AGNES GEORGE DE MILLE - FIRST DAY COVER SIGNED - HFSID 45812

AGNES GEORGE DE MILLE
First day cover honoring the father of the blues signed by de Mille
First day cover signed "Agnes George de Mille". 6½x3½. FDC W.C. Handy with cachet on left honoring him as "Father of the Blues", Memphis, Tennessee, May 17, 1969, one 6¢ W.C. Handy stamp affixed, FIRST DAY OF ISSUE.de Mille (1905-1993, born in New York City) is an American dancer and Tony-winning choreographer. She won Tony Awards for Best Choreographer for Brigadoon (1947) and Kwamina (1962). In 1943, she choreographed Oklahoma!, a musical that revolutionized the art form by integrating its choreographic numbers with the plot in a way that had not been done before. She choreographed many other musicals, including Carousel (1945), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949) and Paint Your Wagon (1951). The daughter of playwright William Churchill de Mille and niece of director Cecil B. de Mille, Agnes spent much of her youth in Hollywood, where she learned to dance before touring the United States and Europe from 1929 to 1940 with mime-dance shows. Her career as a choreographer began in 1929, when she choreographed The Black Crook. She also choreographed ballets, most of them with New York City's Ballet Theatre. Her most important ballet was Rodeo (1942) for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, which incorporated rodeo movements like bronco-riding and steer-roping. Lightly toned. Adhesive residue from label on front. Otherwise in fine condition.