DRACULA TAPESTRY IN DRACULA'S DAUGHTER

The other night I was watching Dracula's Daughter. The 1936 sequel to Dracula. I've seen this movie a handful of times since I was a kid and I spotted something that I had never noticed before. Towards the end of the movie, a character runs behind a large tapestry. On the tapestry is an image of Bela Lugosi as Dracula (or maybe as Vlad the Impaler). I hit the slo-mo and pause buttons over and over, marveling at this amazing looking tapestry.

If you're not familiar with Dracula's Daughter, the film begins soon after the events in Dracula. Countess Marya Zaleska, Dracula's daughter, shows up and swipes the body of Dracula. She burns Dracula's body in hopes of breaking the vampire curse. It doesn't work and she continues to thirst for blood.

The film suffered many problems for Universal including a revolving door of screenwriters, recasts, battles with censors and budget issues. Besides his likeness of a wax dummy and his likeness on the tapestry, Bela Lugosi did not reprise his role as Dracula. A real shame, because in a few of the early drafts, the movie begins in the 14th century and features the origins of Dracula. The tapestry must be a holdover from those unfilmed scenes.

I went ahead and added some color to the tapestry hopefully making it easier to see some of the details. Bela Lugosi/Dracula stands wearing robes instead of his cape and what looks like two (hell)hounds stand at his side. Is he portraying Vlad the Impaler? I wonder what happened to this amazing set piece? I would like to think that it's sitting in an old trunk waiting to be discovered. Since it looks like it was painted on canvas, more than likely the paint was probably stripped and the canvas was used for something else. After all, Dracula's Daughter was the last of the first wave of the Universal monster films and for a few years it looked like Universal had ended their monster run permanently.    

I made this GIF so you can see how it moves in the film. I'd like to see someone attempt to recreate this amazing piece of film history.

FIND THE HEAD OF THE MYSTERIOUS HEADLESS HORSEMAN

I was happy to find this excellent illustration of the Headless Horseman in a 1931 issue of Needlecraft Magazine. You never know where you're going to unearth a Halloween nugget. This Headless Horseman is probably glad to be released from that old musty magazine. I hope he doesn't wreck havoc searching for a head on the internet highway. My apologies if he does.   

Ride Headless Horseman, ride!!

TWO VINTAGE GHOSTLY GOODIES

Boo! Hope I didn't scare you, but I have two random ghost items to share.

The first is an English trading card from Mars Confections. This is card number 36 from the 1937 Famous Escapes card set. 

Pepper's Ghost anyone? Our second ghost item is the back cover from Uncle Rays Magazine published in 1949.

PROF. BUNKO'S ANIMAL SHOW: THE STRANGEST COLLECTION OF BEASTS EVER ASSEMBLED

I'm not familiar with Prof. Bunko, but he puts on a swell animal show! The object of this game is simple one. You try to create as many prehistoric creatures using the cards. The envelope says you can make 6561 different animals. Hmm...I don't think I'll try and disprove that.

My guess, is that this is from the 1930s and was probably a give-away premium for the Professor Bunko radio show. In the corner box on the envelope is a contest sponsored by The Magic Sponge, a Great Western Products Corporation. I'm not familiar with a Professor Bunko radio show or a Magic Sponge. Internet searches came up with zilch.

It's interesting that some of the artwork is very similar to the work of Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. He did a lot of work for advertisers before World War II and it makes me wonder if he worked on this set. Even the names on the back of the cards sound like Seuss type of names.

Unfortunately this set is missing a few cards (the pieces to make the creature on the envelope), but I've put together a nice animal show below.

Ouchty-Buggel-Woggle

Hoopem-Jabber-Jollik

Kukuer-Moshee-Wampus

Bumbde-Dunker-Pootch

Yitzka-Bloopa-Hoofer

Gueyom-Shmeer-Saurus

Jazzix-Gogolo-Dinger

Boshup-Zigety-Bolius

Here's some of the beasts that are shown on the back of the envelope.

