SNAPSHOT OF KING GEORGE VI AT THE 1939 NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR

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.

T-38 TERMINATOR IN A PHOTOBOOTH - FAUXTOGRAPH #1

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.

WASHINGTON & LINCOLN COMIC PAGES FOR PRESIDENTS DAY

Let's celebrate Presidents Day with these two scans from the 48 Famous Americans comic book that was a give away by J.C. Penney in 1947.

HAVE A NERDY VALENTINE'S DAY

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

ADS FROM TWO 1967 FOOTBALL GUIDES

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.

CANDYMAN: THE DAVID KLEIN STORY

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.

Click here for the official Candyman website.

Candyman was produced by Bert and Jennifer Klein of Picnic Productions. Two accomplished filmmakers/animators and David's son and daughter-in-law.