Libby's In-Store Broadside

Research continues for the book. Recently I acquired something I did not know existed, although I should have know since it is a common enough practice.

Most of you are probably aware of the HUGE tie-in campaign in 1951 by Libby, McNeill & Libby, commonly known as Libby's. They had a double page spread in Life magazine that I'm sure many of you have seen, and a big in-store display kit. But they also produced newspaper ads that I have seen in lots of local papers, there was probably an advertising kit too because I have found lots of local newspapers with unique ads, some even with full and double pages, featuring the characters.

But this was new. It is a double-page broadsheet, likely circular or newspaper ad, but only printed on one side, and used by the grocery store as an in-store ad, usually taped to the inside of a window for shoppers to see as they entered the store.

Could Libby's not decide which spelling to use, so they blended them into "CATCHUP"? Sound like a very tardy condiment indeed.

Trimfoot Shoes Alice in Wonderland Advertising Manual - The Alice Look!

Every once in a while something turns up that just completely blows me away.  This is one such item.  The complete advertising and promotional kit for Trimfoot Shoe's Alice in Wonderland campaign.

This thing is truly amazing, 16 pages plus cover and one insert of advertising gold for Trimfoot Shoes.  The campaign was called "The 'Alice' Look" and was centered around the marketing of a series of five different girls' shoes styles based on Alice.  

The manual contains sample ads, copy, artwork, you name it, for you and your local shoestore to maximize your "Alice" campaign.  It even pictures some Stensgaard displays that could be ordered to enhance your window treatments.

But the best part of course are the shoes, I especially love the "March Hare" with the ear-like appendages on the ankle strap.

Interestingly Trimfoot still exists, and although they don't appear to have a Disney license per se at this time, they do make some Marvel character shoes, so technically they are still a Disney licensee.  

In-Store Advertising Poster for Walt Disney Presents & Disneyland Records 1959

 Alice in Wonderland has had a love affair with Christmas throughout the years.  Most fans know that Disney's first TV show was One Hour in Wonderland on Christmas Day in 1950, and the film (edited) was broadcast on the second episode of the Disneyland TV show in 1954.  But did you know it was on TV a second time on Christmas Day?  In 1959 on Walt Disney Presents (the next incarnation of the Disneyland TV show), Alice in Wonderland was again broadcast.  And for whatever reason, promotional adverts were created for stores that sold the various Alice records.  This is one such poster, about the size of a lobby card, advertising the show itself on Christmas, and the records for sale in the shop.  

The first record advertised is the "Story-teller Record and Book" for $3.98.  That record is the first pressing of ST 3909 as told by Darlene of the Mouseketeers.  This first pressing is fairly scarce, being replaced by the much more common plaid-cover "Magic Mirror" record a few years later.  Collectors refer to this record as the "Enchanted Circle" cover.

The second record advertised is the "Original Hit Song Sound Track" for $1.98.  That record is the first pressing of DQ 1208 which is identified by this red cover with a back cover featuring 9 color images of other DQ records.  Second pressings have 5 black and white images.  Later pressings of this title have a purple cover of Alice sitting with the Cheshire Cat.  The DQ 1208 record was the successor to the exceptionally rare WDL 4015.

In today's dollars those records would be about $35 for the storyteller, and $17 for the soundtrack.

Through the Looking Glass and Jello Commercials

So my family and I went to the new Burton-esque Alice film (meh). But what was amazing was during the pre-show (I love the pre-shows at the Alamo Drafthouse) they used MY video clip of one of the Alice Jello commercials. Pretty cool.

Chicago Biscuit Company Alice Tea Party Sugar Wafers Store Display

Well, here's something I've never heard of before.  I know that there were several food items created during the original release, but I've never heard of these.

Apparently CBC (Chicago Biscuit Company) - which was a division of Leaf brands (of baseball card fame) - created some sugar wafers (probably like nilla wafers) and themed them towards tea parties for their Alice tie-in.  But I've never seen packaging nor heard of them before I acquired this store display/price card.  The little rosette in the bottom corner would show the price of these lovely confections I'm sure.  Would love to know more about them if anyone out there knows anything.

Royal Stars of Wonderland Card Album

Wow, something I thought I'd never find.  You may recall this post from 2009 on the Royal Pudding premium cards that appeared on the backs of the boxes.  Each box bore one of sixteen different images from the film (I still need five - hint hint), and also on the back was an advertisement to send away for a collectible album in which to store your fantastic cards.  This is that album.  Woohoo!

 I confess, I was expecting something a little more impressive, but I guess I shouldn't have done.  After all, Royal made MANY different 'Stars' sets, and I'm sure it was way more efficient to create a single album that could contain any set.

The album contains 8 pages with very thin plastic envelopes, holding a total of sixteen cards.  Now if I could just find the remaining cards ....

Advertising Poster for Dell Four Color 331

I've spoken a number of times here on the blog about the Dell Four Color comic that adapts the film, #331.  It was one of the - if not the - earliest Alice items I collected.  But did you know that Dell issued a poster to advertise its publication?  I acquired this poster in the early 2000s (the naughties) directly from Disney through their Disney Auctioneers program.  Those were the days let me tell ya.  Back when the company was selling treasures from their archive with no oversight whatsoever.

