity!
  
This piece can be viewed at our Brand New gallery APR57 at 200 W 57th Street, New York, NY 10019. We ship anywhere around the world! This item is also available for local pickup at our gallery.

  
Appraisal Value: $30,000.00