This wonderful Bellboy uniform has a very interesting provenance.
During the beginning of WW2, just following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 7, 1941, The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, a newspaper that has been gone for many years, hosted a joint effort with the Phillip Morris Tobacco Company, and put on a show to raise money for cigarettes (can you believe that!) and Christmas gift packages for the service men fighting the war.
Mickey Rooney was part of that “gala event”, along with Johnny Roventini, the icon of Phillip Morris. This uniform was part of that show. The original label is still attached to the pants and the little coat, which reads: “N. Snellenburg & Co. 1421 Wallace St. Phila.”
The Vice President of The Evening Bulletin acquired the uniform after the show and gave it to his nephew in 1943.
It was recently discovered in storage where it has been since the end of World War 2, in April, 1945.
