1951 National Screen Service 40 x 60

This is a bit of repost, but seemed a good idea to put this with its brethren.

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All movie paper for Alice in Wonderland's initial release is by and large fairly rare, but here is something I never thought I'd see - I wondered if it even existed at all since it is not listed in the campaign book!

This is a 40x60, slightly smaller than a 3-sheet (41x81). The major difference is this is printed on a single sheet, and it is a heavier paper stock, more like lobby card or half-sheet stock. It does have the NSS number 51-408 printed in both the upper and lower margins. Odd that this particular size is only known by its dimensions, their is no 'name' for this poster size

1951 National Screen Service 24-Sheet - Sorta

A 24-sheet is essentially a billboard. I have never seen one, but this is the image from the campaign book. Size of a 24-sheet is 108"x246" - that's 9 feet tall and 20.5 feet long!!

What I do have is this page from some unknown magazine that illustrates the Alice 24-sheet. The ad is for what appears to be a trade association for outdoor advertising companies called The Standard Group of Outdoor Advertising Companies.

I hesitated to post this ad, mostly because of the headline, which sounds like bad ad copy for a 1970s porno.

If this is really what the billboard looks like, would be great to have one...Alice would be something like 8 feet tall!

1951 National Screen Service (?) Glass Slide

This is something I didn't think existed, a glass theater slide advertising Alice in Wonderland. I thought that these glass 'Magic Lantern' slides pretty much went the way of the Dodo in the 1940s, but here one is (thank you eBay!). I'm not even sure if these were distributed by NSS, but I'm operating under that assumption. This particular slide came out of the Rialto Theatre in Joliet, IL.


These were used by theaters to advertise coming attractions, local business, etc., between features and sometimes between reels. There were also sing-a-long slides from way back when the theater would only have a single projector and it took time for the projectionist to switch reels. At that time these kind of slides would be used to keep the audience entertained until the next reel was ready to show.

There is a pretty good article on these kinds of slide over at LAMP, if you are interested check it out.

UPDATE: I just noticed that the campaign book has a small note on the caption for the A-style half-sheet that says "Slide Same", which I guess means that the image is the same for this slide. No other mention of slides appears in the campaign book.

1951 National Screen Service Half-Sheet Style B

Slightly out of order (took me a while to find it) is this B-style half sheet.

1951 National Screen Service Banner

The first time I saw this I just about died. This is a banner, an incredibly rare movie poster that is not even listed in the campaign book. A movie poster dealer friend of mine found this for me back in 1993 I think, and since that time I've only ever seen one other example.

Banners are approximately 25"x82", so as wide as a three-sheet is tall. Made of the same heavier stock paper as half-sheets, they are rarely found unfolded since they are so long. And again with the funky color scheme, although in this case the printing is using a reduced 3-color process. It does carry the NSS number on each edge.

Happy 4th and Happy Birthday Alice!

As some of you may recall from last year, not only is this Independence Day here in the USA, but it is also the anniversary of the day when the Rev. Dodgson first told the story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to the Liddell girls in 1862.

To commerate that occasion I present to you a rather odd piece of Disney Alice ephemera. This is a British postcard featuring Alice characters - drawn loosely in the style of Tenniel - by an artist named Mendoza. The card was made by Leslie Lester Ltd., of Hurstpierpoint, Sussex (say that three times fast).

I hear you saying 'but Matt, that doesn't look Disney at all', and you'd be right, it doesn't look Disney - but it is. On the back is this notice.

My guess is that either this was based on concept art or that Disney had tied up the rights to Alice somehow that necessitated the license as stated on the back.

This is one of an entire series of cards, I don't know how many there are in the series, but I have 12 different cards, all with the same license notice on the back. Most are more traditional scenes taken from the Tenniel illustrations, but a couple, like this one, are just plain weird.

I particularly like this card because it features characters that you rarely see renditions of - the Lion and the Unicorn.

1951 National Screen Service Lobby Card #8 - Walrus and Oysters

Last but not least, the Walrus as he is about to begin the feed.

