Zaccagnini Auction Result!

Today an amazing collection of Zaccagnini figures was auction, including a King of Hearts!  The result of the auction were mixed, but the king did especially well, realizing 6x his original high estimate.  Congratulations to the winner, he is indeed exceptionally rare.

ABC Press Release for Disneyland TV Show "Alice in Wonderland" Premiere - October 25th, 1954

Now this is the kind of thing that I just love.  In 1954 Walt Disney created the Disneyland TV show to promote the upcoming Disneyland theme park.  The show premiered on October 27, 1954, and featured Walt talking all about the park under construction.  An historic event, the first episode of a weekly Disney television show.  But, the second episode was just as much of an historical event as it featured the very first time a Walt Disney feature film was broadcast on television, and that film was "Alice in Wonderland."

This press release is dated two days before the series premiere and details the second episode featuring Alice.  It is comprised of three separate 'stories' that could be used to promote the show.  I especially love the letterhead featuring Donald behind the television camera.

The "Alice" episode was broadcast on Nov 3, 1954 and was heavily promoted, even the TV guide from that week had an extra large listing for the show!

 

RKO Program from Japan 1953

Japan is one of the few countries to release Alice several years after its premiere, 1953 to be exact.  But that doesn't mean they did not have RKO promotional material.  This is one such item, an eight-page program - and one that I had never seen before until recently.

Original release items from Japan are quite difficult to come by, so I was thrilled to acquire this piece.  And I was surprised at how large it is, fully 8 1/2" x 12", which corresponds (most closely) with the standard size kiku 4.

The cover features some art we've seen before, that of the "Up to the Minute News" sheet of legal-sized paper I wrote about here, with an inset of Alice and the Broom Dog from the Tulgey Wood.  Even in 1953 the Japanese were ahead of their time highlighting unusual characters.

The remainder of the program (90% in Japanese) features character blurbs with photos of the actors, and a synopsis of the story with song lyrics to boot.  All in all a fabulous piece.

Storyboard of Alice in the White Rabbit's House

 There's been a lot of activity here in the Tulgey Wood these past few weeks.  Work has been creeping along to get the collection room back into shape, and that means that I've been through every storage bin and portfolio as we decide what stays and what goes.  We've also started using the gargantuan flat file we purchased about 5 years ago, now as a staging area and eventually as a final home for some of the larger paper thing like posters and large art.  

To that end, I've uncovered some art that hasn't seen the light of day in quite some time, including this wonderful painted storyboard of Alice entering the front door of the White Rabbit's house in search of his gloves.  It is unclear who the artist is, way back in the 1990s it was shopped around as Mary Blair, but I'm not sure about that.  Regardless it is a great piece with lots of very nice details.  I especially love the rabbit family portrait headed up the stairs.

I must say the finished film matches quite well with this concept piece, although the 'carrot under glass' in the film is a better visual gag than the 'roses under glass' in the concept.  

Ringing in the New Year!

 It's a new year and changes are a happenin' here in the Tulgey Wood.  We are finally getting back to flood recovery, and have now successfully made our first pass at the contents of all the storage bins.  Next phase is to rebuild all the displays - no mean feat, especially with a nationwide lumber shortage!  But fear not, I will continue to post things as I find time, and give updates on the progress with the book.  Which I'm happy to say is continuing.  I'm well into the second chapter "Toys, Games, & Puzzles" and have uncovered a few interesting bits related to them.

So let's start off with something newly acquired this year:  This super cool set of kokeshi dolls from Japan, probably 1960s or early 1970s.  Not quite within my usual time period, but I have a very soft spot for kokeshi dolls.

Alice and the White Rabbit have the traditional wobbly heads, but the cards are static.  According to the person I got them from, they are by a company called Senshukai, which is still in business today!  Their first kokeshi dolls were made in 1954, but I'm not sure when they acquired a Disney license.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 To everyone in the US, a very happy Thanksgiving, and may your turkey be more appetizing than this one!

Model Sheet of Alice from February 1950 - a Recent Addition!

Over the years I've been very successful in finding model sheets of many of the characters from the film, including some very odd ones indeed.  And as one might expect, there were several of Alice herself.  But for the past 32 years one of the Alice sheets has eluded me, but no longer!  Sheet 250-7 is finally in the collection!