Promotional materials for comic books is nothing new, and companies have done it for decades.  I remember that brief time in the late 1980s when I worked for a comic book distributor  we got all kinds of promotional materials, from posters to flyers to buttons announcing the latest and greatest from all the publishers.  And apparently Dell was no exception. The humongous poster - a whopping 28x44, bigger than a one-sheet - just goes to show exactly how hard everyone was pushing the film.

Bates Disneyland Fabric Ad

What is really an ad for kids bathing suits as sold only at Disneyland is in fact also an ad for Bates Disciplined Fabric in Disney prints

The Alice in Wonderland print was available in both blue and pink, and although the Can Can style swim suit was only sold at Disneyland by Cole of California, the fabric was available in fabric stores everywhere.  Or so I assume.

DFC Disneyana Expo Preview - Day 6

It says Libby's Libby's Libby's on the label, label, label...I've got 9 posters from the Libby's in-store promotion kit, including a full set of the 8 different character product posters.  You may never see another full set again.  And tonight is the only night I'll be able to have my room open for room hopping, come visit us in room #520 at the Wyndham Anaheim-Garden Grove.  We'll have our room open from 7-11p, so get a jump on Sunday's sale.

Kent Feedsack - Merit Chicken Feed Advertisement - October 1951

This is awesome, the only one I've ever seen, and I don't even know from which publication it came.  It is an ad for chicken feed featuring the Alice in Wonderland feedsack promotion.

This ad came out of a fantastic scrapbook I purchased about 10 years ago that belonged to a little boy in Texas.  This kid was just like me - totally obsessed with Disney's Alice.  The entire scrapbook is filled with all things Alice from when the movie came out, and this filled an entire page.

Based on the date on the bottom of the page it must be some sort of monthly  publication, and it is oversized, page size is about 11x14, and this is page 55.  It is newsprint rather than glossy, and it has browned considerably; the scan above has been heavily photoshopped by me.  If anyone has any idea from which publication this came, I will be in your debt.

UPDATE:  I now know that this is from a publication called The Farmer Stockman.  Let the search begin!

Small Fry Shoulder Bag by Salient

Years ago I acquired this cute little girl's shoulder bag that featured art of Alice and the White Rabbit with a Rocking Horse Fly (you don't see that every day).  For years I did not know who the manufacturer was, but I suspected it was a company called Salient Inc. of East Longmeadow, MA, who (according to Tomart and the CMD) had a license to produce children's purses and wallets for the years 1951-1952.  Salient is listed in the CMD, but there is no merchandise page in the CMD.

Flash forward a few years, probably around 1998, and I was at the Atlantique show in Atlantic City NJ (now sadly departed) when I came across this brown cardboard box.  The dealer had one of these handbags sitting on the top of it.

I opened the lid and saw this:

Holy crap!  A full box with original built-in store display for the Alice shoulder bag (throw in a few Donald Duck and Pluto for good measure).  While it is difficult to read, the lid has a stenciled 'Small Fry Shoulder Bag' on the top, and a smudge that was probably the item count.  This box held 18, I don't know if that is correct as it is really, really full.  My guess would be that it originally held a dozen.  And how clever is it to create a built-in store display in the shipping box itself?  I love it.  Here is a cleaned-up scan of the inside lid/counter display.  Shoulder bags for little ladies indeed!

There must have been a small find on this bag back in the 1990s, as they turn up every once in a while in mint condition - I have a few extra as well in the Wonderland Bazaar if you'd care to have one.  But this is the only full box with all three styles I've come across.

Happy Halloween! Playthings Advertisement for Alice Costumes by Ben Cooper

Happy Halloween to all, and Happy Birthday to me!  Tis the season for costumes, and in 1951 the king of costumes was Ben Cooper.  Wouldn't you know it, they made costumes based on Alice, and were pushing them hard months before the film was released, and even more months before Halloween.

This ad comes from the greatest of all toy industry magazines Playthings, and features bright red printing for the Alice in Wonderland masquerade costumes to be released by Ben Cooper.  It's just too bad there isn't any art of Alice and company in this ad, but there is a stock image of Donald, so that's something.

This ad was published in the March issue of Playthings, the Toy Fair issue.  As with all other Playthings issues from the 1930s through the mid/late 1950s, it features a Disney cover, and this cover features Mickey dancing about with the Mad Hatter and March Hare, welcoming all to the 1951 Toy Fair.  This particular issue is chock full of Alice stuff, but those pages are for other posts.  Save some candy for me!

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 :-)

Hasbro Nurse Kit

Last, and certainly not least, is the most bizarre of all, the Alice in Wonderland Nurse Kit.  Alice is ready to do her civic duty all decked out in Red Cross regalia (well, at least with a hat and new pinafore). 

Again we see very standard nurse kit fare, all from Hasbro's OTS kits.  My favorite is the *ahem* hot water bottle.  I don't know about you, but I'm not about to let my 7 year old use that thing on me!  Of the three kits, this has the strangest closure of all, just a single snap.  How weird is that?  And I dig the faux blue alligator box.

