Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my faithful readers here in the USA.  For those in Canada, I'm a tad late, and to those elsewhere, have some roast turkey anyway.

A truly hideous pin, one wonders if they are preparing to roast the Cheshire Cat, or if he ate the whole bird!  Either way, Alice has been using far too much collagen for her years.

RIP WDCC

While not earth-shattering in the grand scheme of things, I did receive news this week that surprised me:  The Walt Disney Classics Collection is no more.  In a nutshell here's what happened.  Late last year (2012) Enesco announced they would not be renewing its license for WDCC and that the license would go to another vendor.  In early 2013 it was announced that PMI (that's Precious Moments Inc) had acquired the license.  This was met with skepticism by the WDCC community, but when some images 'leaked' of some proposed figures (see below), the internets exploded.

While I do have a few WDCC, I can say that it is not a focus of my collection, but even I have to say these look pretty bad.  Anyway, PMI stated that these were only mockups and not production figures, but lo and behold these were later released under the Disney Showcase imprint.  Then this past week PMI announced on their Facebook page that they and Disney had jointly decided to not move forward with the WDCC line.

Meaning, WDCC is dead and gone.  It may resurface one day, but I doubt it.

You Like Me, You Really Like Me! 500,000th Visitor

A milestone for the blog passed this week, just over 500,000 page views since the inception of the blog.  Who would've thought so many of us were out there?  Thanks to all my faithful readers out there!

National Leather Manufacturing Company Schoolbag WD37

Last but not least, model WD37, another schoolbag, but with some differences.  Firstly, it is smaller, about 2" small in each dimension.  Secondly, it has neither a pencil pocket, lunch pocket, nor reinforced corners.  Thirdly it has a snap closure flap. and finally it only comes with a shoulder strap.

And most importantly, I don't have one.  So keep your eyes peeled out there!

National Leather Manufacturing Company Schoolbag WD30

Next up is WD30, the Schoolbag.  These days I believe I would call this a satchel.  The 'rubberized' material makes this very stiff after 60 years, but the 'texon' flaps are in good shape.  This first one is the handled variant.

There is also a variant with a strap

and a variant with no corner reinforcements.

This particular variant actually  has a different stock number JWD30 based on the catalog pages for the Peter Pan models, even though they don't specifically list an Alice J model.  It also came with either a handle or a strap, but I only have the handle variation.

All of these bags came in plaid as well, and I have had plaid ones in the past, but don't have any at this time.  Gotta make room for new stuff after all, can't have EVERY variation (although I do make a pretty good stab at it).

National Leather Manufacturing Company Utility Bag WD20

Next up is WD20, the Utiility Bag.  To me this looks like a smallish bowling bag, but I've also seen vintage airline bags with this shape as well.

Given that this is 'plastic' (probably some sort of vinyl really) these bags are in remarkably good condition, and remain very supple.

So far I've only seen the two colors here, but it is possible that there are others.  No plaid though.

National Leather Manufacturing Company Shoulder Bag WD10

And now the bags themselves.  First up is WD10, the shoulder bag.  This example is a solid red, but I have seen them in plaid as well.

Catalog detail stating that WD10 comes in assorted plaid and plastic colors.

The material on this is pretty strange (called texon) which feels sort of like vinylized cardboard.  Whatever it is, it is stiff and brittle after 60 years.

National Leather Manufacturing Company Catalog 1953

I was very excited when I found this, a retailer catalog for National Leather Manufacturing Co., Inc. of Brooklyn, NY, as it features several children's bags that I have long wondered about. The catalog lists a wide variety of leather bags and brief cases for business use, but has a large section devoted to Disney bags in the first six pages, along with some other character bags following (I especially like the Captain Video bag).

There is an emphasis on Peter Pan, as that was the new film they were promoting with this catalog (dated January 1953).  According to Tomart, they were a licensee starting in 1951, so it is likely that the Alice bags were available as part of Alice's release, although until a catalog is found from that period it is only speculation.

Of primary interest to me are, of course, the Alice bags, starting with WD30 pictured above, the Alice in Wonderland schoolbag.  Listed as coming in assorted colors and plaid twill, rubberized.  The art is so-so, and as you see, is the only art used on the entire line..

Next up is WD10, the Alice in Wonderland shoulder bag, and WD20, the Alice in Wonderland Utility Bag.  The shoulder bag is essentially the same material and construction as the schoolbag, but the Utility Bag is a vinyl bag, looks kinda like a smallish bowling bag.

Finally WD37, the Alice in Wonderland schoolbag with shoulder strap rather than handles, and no pencil pocket.

Prices listed here are per dozen, which boils down to wholesale pricing per bag as follows:

WD30 - $1.00
WD10 - $0.40
WD20 - $0.90
WD37 - $0.56

$1 in 1951 dollars is equal to about $9 in 2013 dollars, figure that retail markup is about 2x, yields retail pricing on these bags as follows:

WD30 - $18.00
WD10 - $7.20
WD20 - $16.10
WD37 - $10.08

I guess that looks about right.  Stay tuned for more on these National Leather bags.

Uutisaitta from Finland - November 10th, 1951

This is a new one for me, and the first item from Finland on the blog.  A magazine called Uutisaitta from Finland in 1951, featuring an insanely cool cover.  Uutisaitta loosely translates to 'news trove', so I guess this is all the news that's fit to print - in Finland.