This sheet has a couple of very famous poses, most - if not all - taken from the Caterpillar sequence.  The central image is of Alice leaning on the mushroom listening raptly to the Caterpillar, and the image just below it is of Alice saying "...who you are first?"  Feels good to finally have this sheet after so many years.

Sunday News September 9, 1951

This is truly spectacular.  This is a copy of the Sunday News, the Sunday supplement of the New York Daily News from September 9, 1951.  That in and of itself is not that spectacular, even though it does have a very nice cover featuring Anne Francis of Forbidden Planet and Honey West fame.

No, the spectacular part is on the very next page, the inside front cover to be exact, which sports - in glorious full-color rotogravure - an amazing photo of Kathryn Beaumont speaking animatedly to her Wonderland friends in doll form.  I do find it amusing that whoever wrote the caption got the two rabbits mixed up.

These dolls have appeared before in several black and white photos, and while it is never clear what exactly they are, it now seems UN-likely that they are Lars of Italy (thanks to the keen eye of uber collector Mel Birkrant).  They could be custom made just for the studio or even by the studio, but regardless, this is just an amazing image.  And a rare full color image from the time.

70th Anniversary of the US Premiere

 Yes, that's right, the world premiere was 2 days before the US premiere.  Walt was doing a big push in the UK what with having so many productions active over there using up money in limbo.  So a great excuse for a big 'do across the pond.  But that doesn't mean interesting things didn't happen back here in the US.  Here are two items that are favorites in the collection, both have been posted before, but I think they deserve another day in the spotlight.  First up is a press preview ticket for the film, a full month before the premiere!

This is such a cool piece of ephemera, something that the studio would have mailed to various publications so they could review the film prior to release.  It is amazing things like this survive at all, means that whomever received it didn't go!  My thanks to you, unnamed press guy.

Next is a studio preview ticket, for 2 weeks before the premiere.  Again, the only reason this survived is they didn't go!  Which I find hard to believe.  Wouldn't you go to a preview of the most hotly anticipated film from the studio in ages if you could?

I owe a particular debt of gratitude to John Koukoutsakis for this post.  

70th Anniversary of the World Premiere in London

 I would be very remiss indeed if I let today go by without a post, it's not everyday one turns 70 after all!  Today we have a copy of the UK Photoplay magazine from August 1951, with a cover of Esther Williams looking quite fetching.  But the real gold is inside.

A four-page full color illustrated article on the film.  And while the illustrations are just frames from the film, the design is amazing!

Telling the story via this series of stills as if they were taken directly from the 35mm film is quite charming indeed.

And this was apparently a popular article.  It is the two centerfold wraps of the magazine, and this issue is often found with these four page missing.  People had good taste!

Screen Stories Magazine - August 1951

As I continue to unearth items from the Tulgey Wood as part of the writing process, I have begun scanning the vast numbers of magazines in the collection - both to index and catalog them for my research, and to prepare the images for inclusion in the book.  A recent example is probably the most well-known cover from the original release, that of Screen Stories from August of 1951.

The is everything you could want in a cover:  bright colors, lots of characters, very little text to interfere with the images.  The only way you could improve upon it was if you used new bespoke art rather that the standard set of images used by nearly everyone.  But who am I to complain, it is a great cover!

The interior contains a frequently seen 2/3 page film advertisement in two colors (red and black), one that was published in seemingly ALL the movie fan magazines that summer.

It also sports one of the longer publicity pieces issued for Alice, a 6-page article, the first three of which are illustrated with some very standard black and white stills from the film.  

The article is basically a synopsis of the movie, hence the name of the magazine.

This magazine is notoriously difficult to find in good condition, as the paper is super cheap quality newsprint, thus making it very prone to brittleness and chipping.  

The cover, too, is nearly always slightly damaged at least, due to the way the magazine is constructed, with the interior sets of folded pages (called signatures) stapled together and the cover then glued around the full interior.  

The staples are never flush with the pages ('natch) so invariably they create impressions in the cover, and introduce damage.

First Draft of the Ceramics Chapter Complete!

 Well, one down, a dozen or so to go!

Twenty sections in this chapter, probably the most of any chapter (I hope!)

