Box Office's Promotion Magazine - September 22nd, 1951

I recently picked up this vintage magazine put out by Boxoffice, and it turned out to be a fascinating magazine from cover to cover.

I had never heard of this before, it appears to be some sort of supplement to the standard Boxoffice issues that came out regularly.  But this magazine is 100% dedicated to the concept of promoting films, in every way, shape or form.

For instance, take this teeny little blurb on the Alice in Wonderland Sunday comic.  Seems barely worth mentioning since it is only a total of 34 words.

This is cool, I previously posted this page when I did my series on the original set of NSS posters for the 1951 release.  At the time I did not know where the page came from, but I do now!

As I said, this magazine is all about how to promote movies, and it give you lots of tools to do so.

For instance, this page provides a list of upcoming releases and when those films have previously been mentioned in something called the National Pre-Selling Guide. 

Or this item, which lists in the Pre-Selling Guide, which films are having records released and what the titles will be.

Nice little blurb about the Alice RCA Victor records.

And finally, a condensed page of reviews of current films, where they were reviewed, and how well received.

Think of it as a pre-cursor to Rotten Tomatoes.

Alice did pretty well!  What this magazine lacks in pictures, it more than makes up for with sheer quantity of information.

Original Store Display Sign - Wonderland of Toys

I've been underbidder more often than not on eBay lately (which is probably a good thing), but there are times when you just wish you had gone the extra mile, and this was no exception.  Once again, something I've never seen before, an original store display sign.

This could be unique, a one-off for a local store, I don't really know.  All I know is that it is really cool and I wish I had won, but such was not to be.  As George Carlin says, "you can't have everything, where would you put it?"

The text on the sign reads:  "Another Valu-Rack Department Serviced by Standard Merchandise Co., Los Angeles"  I cannot find any references to this company on the web in the limited searching that I have done, but I presume that they were a local wholesaler of general merchandise to area stores, like the local five and dime.  Large department stores or national chains would have had their own distribution.

It went to a good home, just not mine :-)

Palés Alice from Spain

I love the internet.  After posting the White Rabbit, I received an email from the collector in whose collection that figure resides.  He not only confirmed my belief that it is indeed Palés and the White Rabbit, but he sent a bunch of high resolution photos of his collection, including this Alice!!

While I'm the first to admit she is not very attractive, it is cool that they made a figure of her at all.  Now all I need to do is find her :-)  Oh, and check my previous posts on the White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat for new and improved photos of those figures, plus a variation!  Thanks again Oli!

Palés White Rabbit - Maybe?

I may have discovered the existence of a new Palés figure from Alice in Wonderland - the White Rabbit.

I came across this photo of what I originally thought was Rufus from the Rescuers, but now I'm not so sure.  Rufus did wear spectacles, but did not wear a waistcoat and bow-tie, he wore a scarf.  Until a reference book or catalog shows up, I guess we'll never know.

UPDATE:  Thanks to reader Oli for providing this much better photo of the White Rabbit in his collection!

Illustrated Magazine from England - July 28th, 1951

Today marks the 61st anniversary of the US premiere of Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland.  As many of my readers surely know by now, the world premiere was actually 2 days earlier, July 26th, in London.  In honor of this very special day, and the fact that the English were 2 days ahead of us (and it is an English story after all), I present to you this issue of Illustrated from July 28th, 1951.

Cover features a full color photograph of the wee Prince Charles.  Love those red shoes Your Highness.

Inside features a fairly standard paragraph about Walt's Alice, but what is really nice are the illustrations comparing the Tenniel drawings with some great concept art from the studio.  I previously posted the still of Alice in my posting about the Alice Goebel figure (see, I still managed to mention Goebel figures) here.  I would love to find stills of the other concept art pictured here.

Goebel Alice in Wonderland Full Set

Just because it is fun to see them all on one page, here is the full set. I promise I'll move on now...

