Mercury Records Featuring Roberta Quinlan and Richard Hayes

Mercury Records originally issued records from Alice in Wonderland in 1951 at the time of or slightly before the release of the film, and again in 1954 or 1955 as a part of their Childcraft line.  Songs and narration were performed by Richard Hayes and Roberta Quinlan.

The Story of “Alice in Wonderland”

Issued in 1951 as a standard 78 RPM album (A89) with three 10” discs, and as a single 33⅓ RPM (MG-25096) disc.  The cover of the album has exceptionally unusual art, especially for the time, and looks like it could be from a decade later.  This set is what is referred to as the “complete score” in the campaign book, but it is essentially a storyteller.

 

Childcraft Songs from “Alice in Wonderland” CM-37

Issued in 1955, this 78 RPM record consists of 4 songs from Alice with accompanying narration, basically an abridged version of the album above.  

An Australian release as a 78 RPM exists using the same sleeve just on a different weight of paper, however the labels on that version are quite different from the American version. 

EP-C-2

This 45 RPM version of the Childcraft Alice CM-37 is actually the B side of the Childcraft Pinocchio (non-Disney).  But at least they used the Alice sleeve art on the back of the cardboard cover.

Miscellaneous

There is an additional Mercury record by Quinlan-Hayes that has narration and songs but is not part of any of the albums above.  Mercury 5639 is a 78 RPM record with three of the eight songs contained on the full album, so not quite a storyteller but not just a single either.  It is also available as a 45 RPM record.

There is also what appears to be a single of the title song “Alice in Wonderland” by Roberta Quinlan on the Mercury label, but to date I’ve only found it as a sample record, the kind usually sent to radio stations to be played on-air.

Little Nipper Junior Series Alice in Wonderland from 1953

Y-485 Alice in Wonderland

Likely issued in 1953, this 78 RPM entry in RCA Victor’s Little Nipper Junior series features a vivid yellow cover with new art of Alice and the dancing Tweedles.  Featuring Kathryn Beaumont and Ed Wynn from the original cast, this is an abridged single disc version of the standard Little Nipper storyteller.

EYA-46 Alice in Wonderland

The 45 RPM EP of the Junior series record above is actually the B side of a similar Peter Pan record, hence the 1953 release date.  Surprisingly the cardboard sleeve prints the Alice art on the back which makes this particular record much easier to identify.

Columbia Record Featuring Rosemary Clooney

Rosemary Clooney recorded this record of four songs with the Percy Faith Orchestra for release on the Columbia label in both 78 RPM (MJV-112) and 45 RPM (MJV 4-112) formats.  The cover art is unique to this release, and is more reminiscent of Tenniel than Disney.  Although even that is a stretch.  Best to say it is unique.

I do like the fact that the 45 RPM sleeve has a hole in the middle just like a plain sleeve.

Mayfair Record Featuring June Winters "The Lady in Blue"

The Lady in Blue, a character popularized by singer June Winters, released a number of children’s records beginning in 1947, with the Alice in Wonderland title Songs from Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland being released in 1951.

Issue in both 78 RPM (K-128) and 45 RPM (K-128-45) formats, the record includes the songs Alice in Wonderland, I’m Late, All in a Golden Afternoon, and The Unbirthday Song.  The paper sleeve features art inspired by the original John Tenniel illustrations; the art on the 78 RPM label  features Alice, but not based on Tenniel.  The 45 RPM label is just a standard 45 RPM label with no art at all.  Based on this one might assume that the 78 was more targeted at the children's market whereas the newer 45 format more at the adult market.  But who can say for sure.

Founded in 1946 by June Winters and her husband Hugo Peretti, Mayfair Records specialized in children’s records featuring “The Lady in Blue,” June Winter’s character made famous throughout the late 1940s and 1950s.  By 1949 The Lady in Blue's popularity had increased dramatically, with her own fan club, comic strip, and numerous appearance on radio and television.  By 1951 The Lady in Blue radio show was airing nationwide on NBC Radio.

