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Erroll Garner Exhibit @ Pitt: Fashion & Accessories

An exhibit dedicated to Erroll Garner and the opening of his archive at the University's William Pitt Union; a combined effort of the Archives & Special Collections and the Pitt Department of Music (Jazz Studies). Exhibit on display 2016-2024.

Fashion & Accessories on Display

erroll garner exhibit

Erroll Garner loved the lavishness of the celebrity lifestyle, as evidenced by the fine accessories he wore. Included in the exhibit were several of Garner's personal items, including a monogrammed gold cigarette case and matching lighter, a dress shirt, cuff links, pocket watches and more. 

 

Erroll's cigarette case and two of his pocket watches are pictured above. The cigarette case, like many of Erroll's personal effects including his cigarette lighter pictured below, is engraved with his initials. 

Erroll's cufflinks from Murray Lee, New York, still in the original box. 

Fashionable Erroll

erroll garner

Erroll & The Playboy Jazz Festival

The engraved medal and key given to Garner by the Playboy Foundation (which was not officially established until 1965) were other points of interest within the exhibit. The set as awarded to Garner in 1959 at the first Playboy Jazz Festival. The event was hosted and popularized by the company's founder, Hugh Hefner, who is a longtime lover of jazz music. 

 

The image above shows the engraved backside of the Playboy Jazz Festival medal and reads "Erroll Garner, Piano, 1959."