Leader Board Ad

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Stamps personally canceled by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

Frankly, this pun was too good to pass up.
A relative recently handed me her collection of stamps, and as I went through them, these screamed out to be posted first.  I must add this disclaimer: This is not a political blog, however, as I search for the lowest pun some bruising of Parties or public figures may occur during handling - for that, I apologize.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Ad Quiz #2 "I glove you, mother"

This ad challenge is a bit different. We know what the ad is for...almost. The trick is...Can you guess the product?
Not only does daughter throw down the gauntlet, she asks mom to pick it up and put it on to cover her terrible hands. Oh, if only kids knew what they do to their parents. SOLUTION IF YOU CLICK THE "READ MORE" LINK BELOW (I know, I'm shouting again)

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Can't tell her how you feel?...Sing a campy song!

If you read any of my other posts, and I hope you have, you know that there is no limit to the things I will pick up.  Sheet music has never appealed to me. The artwork might, the age might, the other things that are sometimes tucked in amongst the sheets of music might....otherwise, no.  This one caught my eye, and although I have looked around the internet I can find no back-story, no good liner notes...nuthin'.  I hope you've enjoyed today's interlude, and now here's a tune I think you'll really dig.
1921 by Cliff Friend. Clearly Cliff has unsatisfied desires and has come to the end of his celibate rope and now must sing out his frustration. Hope it worked for you Cliff. Here's  a coupla sheets to prove the camp. I think the funny part is how they got the name wrong from the cover to the first sheet. 


Sunday, February 20, 2011

Ad Quiz #1: Guess the product SOLUTION

Thought I'd offer up a small challenge:  Here is a piece of a magazine ad from 1918. Look it over and see if you can guess the product. I will post the solution tomorrow.
Hint: it's from The Country Gentleman - Kinda like MAXIM for the early 20th century man - but not really. Sorry for yelling, but CLICK ON "READ MORE" FOR THE ANSWER!!!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Movie Ad: Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

I was looking though a Pictorial Review from 1935 and saw the ad for this MGM classic. I wondered about the appeal to movie-going audiences. This film has been re-made a couple of times (at least) and I've never been able to watch any version in its entirety. I don't have anything against it, but it seems the audience is put through the same experience as the men on the ship - a raucous party in Tahiti with a bevy of topless natives only to be dragged back to sea and then into a navel trail (Yup, I misspelled it, but it makes me laugh, so I can't change it, though the navel battle was really back on Tahiti). Well, 45 minutes in and I wanna go back to Tahiti! I also started looking at this movie, and my last post "Apocalypse Now!" and thought about the similarities. Then realizing that both starred Brando (1962 version) and it all made sense....I've been staring at this ad for too long. 

Friday, February 18, 2011

Apocalypse Now! Well, Not now, 32 years ago.

Having worked as a projectionist, I have a penchant (what's a penchant?) for movie memorabilia. So when I saw this at a sale a few weeks ago...you know the rest.
I believe it is a premiere booklet. This may have been handed out either at the premiere or on one of the limited early screenings of the film.
After the introductory letter from FFC there is an interesting time line.
The pages not scanned are the full printed credits and some images of Marlon Brando, which are just too Brando to enlarge.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

A Day Late and a Valentine short....

I wanted to do a themed post for Valentine's Day but of all the paper I have, there's not one good corny ancient Valentine's card. We'll there probably is, but I can't seem to locate it. With as many posts as I've done, I am starting to forget what I have put up on this blog.  Somewhere there's a great Disney card where Mickey professes love for Minnie...it's here somewhere. I did manage to find this vaguely related theatre program which I would say - fit's the bill.
There's a date somewhere in here, but if you take a look, like I did, you'll decide that it doesn't really matter. The program information is buried nee surrounded by ad after ad that promotes a much gentler time. I will talk less so you can gawk more (click on images for a larger view) Can you guess the year?
Uh oh! Next attraction: Minstrel Show! Not quite PC, but look above at the stove ad "6 holes" fully guaranteed - "Honey, that one is nice, but this has 6!"
Ice cream, Beer, Fish, Whiskey, and Boxing gloves, that sound like the perfect combination.
If your gonna chew gum...make it White's Yucatan gum.
But wait! There's more!

I begin to notice that there are a few businesses listed here that are owned by a "Richter" and then I notice that there is a "Richter" on the executive staff of the theater...I'm just sayin.
The ads just keep getting better...
Almost near the end, but I couldn't resist scanning them all...
Did you determine it's age?
There were several hints, but the year is 1902...I think. Last page, the back and the only other color page. Happy Valentine's Day!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Gadgetology: A 35mm Slide Home.

