Ricky Jay Hokum to Grunwald

Unknown artist, Spelterini's Living Ass, 1830. Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, UCLA

Magician, author, and actor Ricky Jay (1946-2018) assembled a huge collection of ephemera advertising the weirder dimensions of show biz. The Hammer Museum presented a selection of Jay's collection in 2007, and now a notable example has been given to UCLA's Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts by Jay's wife, Chrisann Verges. 

Sotheby's sold much of the Jay collection in Oct. 2021, realizing $3.8 million. That included a contemporary automaton, "Neppy," that Jay used in his act, as well as vintage posters of Harry Houdini.

The Grunwald gift is a handbill, not a poster. Small, black-and-white, and aesthetically crude, handbills are more like a blend of art brut, concrete poetry, and fake news.

There's more Ricky Jay in the Museum of Jurassic Technology's ongoing "Rotten Luck. The Decaying Dice of Ricky Jay."