DIS 58

DIS 59

DIS 60

DIS 61

DIS 62

DIS 63

DIS 64

DIS 65

DIS 66

DIS 67

DIS 69

DIS 70

DIS 71

DIS 84

DIS 85

DIS 87

DIS 88

DIS 89

DIS 90

DIS 91

DIS 93

DIS 97

DIS 106

DIS 107

DIS 108

DIS 110

The Final Four Goebel Figures - DIS 71 Dodo Smoker Ashtray

Last but not least, the fourth figure from the Final Four, DIS 71 (I saved it for last because it is my favorite).

The parade of ashtrays continues with our friend the Dodo, this time modeled as a figural 'smoker' ashtray.  This is cool because the cigarette would rest on his tail, and the lit end would extend into the body of the Dodo, and the smoke would rise and come out of his pipe!  That is a genius design.  Too bad I don't smoke.  Goebel made several different 'smoker' ashtrays, but this is by far the coolest, and apparently the rarest too!

The Final Four Goebel Figures - DIS 85 Dinah

Third in the Final Four is DIS 85.

This has got to be the most innocuous figure I've ever seen from Goebel, with the possible exception of the frog from the Bambi series.  I wrote a series of extensive posts on the question of 'is this Dinah' here and here, take a look at those for more details on why I believe this is indeed Dinah.  Again why two different Dinahs?

This photo illustrate a unique feature of the Final Four:  the Goebel Archive Tag.  What's that you may ask?  I'll tell you.

As some of you may recall, back in 2008 Goebel announced that they were closing and ceasing production.  They later sold off the Hummel division and the remainder of Goebel was purchased and both Hummel and Goebel continue to produce gift items, although independently.  But, as a result of the split and sale, the original factory, and the accompanying archive of figures, was sold off.  And these figures came from that sale.

Each figure from the archive is identified with one of these small metal tags or plombe (feels like aluminum), and to my knowledge there was only one of each figure in the archive, and perhaps not every figure was represented.  Luckily for me the four I needed were indeed in the archive!  The word 'archivmuster' loosely translates to 'archive specimen' (or sample or model), essentially the file copy of the figure.  The reverse says 'W. Goebel Oeslau', which was the name of the company and its location at the time the figures were made.

Several very rare figures from the archive have surfaced on eBay in the past 5 months, and I'm sure there are more to come.  It may be that for some of the rarer figures, the archive example may be the only known example.

The Final Four Goebel Figures - DIS 107 Tweedledee & Tweedledum Ashtray

Second of the Final Four, DIS 107.

As with both DIS 106 and DIS 108, this is just the DIS 65 figure on the generic ashtray base.  While I understand that smoking was extremely prevalent at the time, I fail to see the need for so many different ashtrays, and especially this one.  With all the other ashtrays in this set, the character is a smoker, but no so with these two.  Nit picky to be sure, but just sayin'

The Final Four Goebel Figures - DIS 108 Dodo Ashtray

The first of the Final Four is DIS 108, the Dodo ashtray.

As with the previously posted DIS 106, this is merely the Dodo figure from DIS 66 applied to a standard ashtray base.  This same base was used on many different ashtrays in the Goebel line.  Gotta love the 1950s when everybody smoked, when a Disney-themed ashtray was a good idea.

23 Years in the Making

Yesterday I received a package that completed a 23 year collecting odyssey.  I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would one day be able to say this:  I have completed the Alice Wonderland set of Goebel figures! <insert fanfare music here>

It was a long road, that started when I found a copy of this Collector's Showcase magazine.

In the dark ages, before the World Wide Web, there were these constructions of paper issued on a periodic basis called 'magazines', and they covered a wide variety of topics.  This particular magazine was all about collecting, and this issue had a very interesting article.

This article was all about the Walt Disney Studio archive, and talked about what kinds of things the archive had with a few illustrations, including this one

This was my first image of an Alice in Wonderland Goebel figure.  And the hunt was on.

I have previously posted a large article on the Goebel figures here, I encourage you to read it.  Stay tuned over the next few days as I reveal the Final Four.

150th Anniversary of the Telling of Alice in Wonderland

Today is a special day (aside from the Independence Day holiday here in the US), it is the 150th anniversary of the first telling of the story of Alice's adventures by the Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson to the young Alice Liddell and her sisters in Oxford, England.  Oh to be in Oxford today to relive this auspicious event!.