1951 National Screen Service Lobby Card #7 - Alice and the Caterpillar, without Caterpillar

Number 7, another Alice as she encounters the Caterpillar, but this time without the Caterpillar.

This is my favorite scene from the movie, and even though the colors are wonky on this card, it is still pretty great.

1951 National Screen Service Lobby Card #6 - Alice and the Caterpillar

Number six of eight, Alice meets the Caterpillar, on his mushroom of course.

1951 National Screen Service Lobby Card #5 - Alice and the Tweedles

Number five, Alice encounters Tweedledee and Tweedledum, who launch into the story of the curious oysters (poor things).

Happy Birthday Kathy!

Today is Kathryn Beaumont's birthday, many happy returns Kathy!

This is a National Screen Service still portrait of Kathy from the original 1951 release. NSS stills carry the NSS number just like the movie posters.

1951 National Screen Service Lobby Card #4 - Alice at the Trial

Fourth, Alice stands before the bar awaiting sentencing from the Queen of Hearts (and the King).

1951 National Screen Service Lobby Card #3 - Alice in the White Rabbit's House

Third in the series, this card features Alice in the White Rabbit's house just after consuming the 'Eat Me' cookie.

1951 National Screen Service Lobby Card #2 - Painting the Roses Red

Second of the lobby cards, Alice watching the Card Painters having a field day with the Queen's roses.

Interestingly, the color of the roses is correct on this card, even though almost nothing else is.

1951 National Screen Service Lobby Card #1 - Mad Hatter and March Hare

The first of the lobby cards. There was a total eight lobby cards issued, with no title card. This is #1 (numbers appear in the lower left corner) - the Mad Hatter and March Hare at the tea party about to 'fix' the White Rabbit's watch.

All the lobby cards also suffer from the wacky color syndrome we saw on the insert.

1951 National Screen Service Insert

I've always thought these were strange. An 'insert', what the hell does that mean? And why the screwy size? Did some guy just not have that much wall space to devote to advertising upcoming films?

Here it is, all 14x36 glorious inches of bizarreness. Another poster to have the odd color palette, which is doubly odd in this case, since it is the very same art as on the one-sheet and three-sheet. And it is not as if it was a reduced 2-color process, it is still full color, just weird colors.

Even though these were issued flat, they almost always turn up folded due to their shape - it was simply easier to fold them after use.

1951 National Screen Service Half Sheet Poster - Style A

This is the A style half sheet. Alice, like lots of other films of the day, would often have several different poster styles, sometimes in all formats. Alice only had multiple styles of half sheet - A and B.

Half-sheets are 22x28, approximately half the size of a one-sheet (natch), and is of a heavier paper stock, almost card stock, similar to the paper stock used for lobby cards. The art is the same as on the six-sheet from yesterday, although the six-sheet has correct colors whereas this one does not, something that we will see later as well. This is also the same art used on the cover of the herald from this post.

1951 National Screen Service Six-Sheet Poster

This is a biggie, the six-sheet, measuring a whopping 81" x 81", that's almost 7 feet square. Ya gotta have a lot of wall space for this sucker. I don't have a lot of wall space, but have one rolled up in the Tulgey Wood anyway.

1951 National Screen Service Three-Sheet Poster

This is the original release three-sheet. It has dimensions of 41" x 81", which is equivalent to three one-sheets (go figure). All three-sheets of this period were printed in two pieces, and occasionally you'll get a pair that don't line up that well, but this one has great registration.

What's interesting about this poster is the art. It is the exact same image as on the one-sheet, but more of it. If you notice on the one-sheet, you cannot see the Cheshire Cat above the Mad Hatter, you only get a fragment of his tail.

1951 National Screen Service One-Sheet Poster

Thought I'd do movie posters for a while. This is the original 1951 one-sheet as issued by National Screen Service (NSS), dimensions of standard one-sheets from this era are 27" x 41".

All the Alice movie paper its identified by is NSS code 51/408 - which means this was the 408th film that NSS recorded in 1951.

