Congratulations to The King’s Speech for winning best picture at the Academy Awards last night. Even though I was pulling for Toy Story 3, it was an excellent film and worthy of best picture. I’m a sucker for period films and anything set in the 1930's. When viewing The King’s Speech I was hoping for a scene when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Since this scene wasn't in the movie let's take a look at the real thing. Here’s an original snapshot from my NYWF collection of the King & Queen riding in a car at the New York World’s Fair on June 10, 1939. It was taken by a fair goer who was lucky enough to be standing in the right spot at the right time.
You can see King George in the center of the photo. Queen Elizabeth sits next to him with her head turned. The man with the mustache sitting across from the King is Grover Whalen, the president of the World’s Fair. It looks like the King is talking to Grover’s wife or at least that’s who I think she is.
As a royal bonus, here’s two magazine covers from 1939 featuring King George and finally a souvenir envelope from the British Pavilion at the 1940 New York World’s Fair.
What if a Terminator was sent back to the 1930's to kill John Connor's grandparents? Yeah, that's it and the Terminator for some reason got inside a photobooth and had his picture made. I created this fauxtograph using a photobooth photo from my collection. You can see the man before he lost some of his face - here.
For fun, I've made some more fake photobooth photos and I'll try to share those in the near future.
I collect old Willy Wonka packaging and I was thrilled last year when I found this unused Nerds Valentine Candy & Card Kit from 1995. Besides Gene Wilder, this is the Willy Wonka I remember the most from when I was addicted to Wonka candy in the 1980's and early 90's!
For some more Wonka candy fun check out the vintage packaging from these flickr photostreams here, here, here and here
In honor of today’s Super Bowl, lets turn back the clock to 1967 and take a look at some football related ads as found in these His & Hers football guidebooks. I’m not sure how these guidebooks were distributed, but I assume they were probably freebies at the grocery store. First up is A Family Guide To Football.
Now here’s This is NFL Football. This one is the St. Louis Cardinals edition and I’m sure each city had their own respective team on the cover.
Have you ever wondered who invented the famous jelly bean candy Jelly Belly? Weird Al Yankovic thought it was the Easter Bunny, some think it was Ronald Reagan and the official Jelly Belly website simply states that it was a Los Angeles candy distributor. The forgotten hero who got the bean rolling was David Klein. He’s the wannabe Willy Wonka who invented one of the top selling confections of all time. It was the disco era of the 1970's and he appeared on national TV shows and in major newspapers and magazines promoting his unique flavored beans. Millions of dollars were on the horizon, but in the early 1980's he gave it all up.
This documentary directed by Costa Botes (Forgotten Silver) catches up with David Klein, where we get to meet the eccentric and sometimes quirky candy maker. We learn the true story behind his fall from Jelly Belly to his thirty-year climb back up the (hard rock) candy mountain and all the people he has helped along the way.
Candyman was released in 2010 and was recently released on DVD. I just viewed the film a few days ago and found a documentary that is compelling, entertaining and most of all full of heart. This doc. should be a must view for any entrepreneur or small time business person. A lot of lessons can be learned by watching David's journey. The most important lesson might not be about the money, but about the relationships that you make along the way.
I really enjoyed seeing some of the old footage of an uninhibited David wearing crazy outfits promoting his products. I respect anyone who is brave enough to wear a cape and mask in public trying to get his product noticed. He went all out for his beloved Jelly Bellies! Btw, check out this neato Jelly Belly cart from the late 1970's!
This film really clicked for me as I’ve always been interested in the origins and people behind pop culture food products. The first lady gets tired of hearing me say, “I wonder who invented this so-and-so?”, while we’re enjoying some sort of novelty food. Besides David, there’s a cast of other interesting people in the film. You get to meet David’s very patient and understanding family and friends along with a few Slugworth worthy people. Oh yeah and Weird Al Yankovic shows up for some candy talk too!
Now that I’ve seen Candyman, I can finally put a face on the inventor of Jelly Belly. It's nice to know that it’s a face with a big sweet tooth who enjoys sharing the love of candy.
Now go and view Candyman: The David Klein Story! DVD is available to purchase at IndiePix Films and can also be found at other online DVD sellers.
Last week, I archived most of my movie theater collection on flickr. Yep, for years I’ve collected old tickets, postcards, snapshots and miscellaneous stuff relating to old movie theaters. When I'm out and about digging in antique stores or flea markets and I see a theater trinket - I buy it. (Well, if its on the cheap I do!) So many movie theaters from palaces to small town cinemas to ozoners have disappeared from the landscape. The only things we have left to remember them by are the photos and memorabilia that somehow survived. For more than a century, many generations have the shared memory of going to the movies. Unfortunately, not too many people ever thought to snap a photo of their local theater or keep their ticket stubs. As much as I love going to the movies, I never thought about taking a photograph of a theater until the mid-90's. You can see my set of theater photos here and my new set with theater stuff here.
Every theater has a story that can be just as interesting and dramatic as the movies they played on the screen. For example - the photo of the Burns Theatre below comes from a postcard in my collection.
This small town theater in Newport, Vermont had the oddest (and disturbing) giveaway promotion of any theater. They gave away a human baby girl! Yes, according to a post on the Cinema Treasures page for this theater, a little baby girl was to be given away back in 1939.
Some theaters have fun and clever names like the Lucky 13 Drive-In. Here's a ticket from this extinct drive-in once located in Boliver, Missouri.
Most theaters handed out little schedules listing what movies will be shown during the week or month. Most of these have fun graphics or picture a popular movie star. I like this one with the pair of giant penguins that have trapped a poor helpless movie theater in a block of ice.
So far, I’ve archived more than 300 theater items and in this set. Maybe you’ll find something related to a theater in your hometown or a theater that your parents or grandparents might have talked about. Periodically I’ll add more items to the set.
I’ll leave you with this scan - the cover of a herald from M.G.M.’s The Hollywood Revue of 1929 along with a great scene from the movie.
It stars Gus Edwards singing Lon Chaney’s Goin’ to Get You If You Don’t Watch Out. It has ugly dancing monsters and cute dancing girls!
Video uploaded by Mitch0115 a relative of Gus Edwards.
First, a quick birthday shout out to PlayGroundology! Happy 1st Birthday and congrats to Alex Smith on such a fantastic and well researched blog on all things playground! If you haven't visited Alex's site, be sure to here. It will make you feel like a kid again!
It's been awhile since I've posted any vintage playground equipment and appropriately today is a good day to show off some new playground pics that I snapped last year. That rocketship is out of this world!
