Featured in this lot are Original Signed Eddie Foy Photographs, circa 1883-1918. Provenance: Tombstone Western Heritage Museum, Tombstone, Arizona. Edwin Fitzgerald (1856-1928), known professionally as Eddie Foy and Eddie Foy Sr., was a famous American actor, comedian, dancer and vaudevillian. He gained his first professional recognition in the mining camps and cow towns of the West, beginning around 1878. While performing in Dodge City, Kansas, Foy became acquainted with Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Doc Holliday. In October of 1881, Foy performed at the Birdcage Theater in Tombstone, Arizona when the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral occurred on the 26th of that month. Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment that became popular in the United States from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Called "the heart of American show business", Vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades. Foy was a musical comedy star and the Father of the "Seven Little Foys", a national sensation. While Foy was a stern disciplinarian backstage, he portrayed an indulgent father onstage, and the Foys toured successfully for over a decade, appearing in one motion picture. The family's story was filmed in 1955 as "The Seven Little Foys" with Bob Hope appearing as Foy Sr., and James Cagney as George M. Cohan; son Charley Foy narrated the film. Both photographs were taken in the Klein Studio of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Henry S. Klein was the photographer and at one time was part of the Guttenstein & Klein Studio of Milwaukee; studio name stamped on the bottom left corners of the mounting cards. Both photos are signed at the bottom of the photo or below the photo on the mounting cards. In typical fashion, Foy is dressed in different clown costumes, two as a female impersonator. Appears that the main female impersonator photograph has a second photograph of Foy female impersonating on the reverse with his signature and blind stamped on the right bottom corner. Museum code at the top right corner, "P210". Another separate photograph displays Foy in clown makeup and costume. The reverse has an affixed label stating that the photograph is number F-9 of the “Oral M. Heffner Theatrical Collection” and the "Property of The Franklin County Historical Society" (Ohio). Research sheds some light on the Heffner collection. The Ohio State Archeological and Historical Quarterly (1953) writes that the first showing of the Oral M. Heffner Theatre Collection was in 1953 and that the collection included over 700 rare photographs of early actors and actresses “who visited Columbus (Ohio) years ago”. Museum code at the top right corner, "P34". Measurement of each photograph card is 6"W x 8"L; one photograph is in a clear plastic sleeve, measures 6.625"W x 8.875"L. Combined weight U6.