overall: 15 in x 5 in x 5 in; 38.1 cm x 12.7 cm x 12.7 cm
Object Name:
award
Place made:
United States
Presentation date:
1945
Description:
<p>This award was presented to Duke Ellington from <i>Esquire</i> magazine in 1945. It features a stylized gold-tone statue of a man playing a trumpet, <i>Esquire</i> magazine’s pop-eyed mascot “Esky,” on a brown-stained wooden base with an embossed and engraved metal plate. The metal plate is engraved:</p>
<p><i>Esquire</i> 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 <i>Esquire’s</i> 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.</p>
<p>The “Esky” mascot was based on a drawing by African American cartoonist E. Simms Campbell (1906-1971).</p>
