collectible

Me and My Felix

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post:  It doesn’t surprise me that, if you had a wonderful Felix the Cat doll, you would want your photo taken with it. As many of you already know, my collection in this area is fairly deep.  (Some of it was already immortalized and shared in an early posts, Felix Makes the Picture Better and more so in Ugly Children Good Toys.)  Shown here is a little girl dressed in her finest, holding a delightfully large Felix doll and looking mighty pleased with herself.  It is a photo postcard and nothing has been written on the back. Her Felix is a more pristine example of one I own – I am sparing you a photograph of me holding it!

The other card has a small holiday riff and I will use it as a tip of the cap to the newly launched 2014 holiday season. It is hard to see, but the tinfoil greetings has an impression of holly around it.  This little fellow had to pose in his winter clothes (and hat) in front of a very soft focus bit of outdoor scenery.  Note those snappy buttons on his trousers though! He’s dressed up too.  His Felix on the other hand is an absolutely whacky pop-eyed fellow.  Love those ears standing straight up – part bunny! This also unused and perfectly preserved.

I have wondered if these toys were just props at the photo studio. For some reason the little girl has always struck me as the owner of that Felix, the little boy perhaps not. Maybe because it is a bit less clear that the girl is in a photo studio – the portrait could have been made at home.

Those of you on Facebook know that I can’t resist posting a photo of me with new toy acquisitions. A natural impulse I think – representing a long tradition of proud ownership. On the other hand, who wouldn’t smile in a photo studio if they handed you a huge Felix doll?  I would!

Musical Meow!

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Welcome to my second installment of cat related sheet music.  As some of you know, early on I shared some of my sheet music collection in Meow Kitty Sing-a-Long, but I uncovered some great pieces when searching for the art to our wedding invitation recently. The Black Cat Dance is just a great image and sort of fun. I am afraid that the names of that and Au Chat! are not distinctive enough to find them on the internet – or much information about them.

I am fortunate to own two copies of the Me-ow music, one is on the wall. The second, the one pictured here, may have been a gift – or I found it some place and it was too inexpensive to resist. Always good to have a spare. It is the only one I was able to find a link to on Youtube and I have included it below.

I had hoped I would find a way to play the Felix the Cat fox trot by Sam Fox; sadly to date I cannot.  However, I did find an interesting 1928 snippet from the Music Trade Review on the International Arcade Museum website. This brief article says that Fred Waring introduced the song in Paris and that he cabled Sam Fox that he believed it would be a hit for him. It also refers to the speed with which Europe gets American dance numbers today, scarcely a month after their initial release. Felix was excellent at selling sheet music and therefore some wonderful images have proliferated on especially British sheet music. I have at least one more example I plan to share in a future cat music post.

Hope this put some spring in your step!

Here is the link to the pdf article from the Music Trade Journal should you be curious: mtr.arcade-museum.com/MTR-1928-86-22/MTR-1928-86-22-18.pdf

 

 

Up a Tree

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Treed Cats

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: My personal experience with a cat up a tree is that it is an anxiety induing experience for both the human witness and the cat. To me it is a perfect metaphor for that dreadful mistake we all make once in a while – who hasn’t found themselves at least metaphorically up a tree? After all, everything about a cat is well designed for getting up the tree – and poorly outfitted for getting down. Having said that, many a cat’s hide has been saved by a quick run up a tree where a dog or other predator could not follow. While I have never had to resort to calling the fire department, nor even taking out a ladder, growing up with cats in the suburbs we periodically would find ourselves standing in the backyard trying to convince one kitty or another to make the slow trip back down the slippery trunk of a tree.  These fellows look like they might make the trip up this tree on a regular basis however. It did not excite my anxious nature.

The back of this photo postcard is a bit hard to read.  The postmark is Boston, November 3, 1909, 9:30 AM. It is address as follows: G A Orustredt, Bridgeport, Conn, general delivery.  It reads: J. P. 11/2/09; Friend Gus [sic] Received your Postal last evening and feeling o.k. Indigestion better, the girls are all feeling fine they all send Regards. [sic] So you are on the old camping ground again hope you wont stay too long. We will expect you back in Boston by xmas anyway. I am Forwarding Letter and Postal. hope you will receive them O.K. Friend G.A.G. I guess maybe the indigestion had a negative impact on his punctuation? And no mention of the cats in the tree in the photo.

