Cool Things I Forgot I Owned: “Cafe Hostess” One & Half Sheets

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 50

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Image from Heritage Auctions

A few years back I was going through the Ann Dvorak collection with my friend Darin (you’ll learn more about him at some point). I had just moved to a residence with ample wall space and we were looking for posters to hang up in the stairwell. I was delighted to pull out one sheet for the 1939 Columbia feature, Cafe Hostess, starring Ann and Preston Foster. It’s a cute poster, but the reason I was so happy to see it is that I had no memory of buying it. None. I remember getting outbid on one sometime in 2003, but could not recall actually paying for one myself. After Darin finished making fun of me (actually, he’s never stopped), we popped it in a frame and hung it up. I now live in a house with less wall space, but the Cafe Hostess one sheet still has a place of honor in my daughter’s bedroom.

Cafe Hostess

As I started working on this post, I went to an auction website to see if maybe I had bought the one sheet there, and to pull a scan. The website did not have the one sheet, but I was instead dismayed to see a gorgeous Cafe Hostess half sheet that had been available last October. I clicked on it and was even more bummed to see that it sold for a mere $26! Then I saw that the high bidder was…me. Keep in mind this was only four months ago. Not sure why I can’t ever remember buying Cafe Hostess stuff (I also recently bought a duplicate photo), but it sure is fun when I re-discover them again!

3 Comments

  1. Scott February 21, 2013

    The cast of ‘Cafe Hostess’ includes Linda Winters as ‘Tricks’. This was one of her last films as a Columbia contract player before she landed the part of Susan Alexander Kane in Orson Welles’ ‘Citizen Kane’ the following year, as Dorothy Comingore.

    Like Ann, Dorothy Comingore was also something of a Hollywood rebel; incurring the wrath of studio heads for her left-wing politics and committment to improving the working conditions of studio technicians.

  2. admin February 21, 2013

    Gee, I had no idea she was in “Cafe Hostess.” Is she in this photo?

  3. Scott February 22, 2013

    Hmmm. Don’t believe that she is.

    Can’t recognize any of the others beside Ann and Preston Foster actually.

    Here is a link to a photo of Dorothy Comingore from that same year in a Columbia Three Stooges two-reeler called ‘Rockin Thru The Rockies’ as a comparison

    threestooges.net/albums/cast/Dorothy%20Comingore.jpg

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