 
Born in the 60's, I naively think that everyone had the same childhood as I, but maybe that's not quite true. Let's look at one experience I think everyone must have had: random afternoons with parents or other relatives and stacks of Kodak slide carousels and a slide projector humming in anticipation for the next slide to be dropped. I can almost remember the roasted ozone and burning dust odor of the lamp and the click! clack! click! of the slide exchanger. Endlessly rotating through slide after slide of unfamiliar cars, previous addresses, hobbies and occupations of my pre-kinder parents, with a few random relatives, friends, pets, and strangers thrown in . I don't think those marathon sessions affected me adversely except that maybe it's why I've had to purchase almost every folding mini-slide viewer I see (well, not every one). I can't seem to locate any presently, but I did hang on to this one I purchased years ago.
Complete with case, pristine Bake-light construction, and working bulb (tho dim), it has been living in my attic for several years. I just liked the design, and I have a collection of non family slides (more on that later). I'd always heard that Bake-light was very collectible, but I don't know why. I enjoyed seeing 3 samples of this viewer on Ebay averaging $250 (no bids on any of them). It wasn't until a good "dig" 2 weeks ago that caused me to make this re-appear and assemble my slide transfer exhibit "Then and Now" display.
I was lucky enough to find an Estate Sale in the middle of the worst New England Winter (O come on! It is!) that was located in Ridgefield, CT. The drive there was precarious, not because it was snowing, but more because every local road has been reduced to 1.5 lanes making any journey on hilly or winding roads unnecessarily thrilling. The house was rundown, but not by poverty, this was owned by an eccentric. A chemical engineer/inventor who had worked for Timex and received a few patents through his work with liquid crystal watch displays. Or, that is the best I could determine from the mess left behind. I could have really spent all day here, but with AVA in tow, I felt it best to get in and get out before she and I fell victim to driving and parking conditions. There were other treasures here that will have to wait for another post, but the gadget, which is the subjst of this post was the little red unit called "The Wolverine."
Knowing that I had some 35mm slides, I thought this would be a neat purchase. It was new in the box with all the accessories minus a cleaning brush and a manual, and for about $5, I thought it might be worth it to try it out. Many many years ago, I worked as a projectionist and was able to save much of the  promotional publicity items we couldn't use from being tossed.  I managed to collect over 250 slides from various movies, many of them dogs, but kept them over the years.
I've since found the manual and specs for the "Wolverine," It holds a 5 megapixel image sensor and can be found for anywhere between $80 and $150.  The quality is passable but different slides gave me different results, some were disappointing. But, since I am not planning on keeping the movie images, I will just have to be satisfied with the family pictures, which also transfer good and bad.

"Well, I guess it's time to write another blog post."
Behind every blogger, there is a woman, dissatisfied with how he is spending his time. My apologies to my childhood friend, Tracy Squires, who has no idea this picture still exists, nor has she given permission for its use...have to ask her one of these days.

Monday, February 7, 2011

A Token Find

Estate sales are as random as walks on the beach; you never know what you might find. In the end it doesn't really matter, you can find nothing and still come away with a nice walk on the beach. If you want to find something unique, all you have to do is ask. I took a chance at a trailer park one Saturday (sounds like this story could go anywhere), truthfully, trailer park sales are no different than any other. While it may seem that trailer park residents lack the space to accumulate like the rest of us pack-rat suburbanites, it isn't the quantity that makes a sale, it's  the variety.  AVA (my 7-year-old partner) and I, were happy to take a look,  after all, a dig  is a dig.  

We had only four rooms to explore and the 2 largest collections were of music boxes and costume jewelry. Among the jewelry were boxes of small items, and when I glanced in an old watch box, I knew I found something for the blog.
I closed it and thought it would be fun to research the different items. The best approach to the negotiation, I felt, was to hand the box to the person in charge and let them name a price. I had in my mind that whatever was in here was worth $5 to me, and fortunately the seller and I were on the same wavelength.  The one Item I had glanced at was this coin:

I thought, "This might make a good story." As I hear from time to time, the talk of returning I-95 in CT  to a toll road. At their inception in 1983 these tokens could be purchased for 17.5 cents. The interesting part of the story is that these were made by the same company that made the New York City subway tokens. At exactly the same size and weight as the 75cent subway fare, the MTA lost a lot of revenue as 2 million of these showed up in the coin boxes of NYC subway turnstiles.  After a lot of yelling and screaming CT promised to redesign their tokens, but never did. At the end of 1985, the toll booths were dismantled anyway, solving the problem.  


That wasn't the only token find in the box:
As you can see from the box above, there were more than just tokens.  


These casino tokens (and one chip) were among a few other different arcade tokens.  This would be the depth of the treasure. Nothing a pirate would get excited over, but enough for me to call this another successful dig.