[HOLOGRAPH DRAFT AND MULTIPLE TYPESCRIPTS FOR ONE-ACT PLAY ENTITLED "JIM LEE & CO. LAUNDRY"]

GUNN, J.W. M.D.

Price: $300.00

(San Francisco): np, 1937. First edition. 4to. typing paper in a contemporary three-ring binder. Some edgewear, toning. Generally very good. (Item ID: 10972)

Four typescripts (with minor variations between), assorted notes, and a holographic draft of a nine-page one-act play prepared for O.E.S. Amity chapter 262 in San Francisco and performed on Oct. 11th, 1937. Set entirely in a Chinese laundry, the play tastelessly partakes of an array of stereotypes. The "Dramatic Personae" includes African-Americans ("Sambo Washington," "a dark cloud"), Germans ("Baron Goofus" and "Weenie Schnitzel"), Chinese ("Quong What," "Chong Foey," and "More Yet"), homosexuals ("Bill Lightfoot," a "foxy gent"), and even a Chinese homosexual ("Sing High"), among others. Almost entirely in difficult-to-read and awkward dialect with some faux Chinese and German thrown in for good measure, what plot there is revolves around the misunderstandings of various customers as they interact with laundry proprietor Jim Lee. "Hilarity" ensues. An unique glimpse behind the temple curtains into a hermetic world where racism and prejudice were openly perpetuated, even though undoubtedly from the participants' perspective it was all "in good fun." Right.

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