From Table 50 to the Front Page: Stork Club and Walter Winchell Ephemera

Some auctions are less about a single category than about stepping into a particular world. Turner Auctions + Appraisals’ Ephemera from the Stork Club, Walter Winchell & More, taking place Saturday, September 12, 2026, does exactly that. The sale brings together more than 245 lots spanning New York nightlife, celebrity culture, journalism, literature, photography, and popular history. Much of the material comes from the collection of Harold A. Layer, Professor Emeritus at San Francisco State University. 

Opened in Manhattan in 1929, the Stork Club became one of the defining gathering places of café society, attracting movie stars, socialites, politicians, and writers until it closed in 1965. Walter Winchell was one of its most famous regulars. From his private Table 50, he gathered tips, rumors, and information that helped fuel a career reaching millions of newspaper readers and radio listeners. Together, the club and Winchell offer a fascinating lens on how celebrity, power, and publicity intersected in mid-20th-century America. 

The Stork Club/Sherman Billingsley Cigarette Ad, Ashtray, and Stork Vase (Lot 1)
The auction opens with a group that immediately sets the scene. Lot 1 brings together a 1951 La Fatima Cigarettes advertisement featuring Stork Club owner Sherman Billingsley, a black-glazed Stork Club ashtray, and a painted wooden stork bud-vase holder, along with a vintage Hammer’s Pale Dry Ginger Ale advertisement. These are the kinds of everyday objects that make ephemera so evocative: created to advertise, decorate, or serve a practical purpose, they now offer tangible reminders of a place at the center of New York social life. The lot carries an estimate of $150-$250. 

Walter Winchell Estate Photo Negative Collection, with Reprints (Lot 28)
Lot 28 offers a more intimate look at Winchell through approximately 110 black-and-white and color photographic negatives dating from the 1930s through the 1960s, accompanied by roughly 90 later prints. The images range from portrait sessions and family photographs to social events and appearances with well-known figures. Among them are images connected to J. Edgar Hoover and a 1950s Hollywood nightclub event with guests including Cary Grant, Debbie Reynolds, Natalie Wood, and Bob Hope. Estimated at $600-$800, the archive reads like a visual record of Winchell’s public world. 

J. Edgar Hoover Letter to Walter Winchell on the Lindbergh Case, with Clippings (Lot 37)
One of the most historically compelling highlights is Lot 37, a typed letter signed by J. Edgar Hoover and dated September 22, 1934. Written on Division of Investigation letterhead, it thanks Winchell for withholding information connected to the Lindbergh kidnapping investigation, offering a revealing glimpse into the exchange of information between law enforcement and one of the era’s most powerful media figures.

The lot also includes two framed newspaper clippings, including a 1934 Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph headline, “Winchell Tip Spurs New Lindy Hunt.” With provenance from The Walter Winchell Files sold by Butterfield & Butterfield in 1990/91, the group is estimated at $1,000-$1,500. 

File of Walter Winchell Drafts with Edits (Lot 78)
For anyone interested in the mechanics behind Winchell’s famous voice, Lot 78 may be especially revealing. The file contains approximately 200 pages of typescript working copies, carbons, drafts, and revisions from the 1950s and 1960s, many with pencil and ink edits attributed to Winchell and likely others in his circle.

Subjects range from Broadway and Hollywood to politics, crime, and Winchell’s serialized memoir. Names appearing throughout include Carol Channing, Gregory Peck, Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, and Barbra Streisand. Estimated at $300-$500, the lot captures the layered process behind polished columns and broadcasts. 

A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner, First Edition (Lot 127)
The sale reaches well beyond Winchell and the Stork Club. Lot 127 is a first edition of A. A. Milne’s The House at Pooh Corner, published in London by Methuen & Co. in 1928 and illustrated by Ernest E. Shepard. Bound in salmon-pink cloth with gilt stamping and pictorial endpapers, the volume is a charming reminder of the auction’s range. Estimated at $400-$600, it offers literary collectors a classic title from the world of Winnie-the-Pooh. 

A Window Into a Vanished Era

What makes this auction memorable is the way its objects connect private lives to public history. A nightclub ashtray, a marked-up manuscript, a photographic negative, or a letter between two powerful men can each seem modest on its own. Together, they recreate the texture of an era shaped by nightlife, newspapers, radio, celebrity, and the constant circulation of information.

Ephemera from the Stork Club, Walter Winchell & More will be presented by Turner Auctions + Appraisals on September 12, offering collectors the chance to acquire not only rare objects, but fragments of the stories, personalities, and cultural moments that once made headlines.

Register to bid on Bidsquare.com.