Chinese Dragon

Headless Hooligup

Nonesuch Fish

If anyone has any thoughts or info on this set, please comment.

OUR GANG JIG-SAW PUZZLE

Back when I was kid, one of my favorite things to watch on TV were the Little Rascals/Our Gang comedies.  They were usually shown as part of a local kiddie show and I remember how much fun it was watching the crazy antics of these depression era kids.  Sometime in the early 80s my maternal Grandmother surprised me with an Our Gang jigsaw puzzle.  No this wasn't some newly created piece of nostalgia but an authentic piece of memorabilia during the original run of the comedy series.    

Originally in 1932, it was to be given away free with a bottle of McKesson's Milk of Magnesia. Boy, that was a pretty sweet deal even if Milk of Magnesia wasn't that appealing to kids.

(Sticking with the Our Gang theme, McKesson should have given this puzzle away with a a bottle of castor oil.)  

My Grandmother didn't recieve the puzzle back in the 30s with a bottle purchase.  Instead she bought the puzzle in the 1980s from Swensson's Drug Store in Macon, Missouri.  The puzzle was a perfect example of "new old stock" because the drug store owners found a stash of the puzzles that were never given away.

Luckily this artifact from my childhood survived thanks to my paternal Grandmother who helped me frame it for my bedroom wall.  It stayed on my wall until I moved away from home and for the past twenty years or so it has been buried in a box.  I kinda forgot about it until recently when I unearthed it. It was pretty excited when I opened up the frame to find that my Grandmother saved the envelope and stuffed it behind the puzzle for protection.  

Wow, that's two Grandmothers working in tandem!  One to gift it and the other to preserve it.     

70 YEARS AGO TODAY - 1939 NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR

Back in 1939 at the New York World’s Fair, everyone was looking forward to the world of tomorrow - a tomorrow that would bring hope, prosperity and peace through technology and human ingenuity. Today marks the 70th anniversary of the fair and mankind still reaches out for those same dreams of the future.

Unfortunately, in 2009 those same dreams are much harder for us to see and to believe in. We really need something like the 1939 New World’s Fair to restore those dreams and bring back the belief we still can build a world of tomorrow with the tools of today.


For years I’ve been fascinated with the 1939 NYWF and have put together a small collection of items. Today, is a great day to start sharing some of my collection. Slowly, I’ll be adding items to my a new flickr set simply called 39NYWF and future posts will show up here on the blog. Below, you’ll find a few images from my collection and some fun links to help you celebrate and learn more about the fair.


Click here to take a tour of the fair!.



Click here for another tour of the fair!


Watch the New York Public Library's video about the fair!


Visit the 1939 NYWF flickr group!
Watch videos at the Internet Archives!

70TH ANNIVERSARY 1939 NYWF - TOMORROW

Tomorrow, we’ll be celebrating The World of Tomorrow!


Pay a visit on April 30th to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the 1939 New York World’s Fair as we honor one of the greatest World’s Fairs!

PICO DRIVE-IN THEATRE POSTCARD

This is one of my favorite postcards in my theater collection and this real photo card is of the first drive-in movie theater in California. In 1934 when it first opened the name was simply Drive-In Theatre. The name was changed to the Pico Drive-In Theatre since more drive-ins were sprouting up.

PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF - INDIANA JONES EXISTED AFTER ALL

I about flipped at the auction where I found this vintage snapshot. Click on and look closely at the photo!


Doesn’t that guy look like Indiana Jones? You bet he does! He’s wearing the trademarked fedora, the leather jacket and even his pants look like the ones worn by Indy. The kicker is the year 1938 scribbled on the back of the photo.

