This lot is a very unusual piece of ephemera. It is an extremely scarce photo letterhead advertising Billie Lingard & Co. Billie Lingard was an Australian vaudeville performer during the first quarter of the 20th century. She specialized in “pose plastique” in French or “plastic pose” in English. It refers to an art form in which performers recreate well-known images with costumes and by standing motionless for long periods of time as if they are in a picture. This letterhead is advertising Billie Lingard and her company’s “pose plastique” recreations of the statuary from the world-famous Pan-Pacific Exposition in 1915. The letterhead includes a photo of Lingard in the upper left corner and is approximately 11″ tall and 8.5″ wide.

Of special interest is a Chicago Daily Tribune newspaper article from January of 1916 recounting the arrest of Billie Lingard, an actress “who adorns the stage in the pose plastique.” Lingard was arrested as a potential accomplice in the murder of a police officer, primarily because of her blond hair. Her alibi was strong and she was released.

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