Esquire Magazine Award, presented to Duke Ellington

Description:

This award was presented to Duke Ellington from Esquire magazine in 1946. It features a stylized gold-tone statue of a man playing a trumpet, Esquire magazine’s pop-eyed mascot “Esky,” on a brown-stained wooden base with an embossed and engraved metal plate. The metal plate is marked:

EsquirE’s
ALL AMERICAN BAND
ARRANGER-GOLD AWARD
AWARDED TO
DUKE ELLINGTON
1946

Esquire is an American men’s magazine founded in 1933. The magazine featured its first jazz awards, All-American Jazz All Stars and All-American Jazz Band, chosen by Esquire’s board of leading jazz artists, critics, and writers, in 1944. The inaugural winners included Billie Holiday, Roy Eldridge, Jack Teagarden, Barney Bigard, Coleman Hawkins, Art Tatum, Al Casey, Oscar Pettiford, and Sidney Catlett.

The “Esky” mascot was created by African American cartoonist E. Simms Campbell (1906-1971).

An ad for the Esquire awards appeared in a January 5, 1946 issue of Billboard magazine indicating the list of winners would be in the Esquire February 1946 issue, which sold for 50 cents. Esquire also published a 1946 Jazz book that featured articles, photographs, and biographies of the 1946 winners, which sold for $1.00. Additionally, a concert presented by the winners, and emceed by Orson Welles in New York, would be aired over the entire ABC network.

Presentation Date: 1946

Recipient: Ellington, Duke

Location: Currently not on view

Place Made: United States

Subject: Awards and Prizes

Subject:

See more items in: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments, Music & Musical Instruments, Popular Entertainment, Jazz

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: 1989.0369.112Accession Number: 1989.0369Catalog Number: 1989.0369.112

Object Name: award

Physical Description: wood (overall material)metal (overall material)Measurements: overall: 15 1/2 in x 6 1/8 in x 6 1/8 in; 39.37 cm x 15.5575 cm x 15.5575 cm

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ab-88e9-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_1281357

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