Mayfair was acquired by Roulette Records in 1957, with Hugo Peretti staying on as head of the children’s record division.  The Lady in Blue continued to release records on the Roulette label until June Winters retired in the 1960s.

Whitman Punchout Book

The Punchout Book is a sort of combination book and toy, with eight large heavy board pages filled with figures and objects to punchout ('natch).  

Each page also contains a drawing of the completed scene.  A total of five scenes can be made with the punchouts, although some of the characters appear in multiple scenes.

Surprisingly it is uncommon to find partial books.  Presumably if someone started punching out the figures, they just kept going.  Individual figures and sets are sometimes found and it is fun to put them together.

This copy is a Western file copy.

Whitman Sticker Fun

As mentioned on the cover, the Sticker Fun is a stencil and coloring book - with a twist.  The interior of the book is designed as a coloring book, with lots of line drawings of scenes from the film to color.  But interspersed with the coloring pages are full pages of gummed stickers to cut out and apply to some of the scenes.  At the front and back of the book are full pages of bright orange stencils to punch out and use to make your own pages to color.

Given that the purpose of the book was to cut out and use both the stickers and the stencils, finding complete copies is very difficult.  Add to that the tendency of complete sticker pages to adhere to the coloring page behind it makes it doubly difficult to find.  If a copy is found with intact and uncut stickers, it is advised to place a sheet of wax paper between the sticker page and the coloring page to prevent them from sticking together.

This copy is a Western file copy.

Whitman Paint Book

Stock #2167-25, this copy is a Western file copy.  While this is called a paint book, today we would call this a coloring book.  I guess children in the 1950s used watercolors more than crayons.  

When I began collecting, this book was pretty much ever-present; you would find these at nearly every show and it seemed copies were quite plentiful.  The reason for this became clear when I found a complete copy of the 1974 campaign book offering these as part of the merchandise for the 1974 release.  

Western must have printed a boatload of these in 1951 to have them still available 23 years later.

Oak Rubber Company Oak-Hytex Balloons

Below is an except from the forthcoming book.

--

The Oak Rubber Company was one of the largest manufacturers of balloons for nearly 80 years, and a Disney licensee for 33 of those years.

Oak Rubber Company was founded by Paul Colette and John Shira in Akron, OH in 1916, but moved to Ravenna, OH the following year, which was already a rubber manufacturing center in Ohio.  The company started out, as most companies do, with a handful of employees, but grew quickly; this forced the company to expand into new and larger buildings in Ravenna.  But, on March 15, 1920, a fire completely destroyed their factory  as well as several other properties and many feared the company was finished.

Happily, the company reopened in November 1920 with a full complement of 125 workers, and immediately began to produce up to 150,000 balloons per day.  By 1921 company sales were over $1 million dollars, and by 1923 was the second-largest producer of rubber balloons in the country.

Initially producing only pure rubber balloons, in the 1930s they launched the “Oak-Hytex” line, which employed a new process using liquid latex (rubber tree “milk”) for making balloons.  The Hytex line became the predominant brand for all but the most specialized balloons.  Incidentally, Oak-Hytex was also the sole supplier of balloon “bubbles” for Sally Rand’s infamous “Bubble Dance” made famous at the 1934 season of the Chicago World’s Fair.  

The company continued to make balloons and other rubber products until the company closed in 1993.

The Oak Rubber Company received their Disney license in 1934 and held it for 34 years with a small break during WWII.  The company made a wide range of “toy balloons” featuring many Disney characters from the shorts and feature films.  Perhaps their most iconic creation was the Mickey Mouse “head” balloon which they introduced in the mid-to-late 1930s, a balloon that, while no longer produced by Oak Rubber, is still sold in the Disney theme parks today.