Whitman Stationary Set

During the time of the original release for Alice (and for many other Disney films too), a lot of items were made under the auspices of any of the subsidiaries of the Western Publishing.  This includes Whitman, Golden Press, Sandpiper Press, Dell, and probably more that I'm not aware of.  There is also a link to Simon & Schuster that we'll go into in another post.  This item, the Alice in Wonderland Stationary Set, was made by Whitman.

This set (stock number 2054-25) consists of 18 sheets of illustrated paper (in red ink no less) with 12 envelopes.

The illustrate folder is what really sets this item apart, with beautiful graphics of the garden of live flowers on the inside (including an ultra close-up of a rocking horsefly), and tea party graphics on the outside.

The paper consists of three different designs, including my favorite the Caterpillar.

In the 1990s these were not too difficult to find, but as time has worn on it has become more scarce, as with pretty much everything else.  Finding a complete set with the correct number of sheets and envelopes is now quite difficult.

Zaccagnini First Draft Complete

 I just completed the first draft of one of the most difficult sections in the ceramics chapter, that for Zaccagnini.  Not counting the years it has taken me to acquire all the various information and references, I've spent hours just to create 2000 words.  Gotta pick up speed...

Weatherby & Sons "Falcon Ware" - Walrus and Queen of Hearts

This is my first pass at the section on this manufacturer in my in-progress book.  As I (hopefully) unearth more information on this company and figures, this section will expand.  Or not.  Who knows?

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Falcon Ware by J.H. Weatherby and Sons (UK)

Falcon Ware was a company located in the English town of Stoke-on-Trent, home to Weetman and approximately all the other pottery companies in the UK.  This company had a long and storied history, dating all the way back to 1891 under the parent name of J.H Weatherby and Sons, Ltd., and closing permanently in April, 2000 after 109 years of continuous operation as a family run business.  Sadly the buildings themselves no longer exist.

Image courtesy thepotteries.org

Falcon Ware takes its name from the name of the pottery works itself, which was an existing, though disused, pottery works when purchased by Weatherby in 1891.  The majority of its output in the first half century were traditional table ware, but in the 1950s they began to make nursery items, and novelty animal figures.  Enter Walt Disney.

In 1958 Weatherby planned a series of at least seven figures based on Disney's Alice in Wonderland.  On February 2-6 of 1959 they exhibited at the Blackpool Gifts and Fancy Goods Fair at the Imperial Hotel.  By this the range had been reduced to six figures consisting of Alice, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Walrus, the Queen of Hearts, and the Cheshire Cat.  The figures and their appearance at Blackpool was advertised in at least one periodical in the UK (Pottery Gazette and Glass Trade Review, February 1959), and price sheets from Weatherby are known to exist.

Advert from Pottery Gazette and Glass Trade Review, February 1959

Sadly the deal seems to not have been completed or perhaps canceled, and most of the range never produced.  But, there does exist an archive photo from the Weatherby family that I have reproduced below.  I have been unable to contact either the author or the Weatherby family, and the publisher is no longer in business.

Image courtesy of Susan Jean Verbeek, The Falcon Ware Story, (Pottery Publications, 1996)

Fortunately at least two of these figures appear to have been sold in some fashion.  Multiple examples of the Walrus and the Queen of Hearts have been seen over the years, and they are presented here.  Unmarked as they are, for years I suspected these might be Disney, but more likely knock-offs.  It wasn't until I discovered the Verbeek book that I realized their true history.

The Walrus

This was the first Weatherby Falcon Ware figure I acquired.  While I had no idea what it was, and it was not sold as Disney, it just looked right.  The design and style of him just screams Disney, and bears more than a passing resemblance to the Weetman figure.  Not surprising given that the two factories were less than four miles apart.

Scarcity:  🔎🔎🔎🔎

Value: 💲💲💲

The Queen of Hearts

This figure of the Queen of Hearts is what led to my discovery of the history of the Weatherby Falcon Ware.  The auction listing actually referenced the Verbeek book in the description, and I was able to get a copy of the book even before the auction closed.  The look of this figure marks it as clearly Disney.  I am not aware of any other incarnation of the Queen that has the same color scheme and design as in the Disney version.  All this figure is missing is the black stripes in the front of her dress!

Scarcity:  🔎🔎🔎🔎🔎

Value: 💲💲💲

Progress...

 

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.