"BLIND YOUTH" TELLEGEN STAND BY WILSON

Pinback button promoting Woodrow Wilson for president, 1918. 7/8" cello with PIONEER NOV. M'FG CO. NEW YORK U.S.A. backpaper. Overall staining. TELLEGEN refers to Lou Tellegen, a stage actor who starred in a play titled "Blind Youth". An article which appeared in the New York Times on February 1, 1918 under the headline "Wilson Thanks Actor For Offer" explains the rest of the story on this unusual pinback: "Announcement was made yesterday that Lou Tellegen, the actor, had receive a letter from President Wilson thanking the actor for his offer to form the Stand By Wilson League. In a letter to the President a week ago, in analyzing the forces against the President, said it was high time that the mouthings of selfish politicians be drowned and counteract the accumulating and determined effort to postpone the progress of the War until the next presidential election..."