La Fleur de Coca: Pantomime. by MARIANI, Angelo

Paris: Silvestre, 1892.. 4to. Softbound (no cloth issued). First edition. Photographs of a theatrical production, a pantomime, presented one time only by Mariani at Le Theatre Angelo Mariani in 1892. The photos depict scenes of a male and female mime enjoying the pleasures of Mariani's coca wine. Angelo Mariani formulated his cocaine-based beverage in 1871 while working at a drugstore in Paris. A few years later this elixir of wine and coca leaves that would cure all ills and "make the weak strong" became wildly popular especially after Mariani used his exceptional skills as a saleman and promoter to garner endorsements from Thomas Edison, President McKinley, Jules Verne, Sandra Bernhardt, Pope Leo X11, Robert Louis Stephenson, and even Queen Victoria! Mariani published several volumes of cocaine testimonials, postcards advertising his product, commissioned fashionable posters from famed Belle Epoque designer Jules Cheret, and even produced this stage show extolling it's virtues. Shortly after the turn of the century Coca-Cola infused their beverage with cocaine following in Mariani's footsteps. Some darkening to covers from age, minor wear to spine, solid very good plus. Scarce.