Happy Life Toy

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Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post:  I first saw this toy back in the late 1980’s, not long after I moved to Manhattan after college. I had discovered Darrow’s Fun Antiques in their original location – high ceilings, deep shelves and cases and stuff piled up. 61st, I think, between First and Second Avenues. There it all was.  Toys from my childhood and earlier. Toys I had wanted and never gotten; toys I did have and loved and lost; toys that my friends had and I coveted; and most interesting of all, toys I had never seen before or even knew existed. It was like I had found my niche in the universe – who knew such very wonderful things existed! This was why I had moved to New York – I just hadn’t known it.  

I could not afford to buy much from Darrows in those days, despite that they were always lovely and willing to spend time showing me things. One or two purchases went to my then boyfriend (hey to Kevin!) as Christmas and birthdays gifts. Mostly battery operated. (I still have an excellent drinking monkey I bought from them – future post.)  On one of my forays one of the gentlemen there showed me the toy above and I fell in love! Once I saw it move I felt it embodied everything I loved about animated toys. The gentle rocking, the honking goose, the breeze created by the turning umbrella. I don’t remember how much they were asking for it, except that it was way out of my price range.

Fast forward at least a decade, probably more, to Brimfield. It was my one and only trip to this amazing extravaganza of flea market.  There it was on a blanket – the first time I had seen it in all those years. I picked it up and wound it – I was still entirely charmed by it.  They wanted something north of $500 for it and that just wasn’t going to happen that day.  For one thing, this toy falls soundly in my fear of celluloid category. An incredibly expensive, exquisite toy that looked like it would smash to pieces if you sneezed on it – or a paw got too curious. So, I moved on – but this time I didn’t forget it.

It nagged at my brain for several more years.  Finally I began searching for it on eBay. It wasn’t especially easy to search for – celluloid woman rocking? Eventually I found my way in and discovered that many, many variations exist – some made of tin and celluloid and close to this one – up to more recent, all plastic ones of the same essential type. Along the line I discovered the name, The Happy Life Toy!  Never had a toy been more aptly named! I lay in wait, carefully watching eBay. Then, there it was one day, an early model in good condition, almost perfect really. The opening bid was reasonable – a bit more than $100 as I remember. Bam – I won it! No one else bid and there was no minimum. Well, the seller was actually quite annoyed – it is a more expensive toy really – and made no secret of it. They honored the sale however and here it is!

It is so delicate that I have brought it to my office where it sits (safe from cats) on a bookcase across from my desk. Everyone knows that if they need a lift they can come wind it up and be cheered up. In fact, there are folks who come running to see it if they hear the goose honking. It is indeed, a Happy Life Toy! Oh toy bliss!

Mine, all mine…at long last

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Aesope's Fabkes toys

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post:  Sometimes as a collector there is something that eludes you over a period of time. And sometimes as a spouse there is something from your partner’s former life that scratches at the back of your brain. This wonderful photograph managed to embody both for me. While I have used this photo in a previous blog post (Van Buerens Aesop Fables, the Toys) it was pulled off the internet, not my very own copy.  It is the only publicity photo of these fairly rarified toys that I am aware of. (As you may know, I do have that rather sharp photo of Jane Withers holding one.) This one, for the record, is ever so slightly cropped, the serial number gone, probably the most notable difference. One of the important features of this photo is that each toy wears their name on a tag around their neck so those names are not lost to the sands of time: Milton (mouse), Don (dog), Mike (monkey), Raffles (or is it Waffles?) and The Countess. All except the wolf toy.  What on earth could his name have been? I must research that.

Meanwhile, years ago, as the story goes Kim was visiting a film collector (along with Leonard Maltin no less – this was of course in the days when film collector meant piles of film cans for those of you born in the post-DVD, streaming online era) and the fellow gave each of them a copy of this photo! Amazing!  He evidently had a pile of them. So far so good, except my husband (who is a lovely and very unselfish fellow) gave it to his then girlfriend Sally. Now this was bound to stick in my craw both on the spouse side as well as irritate the heck out of me on the wife side even all these years later – it happened in 1980. Obviously I understand – I wasn’t even a twinkle in his eye for another fourteen years, and I was in fact, still quite underage and yet to embark on my years of toy collecting. Still, in my jealous wife and toy collectors brain this has remained a wrong that needed to be set right.