The cover on this is great, again with the weird red dress we've seen so many times in the past.  Did these people not actually watch the film?

The contents don't really have more Alice, just a smaller reproduction of the cover on the title page.  Still, only one I've ever seen!

Something Fun While I Regroup for New Posts

I was sent this link last week while on vacation, it is very fun.  New posts to resume shortly.

Happy Halloween!

This is a repost from the first year of the blog, but is one of my favorite things of all time because it combines my birthday and Alice. 

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The first time I saw this I just about died. This piece of Alice ephemera has me written all over it. You see, my birthday is today, Halloween, and what better gift for me than an obscure piece of vintage Alice paper with a Halloween theme.

What this is, is a newspaper supplement from 1950 (nearly a full year before the film's release) called Pictorial Review, dated October 29th, 1950. Pictorial review is one of several newspaper supplements of the time that appeared in (usually) the Sunday paper. These kind of supplements still exist today, but I don't think this particular one does.

I'd love to find the original art on this...perhaps for my birthday next year.

LCSNA Fall Meeting This Saturday, Nov 2, 2013

This coming weekend is the Fall Meeting of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, this time taking place at USC in Los Angeles.  We'll be in attendance, lots of great topics this time, so if you are in the area come on by!  It is open and free to the public.  Details here.

Louis Weiss Child's Umbrella

Given all the rain we've been having here in NoVA recently, umbrellas have been on my mind, so why not have some more umbrella posts?  Surprising as the umbrella previously posted here was, more  surprising is that there were two different companies that manufactured an Alice umbrella for the original release.  This image from the campaign book shows the umbrella made by Louis Weiss Umbrellas Inc.

And here we see it in my dining room.  I do like the bright red color, I don't think this umbrella ever saw any use the color is so bright.

And the screen printed image of Alice with the Caterpillar is so clean and complete.

Our Own Little Piece of Wonderland

Some of you may have noticed a distinct lack of posts in recent months.  Most of that time has been spent in pursuit of something truly cool, something that began all the way back in June at the Dayton Disneyana Show, something I can now share with you!

Welcome to Wonderland!  We have actual attraction leaves!!  How cool is that?  It was a long process, starting with paying for them (hence the massive eBay sales lately), and a whirlwind flight to Orlando.  Which was delayed.  Three hours.  We were so late that we were the only flight on the board.  Joy.

Once we arrived in Orlando, off in a cab to our airport hotel.  Apparently our cab driver didn't understand the concept of the airport hotel, and started driving us off to the other side of Orlando.  So that delayed us yet another hour.  Then we were given a hotel room that was already occupied.  That was embarrassing.  When we finally got to our room, it was 4:20am.  Finally, some sleep.  Until the fire alarm went off at 5:10am.  And again at 5:15am.  Apparently the kitchen staff were unclear how to make toast.

But at 9am we were off to the truck rental to get our truck.  It was a monster!  22 feet of rumbling diesel machinery.  Then off to Theme Park Connection, our purveyor of Alice leaves.  Four of them to be exact - two from the outside, two from the inside.

This is me in front of the big pink one in the warehouse.  BTW, Theme Park Connection is a very cool place.  If you are ever in Orlando and have a chance to go there, you should.  

So we loaded up the leaves (and a bunch of other stuff, how could we resist?) and headed off to Virginia!  and 15 hours later, we pulled up to our house (at 3am), and our 30 hour odyssey was at an end.   

This is a picture of all four right after we unloaded them.  The two interior leaves are still not installed, we are not sure if they can withstand the elements of Northern Virginia, they may have to be a part of the Tulgey Wood, the collection room inside the house.

English Sterling Silver Pin - Mad Hatter

A recent discovery, what appears to be another pin from the same English maker of the Alice pin I posted about here.

Similar in size to the Alice, this Mad Hatter is 1 5/8 inches tall and is equally well rendered as the Alice.

Similar markings on the back as with the Alice, the name (Mad Hatter) and the hallmark (Ster Silv) and © WDP.  I would love to know how many characters they made, and who the maker was.

Flexton Material by Elrene Mfg Co

So yeah, I've got this, nearly 10 yards of the pink Flexton material

This is the item that caused most of the ribbing from my friends and family.  Something about using it to make my burial shroud in my Vinyl resting place, as I head off to my Vinyl reward.  Nice.

The fabric has all 3 designs in both sizes, so all items were made from this single roll of fabric.  Sorry for the crappy picture, I'll try to get a better one later.

Umbrella by Elrene Mfg Co

Next up in the parade of vinyl is this umbrella.

This is a child-sized umbrella, and I'm quite sure that they made it in all four colors.  What's neat about the umbrella is that it gives us an idea of what the fabric looks like (spoilers!).

The handle is cool, some sort of resin or plastic molded in the shape of Donald Duck.

New Items up on eBay - Low Edition Disney Auction Pins

This week I'm listing a huge collection of Disney pins on eBay, including a large number of very low edition Disney Auction pins from the early 2000s.  Don't miss your chance to get an elusive DA100 to add to your collection!

Raincoat by Elrene Mfg Co

Next up is this child's raincoat.

As with all the others, I'm quite sure that this came in all four colors, I have this in both pink and yellow.

The raincoat consists of two pieces, an undercoat that is sleeveless, with a hooded cape that covers the base.

On the two examples here it is clear that the manufacturer made sure that the back had a nice clear image well centered.  Here's hope to find the blue and white variations.