132. Today in 1920s Turkey: 4 January 1926 (Cover Picture: Signed Jackie Coogan Photo)
(Cover picture, Haftalık Mecmua or “The Weekly Digest,” 4 January 1926, no. 25, page 1.)
English:
The personally signed picture that Jackie Coogan sent The Weekly Digest.
Keeping in mind the little actor’s world-wide fame, we requested his picture back when The Weekly Digest first started coming out. In the most recent mail delivery we received a personally signed picture with greetings from Jackie Coogan. We present it to our readers.
Türkçe:
“Caki Kugan’ın” Haftalık Mecmua’ya bizzat imzalayarak gönderdiği resim.
Haftalık Mecmua’nın bidayet intişarında küçük sanatkarın cihan-şümul şöhretini düşünerek bir resmini istemiştik. Caki Kugan’ın selamlarıyla gönderdiği ve bizzat imzaladığı resmini son gelen postadan aldık. Karilerimize takdim ediyoruz.
Comments
This photograph of child film star, Jackie Coogan occupies the entire front page of the eight-page weekly illustrated journal, Haftalık Mecmua. The picture consists of a portrait of a bright-eyed boy in an oversized paperboy hat. The “head-shot” includes a most precious message penned in the lower right corner, presumably by the boy, that reads: “GOOD WISHES FROM JACKIE COOGAN.” The caption provided by the magazine reveals interesting details concerning how the picture was acquired. According to this text, Haftalık Mecmua made a request for a photograph of the child with “world-wide fame” back in July of 1925 (when its first issue dropped). It is unclear what method of communication initiated the request (mail, telegraph, telephone) but it is stated that the signed picture was received in a “recent” delivery from the postal service. Born on 26 October 1914, Jackie Coogan would have been eleven years old when this issue of Haftalık Mecmua was published. Most notably he starred alongside Charlie Chaplin in The Kid in 1921 where he wore a similar, over-sized paperboy’s hat in much of the promotional pictures—an iconic look he continued to sport in another film, My Boy, also released in 1921. Like many child stars he grew up to continue with his acting career. The most recognizable character he played that I have familiarity with was Uncle Fester from The Addams Family which aired between 1964 and 1966.
The 1920s is a decade in which photography gained both popularity and ubiquity and moreover, its proliferation via the popular press served to simultaneously usher in a new age of the ever-more visible “celebrity.” Celebrity photographs appear in the pages of illustrated gazettes with greater frequency as the decade carried on. Like the present example, occasionally even an autographed photo of a recognizable film actor donned the premier spot, the cover page of such publications. Other instances that I have previously encountered include both local and foreign personages such as President Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) and Charlie Chaplin. While Today in 1920s Turkey had not previously considered any other examples of the signed photo cover genre, there is one post from the past regarding an autographed caricature of the President that was published on the cover of Akbaba in 1925 (see #124). As is the case with current standards of appraisal, the presence of a famous person’s signature or hand-written note greatly increases a given material object’s value (sentimental, monetary, or otherwise).
(Cover page, Haftalık Mecmua or “The Weekly Digest,” 4 January 1926, no. 25, page 1. Hakkı Tarık Us Collection, Beyazit Library, Istanbul.)