Enter eBay last week – on a day when I had decided I really needed to rein in spending and behave for a while, but was having a little look nonetheless. There it was, mis-listed under Mickey Mouse photos and set as a buy-it-now for $25. Just in time for our wedding anniversary and our 20 year anniversary of our very first date. Bam! Mine!  Oh bliss! The universe set right at long last.

A Rare Little Felix

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Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: By now you probably realize that I spend a lot of time looking at (and, yes, acquiring) Felix the Cat toys from the 20’s and 30’s.  The above Felix is one I purchase years ago on eBay, there was this one and an even smaller version for sale at the same time, and I have never seen the likes of them since. (I could only afford the one – they went high!) He’s about five inches, seated, but is fully jointed.

He has, as you can see, the Felix hunchback that the Brits almost always give their Felix toys. (This came from Felix in his leaning over walking and thinking position.) This Felix is fluffier than most, a real long-hair. I like the expression on his face – he’d wink if he could! He has all the charm of these off-model numbers I love yet is entirely different from my others. His joints are a bit loose and I try to keep him away from much activity, on the cat shelf at the foot of the bed, but low enough where I can admire him every single day.

 

A Photo Only I Could Love?

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post:  More Pre-Halloween seasonal fun! I fell hard for this card, but it was one if those rare occasions when Kim just couldn’t see it. Don’t get me wrong – he would never actively discourage me from purchasing a photo I was crazy about, but sometimes when he seems truly mystified it does take the wind out of my sails. There’s nothing about marriage which makes me think you should like all the same stuff – more interesting if you don’t really and Kim readily agrees. And I know that the kindest thing he can say about some of the most ratty of my toy purchases is that this one or that one look like a stuffed demon, or worse yet, a roll of the eyes and a (sad) shake of the head – but somehow I expect our esthetic sensibility for images such as photos to be more aligned. But on the other hand, how can my husband fail to see the bizarre greatness of a card of someone in a homemade Felix costume, with a mask made out of a bag and an advertising sign that says, Felix left off walking when he bought a bike from Curry’s? Or am I really just crazy? I mean, it was The Prize Winner at Boston. Really Kim!

Another time this happened was an attempt to purchase these photos of co-eds donning Felix-y costumes. I was seriously jazzed when I saw them and Kim…wasn’t. I was so befuddled I put it out to Facebook for a vote. The buys had it (by a good margin, but not unanimous) but so shaken was my confidence that I underbid and ultimately lost it. (Below is the scan pulled off of Facebook from eBay.)

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There are those occasions when Kim seems unimpressed until the photo enters the apartment. There are numerous examples of this, but the most recent is the photo featured in my post Cat Hat, sadly this was not one of those times.

For me, the costume, complete with broken cat tail and white socks for feet (those folks at Curry’s were nothing if not resourceful), posed on an early British version of Astroturf just tickles me silly. I hope it does as much for you, my reader.

The Strangeness of French Betty and Felix

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Pam’s Pictoram Toy (?) Post: Don’t know why, but this item has been on my mind lately so I thought I would write about it. Those of you who followed my purchases in the flea markets of Paris a couple of years ago (heaven!) might remember this. Never saw anything like it when I bought it, nor have I seen anything that was a kissing cousin to it since.  It is a lightweight wood and decorated on all other sides with the sort of alligator print you see on the edges. Too flimsy for a lunch box – a purse perhaps? I guess the French really are different from us, yes? I mean, to think they live in a country where women once walked down the street carrying accessories such as this. Really a very civilized place.

Aside from its use (and practicality, or lack thereof) what in the name of goodness is going on in that image?  Betty, complete with beauty mark (but maybe minus a mouth?) seems to be getting a come hither look from that goose – and Felix is playing some nefarious role peeking out from that tree.  All playing out in front of a castle-esque building in the background – I like to imagine that Betty has an apartment in that building – like the cartoon Betty’s Penthouse:

Although that was a more urban setting. Still, her place with a turret or a balcony?