This toy eluded me for years, and I began to wonder if it even existed!  All I had to go on was an ad from an issue of Playthings Magazine from July 1951.  Since that issue was coincident with the release of the film, I felt fairly confident that the toys depicted in it would have been produced, but now I think otherwise.  I think that because the ad lists FOUR playsets, not three. 

The Make Up kit (item 1915), the Sewing kit (item 1545) , and the Nurse bag (?!) (item 1765) are all pictured, but the Nurse kit (item 1735) is only mentioned in a text blurb.

I don't think the Nurse bag was produced.  It seems odd that there would be two nursing playsets made, and it was three times as expensive as the Nurse kit.  It may have been made, but I've never seen one, and who knows how well that plastic material would have held up after all these years.  Still, fun to think about it and if it was made, I'm sure it will turn up someday!

Chocolate Sticks Original Box Label

This is one of those things that turn up that make you wonder just exactly how much stuff was created during the release of the film that has never been seen since 1951.  This is a shipping container label for Alice in Wonderland Chocolate Sticks, Item #1255, by the Chicago Biscuit Company.

This label would adorn cases of the product when they were shipped to distributors and stores.  I've never heard of these before.  Ever.  It is not listed in the campaign book, nor is it listed in the CMD.  I do have another piece for a different Alice confection made by the same company, and there is a very blurry image of yet another Alice confection in the Life Magazine photo I posted here, but I do not have any kind of comprehensive list of what was made.  The world may never know.

First Full Page Advertisement for Alice - Life Magazine January 22, 1951

This issue of Life Magazine contains what I believe to the first advert for Alice in a periodical - if you don't count the two Pictorial reviews posted here and here.

This is also the first time we see the Alice logo type, my favorite of all the various logo types used for the film over the years.

This ad appeared six months prior to the release of the film, which seems like quite an early release for an ad campaign to begin back then.  Shows just how hard Disney was pushing Alice.  According to the campaign book between all the various advertisements, comics, supplements and articles published in all the periodicals identified, they were expecting a total circulation of more than 7 million.  I don't care what year it is, that's a hell of a lot of publicity.

Oh yeah, finally got my tabloid size scanner up and running, no more cutting and merging files for me!

Gorman's Brand Bread End Seal Label Fill-In Picture

A recent discovery, yet another local bakery participating in the Alice bread end seal promotion previously discussed in these posts.

Gorman's Bakery was located in Central Falls, RI.  This makes a total of four different bakeries that I am aware of that participated in this promotion.  I wonder how many more there were?

Merry Christmas! One Hour in Wonderland Advertising Poster

This is one of those things I had known existed for a long time, but never thought I'd own.  This is the in-store advertising poster for One Hour in Wonderland, sponsored by Coca Cola.

 This was distributed to Coca Cola retailers in the weeks leading up to Christmas for display, usually on windows judging by the adhesive tabs present on the front of the poster.

I first learned of this poster when my friend Paul over at the Disney History Institute saw one in a shop about 20 years ago.  He took a photo of it for me.   About 5 years ago I managed to acquire two in a lot, this being one of them.  It is about 16x24 and very colorful.  I am also aware of another version of this poster, much larger, 41x59.  I do not have that one, but as the image is exactly the same, I'm not that concerned.  Well, ok, I do want it, being the ultimate completist, but having the small one does alleviate my suffering somewhat.

This poster is quite rare, which is a little surprising to me.  Coca Cola advertising has always been avidly collected, and this being both Coke and Disney, I would have thought lots more would have been saved over the years and made available on the collector market, but such is definitely not the case.  I have only see four of the small posters in the last 22 years, and two of the large - I'm not even sure if the two large posters I saw were not the same poster.  Compared to other 1950s Coca Cola advertising posters, that is ridiculously rare.

Merry Christmas to all my readers, may your holidays be filled with cool Alice stuff!

1951 Canadian Goodyear Promotional Mailer

This is very cool, and quite honestly very odd. A promotional mailer for Goodyear tires, Canadian market only. I must say, when I think Alice in Wonderland, tires do not leap to mind.

This mailer is incredibly well designed, and the art is very good. The first interior fold shows Alice chasing the White Rabbit towards the Queen's castle, in Goodyear Land (yeah, that rolls right off the tongue).

But the real gold is in the gatefold, where there is a little comic strip talking all about Goodyear Super Cushion tires, and how much Tweedledee and Tweedledum are like these amazing tires...all in verse!

If I were Tweedledee and Tweedledum, I would take offense at being called soft, and comments about how vast my area is.

Disneyland Full Page Ad - June 17th 1958

In honor of Disneyland's Alice in Wonderland attraction's 52nd anniversary, I present to you this full page newspaper ad from June 17th, 1958 (a few days early) featuring the new attractions unveiled, including Alice, the Columbia, and the Grand Canyon diorama.

I like the minimalist art on this, and there are lots of little details around the edge. I especially like the silhouette art at the bottom and of course the Date Nite inset.