- UPDATE - A savvy eagle-eyed reader just emailed that she noticed the face of Indy on the back side of the snapshot. She’s right! If you look at the pattern made by black album paper stuck on the back, it resembles Indy. You can see his profile - his hat, nose, chin and maybe some sun glasses. Weird! -

UPDATE -This is not a photoshoped photo, nor did I write the date on the back. It’s exactly how I found it mixed in with hundreds of old snapshots from many different families from all over. We do know that the photo was taken in Colorado on the Arkansas River thanks to the inscriptions on the backs of some of these photos. The Indy photo was with this group of photos and they also have the year 1938 written on them.



I wonder what Indy was searching for in Colorado? In the photo we can see that he spots something with his binoculars. Was Indy on the trail of the Legend of La Caverna del Oro the Cave of Gold? Maybe he was looking for Dead Man’s Cave or was he in search of the Twelve Chests of Gold?

SHARP DRESSED EASTER KID

The Easter Bunny must've given this 1930's kid two Easter baskets because he was the snazziest and the jazziest kid on the block!

LEAPIN' LIZARDS TODAY IS LEAP DAY

This card is from the 1939 New York World's Fair. The back advertises Prouse's Food "Our Diner at fair grounds and depot restaurants 24 hour service"

1933 CHICAGO WORLDS FAIR SINCLAIR DINOSAUR EXHIBIT SNAPSHOT

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #21

It's been slim pickings lately, but I did find this snapshot from the 1933 Chicago World's Fair of the Sinclair Dinosaur exhibit in a bag of old photos.

SNAPSHOT PHOTO OF LAMONT CRANSTON aka THE SHADOW

Maybe the person in this old snapshot is really the secret identity of The Shadow, better known as Lamont Cranston. Only the Shadow knows. . .

1931 NATURE MAGAZINE W/ DINOSAUR COVER

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #16

Today's item is a revisit for me, as it's been on my long list of "what was I thinking when I sold it, I must've been crazy?" list. I sold it years ago and hadn't seen another one until last week and this one is in very fine condition, much better than the one I sold. I made some money off the first one and only had to spend a few bucks for this one. Looks like it was worth the wait!

The item I'm talking about is the September 1931 issue of Nature Magazine. It has a beautiful dinosaur cover painted by Garnet W. Jex.


Accompanying the article about paleontology work in the Badlands is another fine piece of artwork by Jex.

U.S. ROYAL PE-KO JAR RUBBERS

FLEA MARKET FRIDAYS #15

Hey kids, jar rubbers! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

Just think, most housewives always had a couple of boxes in the cupboards back in the day when canning was the thing to do. This box is probably from the 1930's. I only picked it up because of the cute ad character girls.

SINISTER MAN AT THE HALLOWEEN PARADE 1930's SNAPSHOT

Who is this mysterious man that stands next to a float from a Halloween parade? If you ask me, he looks kind of deviant, like he’s up to something. Did this strange ring leader and his horde of weird parade people travel all over visiting small towns to razzle dazzle the simple folk with charms, bells and of course a few whistles. They probably did their dastardly deeds as the town watched the parade. The next morning the town probably noticed they’d been ripped off and the parade people vanished onto the next innocent town.

CLICK FOR A CLOSER LOOK

He kind of reminds me of the Mr. Dark character from Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. Since this photo is not identified we’ll never know the true story behind it. It’s one of the weirdest snapshots in my collection!

SUPERMAN FLY PAPER

Ok, this has to be one of the weirdest and most oddball items with Superman’s name on it. Over the years I’ve seen Supes show up on milk caps, underwear, candy wrappers and hair brushes. Now I present Flypaper. Flypaper? Yes, flypaper! “Hey boys in girls get your free roll of Superman fly paper free in this special box of Corn Flakes!”


Actually this old roll is probably from the 1930's and more than likely older than Superman. Hey who knows maybe Siegel and Schuster working on their comic ideas on a hot July, dodging buzzing houseflies looked up from their worktable to see this roll of flypaper and came up with the name Superman!

Food for thought, just keep the flies out of it!