A lot of people mistake these numbers for the dreaded Limited Edition number that has become rampant in the contemporary world of 'collectibles'. But it has nothing to do with number printed, it is merely an identifier for NSS purposes.

Danish Mad Hatter Postcard

Just a quickie today. This is a vintage postcard from (I believe) Denmark, featuring the Mad Hatter. Interesting to note that the price tag on the Mad Hatter's hat is no longer in shillings/pence but rather in Danish krone - although it would be a rather expensive hat in that currency in today's money market.

Card was made by Crome & Goldschmidts, and it appears as though this company was in existence until at least 1987, and may still be in existence.

Disneyland C & H Sugar Packet

Ok, I have to admit, even for me this is a little weird. This is a sugar packet from Disneyland, probably from either the hotel or one of sit-down restaurants. Why do I have this you might ask?

Because on the back is a picture of the walkaround Alice, Mad Hatter and White Rabbit. The image is taken from the Donruss Disneyland set, card #12.

Who knows how this survived, and it wasn't even in a scrapbook, it still is full of sugar!

Royal Stars of Wonderland

This past week on eBay saw two pictures cut from the back of pudding boxes fetch more than $200. Seems like a good excuse for a post to me!

One of the largest national promotions for Alice's original release was the tie-in with Royal Desserts during the months of August and September 1951. As they had previously done for movie stars and baseball players - and would later do for Howdy Doody - Royal printed 16 scenes from the film on the back of their packaging. According to the campaign book, the tie-in was set to appear in more than 250,000 retail stores.

A later publicity press release sets this number at more like 200,000. Radio spots were recorded with Kathryn Beaumont and were to be played on 154 stations throughout the US. It also mentions that newspaper ads were planned, but the same later press release does not mention it so I don't know if these ads were ever created.

Royal also ran full-page color ads in comic books, with an estimated distribution of 34,000,000! That's a lot of comics. Consequently, the comic book ad page is fairly well known.

The cards were on the back of all their various products including pudding, custard, gelatin, and *new* lemon.

Despite the (presumably) large number of product packages produced, very few of these have survived. I have never seen a complete set, and only have 9 of the 16 myself.

The packaging mentions that you could send away for an album to hold the collection of 16, I have never seen one.

Thanks to Tick Tock Toys for sharing their images of cards 7, 8, 9, 11 and 16.

Ah, the 1950s, when every advertising campaign had some sort of jingle or rhyme to it. Some of these are pretty dreadful.

1951 Walt Disney Character Merchandising Division Catalog

I've mentioned this item in several previous posts, thought I'd devote a post entirely to it - the Character Merchandising Division Catalog.

This is another one of those things that most people don't believe exists. And in a sense they are correct, it is not a traditional Kay Kamen catalog - his death bringing about an end to that era - but rather an internally produced merchandising division catalog, or as it says on the cover, News About Walt Disney Character Merchandise. Even still, so rare that it was thought not to exist, although there is a photo of the cover in the TOMART condensed edition on page 280.

I have only seen two of these ever - mine (which I got from the estate of a Retlaw employee) and one that Disney sold on eBay a few years back (when the Disney Auctionears was still in operation). Mine is a folder (like a Pee Chee for those who remember them) containing a large number of loose leaf, 3-hole punched pages. The one from Disney auctions was spiral bound, but I imagine it was similar, probably the folder was cut down to page size and then the whole thing bound. I do remember that the spiral binding was a little odd in that the spiral was longer than the actual height of the catalog by a couple of inches.

This is an invaluable tool, with tons of illustrations of rare, and sometimes unproduced, character items. It is not limited to Alice in Wonderland, but rather is a snapshot at what was planned for the 1951 season. Of course Alice dominates the catalog. Also included is a listing of the licensed manufacturers, unknown how complete this list is though. Its target audience was, I presume, the toy retailers.

I have been slowly scanning the pages, usually in support of a specific post on an item listed in the CMD. Posts with scans of pages from the catalog are tagged with the CMD tag. At some point I will consolidate the scans, perhaps making a PDF of the entire thing. But that is for another time.