Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes, it's true, I am a Halloween baby. Go ahead, just try to come up with a joke that I haven't heard in 45 years (yikes, I'm 45!?).

Since I was too lazy to dig out vintage Halloween costumes this year, I'm settling for a birthday card for today's post.

I think this is from the 1970s, it is a Hallmark card, stock number 50B 71-4. It has a 'Productions' copyright, so can't be any later than 1986. Cool thing about this card is that it is a popup. The tea party table pops out at you when you open the card. How cool is that?

Sorry for my lack of posts this past week, it has been review time at work, and I hate writing reviews. But I have some posts already planned for next week, and I bought myself a large format scanner (finally!), so stay tuned for some cool items that wouldn't fit on my regular scanner!

Tweedle Metal Pin - Unknown Maker

When I got this pin, I thought it might be from the same series as this Alice pin. But, there are no maker's marks on the back, it is not sterling but some sort of pot metal, and the quality is nowhere near that of the Alice pin. Still, it is a cool pin, and I love the fact that he has his little flag on his hat.

Alice in the Movies - Lewis Carroll Society Fall Meeting Tomorrow

I'll be in Fort Lee, NJ on Saturday October 17th for the annual Fall meeting of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America (LCSNA). Fort Lee has an interesting place in Alice history, the very first sound film adaptation was filmed in Fort Lee, and it will be screened at the meeting. The meeting is free and open to the public, so if you are going to be in the NYC area, drop by. Details of the entire agenda are located here.

Coro White Rabbit with Watch Plastic Pin

At first glance this looks like the regular White Rabbit with watch pin, just with the chain broken off. But it isn't. There is no attachment on this pin for the chain, it is smooth and unblemished. Also, even though it is gold in color, this is very light, and the clasp on the back matches those of the Alice and Tweedle plastic pins. This could be the missing 8063. Who knows?

Coro Tweedle Plastic Pin

Although not listed in the CMD catalog, I'm quite certain this is also by Coro. The plastic Tweedle pin shares many of the same qualities as the plastic Alice pin. Perhaps this fills the hole in the numbering and is item #8068. The world may never know...

Coro Alice Plastic Pin - Item #8069

In addition to the wide variety of metal costume jewelry, Coro also made pieces in plastic. Of course I didn't know that until I got my copy of the Character Merchandise Catalog.

These plastic pieces are really, really hard to find. Plastic from the 1950s was exceptionally flimsy, hard to believe any of these survived at all. This is the only example of any of the Alice jewelry that I've found on the original card.

And that brings us to the end of the pieces as described in the CMD catalog. But there's more to come...

Coro Tweedle Pin - Item #8067

The last of the pin pairs features a nameless Tweedle (pick your favorite).

Coro White Rabbit Pin - Item #8066

Second of the pin pairs features this White Rabbit pin, much smaller than his watch toting cousin. This pin is probably the rarest of the pins, at least in my experience.

Coro King of Hearts Pin - Item #8065

The first of the pin pairs features Alice and this little guy, the King of Hearts. I've always had a special place in my heart for this guy, he was my mascot at my wedding, and I wore this very pin on my lapel.

This pin is very tiny, and the most fragile of the pins, his heart scepter has a tendency to break off.

Ah, so much hair, so few chins (to quote Alton Brown).

Coro Alice Pin - Items #8065, 8066, 8067

This Alice pin was apparently part of several pairs of pins according to the Character Merchandise Catalog.

Alice was paired with the King of Hearts, White Rabbit and a Tweedle. Could she also have been paired with a Mad Hatter?




This also marks my 300th post, go me!

Coro White Rabbit with Watch Pin - Item #8064

The White Rabbit with watch pin is the only (metal) item from this line that is unique, meaning it does not appear as part of the necklace or bracelet.

It is much larger than all the other pins at about 1 1/2 inches. It does have a smaller cousin however...

Coro Alice Heart Pin - Item #8062

The Alice Heart pin, item 8062, was the very first item I found from this line. At the time, I did not know whether or not it was truly a Disney item, it seemed a little odd with the heart. It wasn't until I found a regular Alice pin that I realized it was truly from the same set.

The Alice figure on this pin is the same as on the necklace, bracelet, and standard pin, with the added heart device.

Coro Alice in Wonderland Character Bracelet - Item #8061

Next is item 8061, the bracelet. Essentially the same as the necklace in yesterday's post, just on a shorter chain.

Coro Alice in Wonderland Character Necklace - Item #8060

First in the jewelry line is item 8060, the necklace. It consists of 5 character charms: Alice, the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, the King of Hearts and a Tweedle.

Note that the Mad Hatter character is the only charm on this necklace that does not have a corresponding pin (see yesterday's post). It is possible that a Mad Hatter / Alice set could fill the missing number (8063 or 8068).

Also note that these charms - and their corresponding pins - are tiny, between 3/4 and 7/8 of an inch.

Eastern Jewelry Mfg. Co. (aka Coro) - A Page from the Character Merchandise Catalog

The Eastern Jewelry Manufacturing Company - also known as Coro - produced a wide range of costume jewelry for the original release of Alice in Wonderland. Pictured below is the page from the Character Merchandise Catalog for that line.

It pictures a total of 9 different items, some of which appear to have been sold in pairs as the pins pictured along the right side of the page share inventory numbers - all pairs included an Alice and another character.

There are some holes in the numbering, one can speculate about the missing items - and for certain I have an item not listed on this page that could very well fill one of those holes. Stay tuned over the next few days for more details on this line of jewelry.

Sincerest Form of Flattery? Hmmm.....