The balloons were sold in a variety of styles and packages including counter-top boxes and illustrated card sets.  All the various types of packaging were imprinted with their distinctive yellow and black logo.

The Alice in Wonderland line of toy balloons was released at the time of the film’s original run in 1951 (along with those sold by the Eagle Rubber Company oddly enough).  Prices for individual balloons ranged from $0.05 to $0.25 each, corresponding to $0.52 to $2.61 in today’s dollars.

Balloons

While the balloons themselves are unlikely to exist in anything other than very poor shape, a wide variety of styles, sizes, and sets were sold.  Notice the advertising photos featuring several characters in the ‘head’ style like the famous Mickey balloon.

Display Packaging

Even though most, if not all, of the balloons have not survived, any display cards, boxes, or other packaging may still exist, but I have as yet been unable to locate any.

Happy New Year 2023

 Well, a new year is upon us.  Let's all hope for a slightly smoother year this time around.  On the good news side, I've gotten some good work done on the book.  On the less good news side, still lots to go. Sigh.

Showing a small sample to some friends in LA this coming week, so hopefully I'll get some good feedback that isn't crushingly harsh ;-)

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.

Banner Plastics Tea Set from 1955

Banner Plastics made a variety of plastic toys for children, but specialized in tea sets and toy trucks.

The Banner Plastic Corporation was founded in 1944 in the Bronx, NY by two men, Emanuel M. Pressner and Bernard Schiller, although Bernard Schiller would not stay long with the company.  In 1950, the company moved from the Bronx to Patterson, New Jersey where they purchase a former aeronautical engineering plant.  During the mid-1950s, the company greatly expanded its product line, adding new metal toys to complement their line of plastic toys, including tea set, blocks, and trucks.  Into the 1960s they continued to expand their tea set line to additional kitchen toys and dishes, licensing such brands as Pyrex, Corning Ware, and others.  They continued to acquire other toy companies further expanding their lines with garden toys, military toys, and space toys.  But by 1965 the company had contracted to the point that their catalog contained only 50 items, that catalog would be their last as they filed for bankruptcy that year, and by 1967 had been purchased by Tal-Cap, a large toy conglomerate in Minnesota.

Banner held a Disney license for only two years, between 1955 and 1956.  An ad from an issue of Playthings from April 1955 shows the Alice in Wonderland tea set, but in the picture is a plate with an image of Thumper, so it is likely that they made a few different tea sets, but to date I've not seen any other than the Alice set.  Tomart also lists stacking blocks and a Davy Crockett covered wagon, neither of which I am familiar with.

Items are marked Banner Plastics Corp., Paterson, NJ, and depending on the year and the package, may have the company logo featuring two kids waving banners.

The Alice in Wonderland tea set was released in 1955 at the beginning of Banner's Disney license, the Playthings ad from April clearly shows it (well, not that clearly but I've highlighted it in the second image).  

It is unclear why exactly they chose to do an Alice tea set, but there may have been renewed interest since the film had been aired on episode two of the Disneyland television show the previous November.  Also, the box in the collection features a label advertising the contest to win a trip to Disneyland, a promotion that ran the year prior to Disneyland's opening in July 1955.

No specific pricing for the Alice set has surfaced, but comparable sets of the era retailed at $3.98, which would be $40 in today's dollars.

The Banner tea set is amazingly cool.  For many years it was unclear exactly what was contained in this mythical toy, since only the tin pieces showed up the majority of the time.  However, the full tea set is actually pictured on the large tray so it was known what should have been included.  Eventually the plastic pieces surfaced, and later a full set in the original box was discovered.  A second set in the box was seen in the early 2000s and that is the set pictured here.

The tin pieces consist of four plates, four saucers, and the large tray.  The plastic pieces include four cups, four knives, four forks, four spoons, a creamer, a sugar bowl, a teapot, and a teapot stand - in loose sets the teapot stand is often missing.  Perhaps the coolest feature of the set is that all the handles are characters!