1931 Whitman, Movie Masks of 10 Famous Comedy Stars
This is the first and only complete example I've seen of this scarce famous Hollywood comedian toy mask punch-out book. It's complete with all 10 masks and includes all of the areas the would normally be punched out as blank spaces, namely the eyes and ears. The pages are held in place with its original cloth binding. It has a couple of minor condition issues, but still grades near mint overall. Each illustration is a terrific caricature of the comedian represented; and not merely a cartoon image. Heavy card stock was used. The masks were printed oversize to completely bend around and cover the face, hair, and ears of the wearer. Once the face was punched out from the page, the spaces covering the center of the ears and eyes would be removed. The lower half of the nose could also be punched out to allow for breathing, but still remain in place. The mask was fitted to the face by squeezing the wearer's ears through the ear cut-outs. There are 10 pages in all. No instructions were originally included. Any whitened areas or differences in shade you may see are all due to light glare. There are no whitened or faded areas on any page. To avoid damaging the book I used a complicated setup and limited my photographs to five of the masks. This included: The five masks not shown include: Size: 12½" x 10½" x 1/8". Sold: Dec. 2008
Price Sold: $ 120