So, let me start this post off by saying that I love the Disney Cruise. I think they are the best cruise line out there, and I have always always had a great time - so much so that I've been on 6 of them with my family and various friends, and plan to go on more. Probably after Computer Girl finishes college however ;)

A couple of weeks ago, coinciding with the D23 expo - which I did not go to :( - there was a special Disney Cruise - which I also did not go to :( - that had a presentation on Disney character voices featuring two Disney Legends - Kathryn Beaumont (Alice, Wendy) and Bill Farmer (Goofy). A friend of mine did go, and sent me the following photos he took at that presentation.

During this presentation they would project various fun images related to the two guest speakers. This one shows part of a promotional photo of Kathy dressed as Alice in front of lots of Mary Blair art.

This photo shows some stills of Kathy and Walt at the time she signed her contract. Hmmm.... something familiar about these....

Oh yeah, I had a post about the photo on the right about a year ago. Funny that they should choose that image... and look they even included the snipe on the back... funny that they had the same snipe... pretty amazing coincidence...

Or maybe not such a coincidence. Look at this. It isn't just another copy of the photo and snipe, it is the exact copy that resides safely in a binder in my collection. Look at the comparison below, you can see the identical hand written annotations in pen and red pencil, and the same foxing pattern and paper defects. Wow. Disney snagged this image from my blog for their presentation. I don't know if I'm amused or irritated. I think I'm leaning towards amused, since there's really nothing I can do, and it is sort of flattering that they used my images. Would've been nice to have been asked and/or credited tho'... I must say the funniest thing about this (to me at least) is the first line of the snipe - "WATCH YOUR CREDIT"

Looking closer at photo number one, I see another possible snag...the 40x60 movie poster in this post. Look to the left of the image of Kathy and you'll see the edge of the poster. This is a rare poster, I've never seen another one. While it is possible that Disney has one and they used its image here, it is such an unusual image and certainly not one in common use at Disney when promoting anything Alice related that I highly doubt it; they usually use the current DVD cover image. Go figure.

Dan Brechner Alice Figure WD-29

Ok, I can hear you all saying, "Wait just a minute Matt, that's nothing special, that's just a watch figure." Au contraire faithful reader. This is indeed something special, in fact one of the (if not the) rarest domestic Alice figures there is. The Dan Brechner figure was produced for an extremely limited amount of time. Brechner held the license to make figures for only three years (1961-1963), and who knows how long this particular figure was manufactured. Most people are familiar with his Donald and Ludwig von Drake figures and S&Ps, but there were a variety of figures just like this one made as well. I've seen Alice, Snow White, Cinderella, Mickey, Donald, Ludwig, Donald's nephews, and more.

I understand how this could be mistaken for a watch figure though. The Brechner figure is a cheaper pottery, with a lower gloss glaze, and the painting is almost all overglaze, making nice examples very difficult to come by. Alice's right hand is raised, and she is standing on a thicker base with the words Alice in Wonderland around the base.

The ceramic watch figure from 1958 came with the Alice watch that just had the name Alice on the face. That figure is actually a better quality pottery than the Brechner figure, and has a higher gloss and all the painting is underglaze. Alice's left hand is raised and the base is very shallow with no words. Sometimes there is a sticker from the manufacturer on the bottom (Wales), but usually not.

The mark on the Brechner figure consists of just the stock number (WD-29) and the standard Productions copyright. Sometimes there is a small rectangular Japan sticker.

This item is available in the Wonderland Bazaar.

Donald Art Co. School Tablets

In honor of this festive back-to-school time of year (well, for parents anyway), I present to you this group of school tablets by the Donald Art Co. These are about the size of a steno pad and contain that big lined paper those of us who went to elementary school in the 1960s and 1970s remember, sorta tan colored, really cheap, wide lines, so coarse you can almost see wood grain. Now all I need is that big round blue pencil and I'm all set. These come in a variety of sizes, what appears to be 50, 100, and 150 sheet tablets or thereabouts.

Recognize the art on these? You should, I spent almost two weeks in the Vira greeting card series, where all this art comes from. This yellow pad's art is taken from this birthday card and this get well card.

This red pad's art of Alice and Dinah is taken from this birthday card and this get well card.

This blue pad's art of the Mad Hatter and the March Hare is taken from this birthday card (the one I don't have).

Oddly, this pad of the Mad Hatter pouring tea for Alice uses interior art from the same two cards as the yellow pad above.

And last but not least, the red pad's art of Alice is taken from this birthday card and this get well card.

I don't know if this is the complete set of tablets, since obviously there are six different card styles, and one of these pads uses interior art, there could be as many as twelve different styles.

Belgian Wyler's Soup Premium Puzzle #13 - Alice and the White Rabbit

Last week on eBay a seller in Belgium had 10 of these Wyler's premium puzzles up, seemed like a good time for a post.

This is the only Alice puzzle I've seen from this set, #13 featuring Alice following the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole.

Puzzle itself is printed on very thin cardboard. Comes with a card stock picture of what the finished puzzle looks like,

all in an illustrated envelope. The envelope is the giveaway to the puzzle's origin, it has text in both French and Dutch. These come from the mid-1950s, since Peter Pan is listed on the envelope - odd that Alice isn't.

Of the puzzles I've seen, each film seems to follow sequentially in the numbers. Number 11 is Snow White, and number 16 is Peter Pan, so that leaves several numbers open for other potential Alice puzzles...but I have yet to see any other than this one.

Disneyland Mad Tea Party Tea Cup Photo - January 1959

Photograph of the Mad Tea Party attraction, with nice clear image of the interesting designs on one of the tea cups.