Americana & the U.S.

In 1919, a friend who’s a Hollywood memorabilia collector called to say he’d purchased collection of Hollywood items which had been gathered in relation to unfinished book on Hollywood. “Jim would you like to have an object which had belonged to Colin Clive, actor who’d played Doctor Frankenstein in 1930s movies?” I said “Sure, send it!”

When I received in the mail the package which contained the item which had belonged to the brilliant actor of stage and screen Colin Clive, which was the red devil corkscrew, from my Hollywood collector friend, I was intrigued by the man who had owned it! What I had learned about this celebrated actor is chronicled in the biographical information on the back of the pictured frame. As my collaged picture from the 1931 film “Frankenstein” reveals, Clive’s real MONSTER was ALCOHOLISM!

I learned from my collector friend the red devil corkscrew had been acquired by the would-be author whom had died before he had finished his book he had titled “Alcoholic Hollywood.”