Grand Concert Ball / Invalids' Ball [group of eight different program booklets for the event, three featuring Natalie Wood]

San Francisco: The San Francisco Committee for the Aid of Russian Disabled Veterans of the World War I and II, 1947-1955. Pamphlet. Eight stablebound booklets, 6x9 inches, generally very good with some minor handling wear and dust soil. Programs present are for Feb. 15 and Nov. 15, 1947, Nov. 26, 1949 (in which year the name of the organization changed to the San Francisco Committee for the Aid of Russian Disabled Veterans Outside of Russia); Nov. 4, 1950, Nov. 15, 1952, Nov. 21, 1953, November 13, 1954, and November 12, 1955. Length ranges from 12 to 24 pages each.

The Ball, held to raise money for veterans, was a major event on the social calendar. The guests of honor included various exiled royals, and the programs are packed with ads for local businesses serving the Russian and other Slavic communities. Maria Zudilova, the mother of Hollywood icon Natalie Wood (born Natasha Zacharenko), was an active member of the community, and Natalie herself makes several appearances. The program for 1949, when Wood was eleven years old, notes that "Coronation of the Queen and Princess of the Ball will be performed by Natalie Wood - our famous young Hollywood star." The 1954 program features a small black and white photo of her inside the front cover, with a Russian caption expressing her greetings to the Ball, and the 1955 program, printed after she had won an Oscar for "Rebel Without a Cause," features her greeting on the rear cover, in Russian again, with a full-page photo. By this time she was apparently too busy to appear in person.

Cat.No: 291846

Price: $175.00