Alfred Eisenstaedt

'LIFE Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt' and 'Famous Photographers Schools, 680 Fifth Avenue, New York 19, NY' stamps and with numerical notations in pencil on the reverse, framed, the photographer's FPS Photographic Data and Pertinent Information sheet, with information in ink by the photographer and a small copy print of the image on the reverse, 1950, printed no later than 1963 (LIFE, 30 October 1950, pp. 108-9; Family of Man, pp. 36-7; Witness, pp. 312-13)

The photographs in this and the following two lots come from the archives of the Famous Photographers School, a correspondence course for budding photographers that operated from 1964 into the 1970s.  Alfred Eisenstaedt was a member of the school's Guiding Faculty, along with Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Philippe Halsman, Bert Stern, and Ezra Stoller.

This was the lead photograph for LIFE magazine's 30 October 1950, story, 'The Michigan Band; It Steps Fastest and Plays Best of the College Outfits That Provide Music and Spectacle on Football Fields.'  The caption reads,

'A group of admiring children follow drum major Smith around on University of Michigan Campus at Ann Arbor, trying with varying success to imitate the high kicks he is rehearsing for the football field.  Smith's magnificent technique also includes complete mastery of the difficult art of baton twirling' (pp. 108-9).