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1964 Cafe Wha? Nightclub Matchbook
115 MacDougal St. New York City
$12K US
 
If one thought it couldn't get any more intense than the battle for the "most expensive matchbook in the world" between the 1927 Charles Lindbergh and the much older 1910 Washington Crisps matchbooks another matchbook enters the fray.
The most notable and ultra-rare music and entertainment industry related matchbook in history.
In 1959, Manny Roth left Indiana for New York's Greenwich Village. It was the age of the avant-garde coffee shop and café. Roth, elder uncle of David Lee Roth, front man for Van Halen built, owned and operated a club there called the Café Wha?.
Manny built Cafe Wha? up from nothing with his bare hands. As he said once, "I used the last $100 I had to buy a truckload or so of broken marble with which to make the floor." That broken marble floor is still there to this day.
The club has remained much the same since its opening. There was no liquor sold at Cafe Wha? in the beginning.
Like many of the little dark clubs in Greenwich Village at the time they mostly served coffee, tea and perhaps small finger sandwiches. Cafe Wha? provided a stage for fresh amateur acts that performed there such as Jimi Hendrix, Lenny Bruce, Bill Cosby, Woody Allen, Rich Little, Peter Paul and Mary, Kool and the Gang, Velvet Underground, Bruce Springsteen and Joan Rivers.
Manny soon became quite influential in New York City as a nightclub owner and entertainment entrepreneur. He gave Richard Pryor his first shot and became his first manager. Bob Dylan not only performed, but also got fired three times for being late!
Cafe Wha? quickly became the hangout for all types of folk singers, artists, poets, beatniks and anarchists of the time. Alan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and the like were there. Mary Travers, singer for the band Peter, Paul & Mary was a waitress there at one time.
Manny Roth sold Cafe Wha? to singer Richie Havens in 1968 and the club stills draws devoted crowds to this day.
This hand designed matchbook cover from the Cafe Wha? heyday circa 1964 is a fragment of legendary club and music history. This rarity had never even been seen by the personnel of the Cafe Wha? Collection in New York City nor ever displayed in their museum.
Unlike 1927 Charles Lindbergh or 1910 Washington Crisps matchbooks this Cafe Wha? is an only known example.
The Cafe Wha? had a strong influence on the careers of various music icons, genres of music and the lives of thousands of people over many years.
Many of the collectors that have reviewed the Cafe Wha? matchbook cover consider it to be one of the most rare and valuable hand created matchbooks ever produced along with 19th century Mendelson Opera matchbook(s).
Trasinda is willing to offer a major investor/collector the chance to step into collectible history.
A Guinness world record as "most expensive matchbook" and the first and only matchbook of five figure value.
Open Offer $12,000 US
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