GUESTBOOK FROM THE PRESTIGIOUS VIENNA "STADTKRUG" RESTAURANT
The extravagant leather-bound guest book from the highly-respected former Vienna restaurant "Stadtkrug", once located at Weihburggasse 3, Vienna, filled with over 400 autographs, decades worth of signatures, from those of visiting Nazis in 1936 to Jewish composers and actors from the Sixties. The massive volume, 15 1/2" x 19 1/2" overall, is a fine example of the bookbinder's craft, with pebbled brown leather covers, five raised hubs on the spine, and much elaborate gilt trim on the spine and about the edges of the covers. Within are hundreds of signatures of every type of notable from over the decades, many of whom would be shocked to have their names appear within the same pages as some of their fellow guests. By and large, the great majority of those who were asked to sign were those associated with the arts, specifically opera. Among the small percentage we were able to identify are, in chronological order: HANNS BLASCHKE (2), BERTA BLASCHKE, ERNST KALTENBRUNNER, RUDOLF BUCHNER, MERCEDES MILA, THE MARQUESA DE LINARES, HERMANN GORING, BALDUR VON SCHIRACH, PHILIPP BOUHLER, RICHARD STRAUSS, KARL SCHRIZER, OTTO SKORZENY (with SS rank), DR. ROBERT LEY, LUTZ GRAF SCHWERIN VON KROSIGK, ANITA HEYDEN, with RUDOLPH SCHOENERT, JOSEF FOZO, and seven others attending the funeral of Walter Nowotney, Nov. 15, 1944, NORBERT SCHULTZE, (two bars of music and lyrics from "Lili Marleen"), LISA DE LA CASA, DORIS KIRCHNER, HANS KNAPPERTSBUSCH (A.M.Q.S.), ANNE-MARGARET NEUMANN, JEAN MADEIRA, LOTTE GURTLER, HAROLD CACCIA, JOHANNES MEYER, MARIA CALLAS, GIOVANNI BATISTA MENEGHINI, GIOVANNA LOMAZZI, and other members of their entourage, HARVEY S. FIRESTONE, JR., WILLIAM ARBUTHNOT LANE, BIRGIT NILSSON, NOSRAT SCHAHAB, ERICH GIMPEL (a Nazi spy), KIRK DOUGLAS, YEHUDI MENUHIN, LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI, KIRSTEN FLAGSTAD, HJALMAR SCHACHT, CHARLES LAUGHTON, TYRONE POWER, SERGE YAROFF (A.M.Q.S.), YUL BRYNER, DEBORAH KERR, JOSEPHINE BAKER, PETER KRENDER, LILI PALMER, TONI SAILER, IGOR STRAVINSKY, MAURICE CHAVALIER, SORAYA ESFANDIARY-BAKHTIARI (second wife of Shah Reza Pahlavi), HILDEGARDE KNEF, SHIRLEY MACLAINE, JACK LEMON, TOM TRYON, LEONTYNE PRICE, LEONARD BERNSTEIN, and many more. Very fine condition. The Stadtkrug advertised itself as an "establishment for artists and friends of the arts, the place of jolly humor" according to an ad from 1939. It remains in operation to this day under new ownership.