Scarce vintage blue ballpoint pen on a 3x5-inch white card, dating to the late 1970s. Nice for matting with a favorite photograph. In good condition, with light mounting remnants on the verso. Billy Eckstine, marvelous African-American crooner and bandleader of the swing era, is remembered for his smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato voice. He broke down racial barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big band and then as the first romantic black male in popular music. Eckstine's recording of "I Apologize" (1948) was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.