Betty looks worried here – and I think she’s got good reason. Felix and the goose are up to no good. (Really, I hate to see an evil Felix.) This appears to be an unlicensed piece. Absolutely no manufacturing information.  Needless to say the moment I saw it I knew I had to have it.  While the owner of the stall did politely allow me to bargain a bit (as I said, very civilized place) my memory of it was that I was holding it possessively the entire time, and did a very bad job of hiding the fact that I absolutely was not leaving without it. (As I remember, Kim kicked in a bit to help make the transaction happen.) I know I paid a lot for it, but like many a really fine purchase, I don’t remember how much, even roughly.  Just that it is mine – oh happy toy lust!

 

Fear of Celluloid

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Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: The parade of toys continues as I detour into an area I have entered into with trepidation, celluloid! As you can tell from these fellows above, it is a fragile medium for toys and generally I amaze that any of these guys have lasted this long. Given the somewhat rough and tumble nature of our lives in our cramped, cat-filled apartment I have become the steward of these precious bits of ancient plastic with some reluctance.

With the exception of the cat playing the fiddle below, a gift from Kim, these were all purchased on eBay for very little money and I deeply suspected I was the only one who appreciated what they were. The cat with the parasol is the most recent purchase, last February I believe. I think it is very beautiful – almost as if it was made of ivory rather than plastic. The Felix next to him is missing his tail and the strings holding him together are looking for an excuse to break. He came with that small indentation in his chest. However, I have quite simply never, ever seen one like him. The smiling kitty that rounds out the group is clearly a kissing cousin to the one with the fiddle. These are both Japanese toys – there are other cats in the band along with the fiddle player but I have never been able to lay claim to another. The fiddle player was closer to black when I first got him and has faded to this red color over time.

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In some ways the transient nature of these toys does add to their appeal, however I think I had better get them put away before Cookie and Blackie wake up from their naps!

Oskar

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Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post:  This little fellow is one of my favorite and most inspired impulse buys. I bought him for a song when he was put up for auction with very little, if any, information. It was several years before I learned that his name is Oskar and that he was produced by Teddy Hermann, a German toy company. He is about 8″ high and he is a natty and roguish presence on the cat shelf. Kim and I have often speculated that you tend to find Oskar routinely in compromising positions with the other stuffed cats, no matter what shelf you put him on.

I suspect he might be somewhat incomplete when it comes to accessories, especially when I compare him to his younger cousin below. (Although they both look like they would always be up for a night of drinking and carousing – how often can you say that about a toy?) He is unlike any of my other cat toys. He has a head made of composition, mohair body and a hand-knit appearing sweater – the photo of his back is dark but you can see the little heart sewn onto his bottom. However, like my Felix toys, it is a bit hard to imagine buying Oskar for your child.  He is, in my opinion, an adult toy.

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This photo from an old eBay (May 2010) listing I found in the Google picture file serves to confirm my feeling.  According to the listing, he was made in the 1950’s as a promotional item for the Frankfurter Illustrierte Journal. He has a rubber face, as opposed to composition, a jauntier sweater and that cheerful neckerchief.  He’s also fluffier. I do wonder if my Oskar was also a promotional item – makes sense – although why a weekly German picture paper (as described on German Wikipedia) would be giving away Oskar as a promotion remains an interesting mystery.  My kind of paper I guess.

Postscript:  Some amazing and very interesting information about Oskar and the Frankfurter Illustrierte Journal via a German Facebook friend, Joachim Trinkwitz. I have copied it below. Mr. Google seems willing to translate…

  • Joachim Trinkwitz “why a weekly German picture paper (as described on German Wikipedia) would be giving away Oskar as a promotion remains an interesting mystery” – because that’s Oskar der Familienvater (the family man), a german newspaper comic strip character from the 1950s. His creator, the cartoonist Carl Fischer AKA Cefischer, actually lost both his arms in WW II, but learned to draw with his mouth and got very popular and successful in West Germany. But nowadays, he’s completely forgotten …

    Joachim Trinkwitz's photo.
    Joachim Trinkwitz Oskar has a Wikipedia page indeed:http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_(Comic), as well as his creator. Lambiek’s Comiclopedia has some information in English, and a few pictures:http://www.lambiek.net/artists/c/cefischer.htm

    Oskar (Comic) – Wikipedia
    Oskar ist die bekannteste Comicfigur des deutschen Zeichners Cefischer. Die Geschichten von Oskar und seiner Familie erschienen von 1952 bis 1962 in der Frankfurter Illustrierten und wurden während dieser Zeit und auch danach in Buchform nachgedruckt.
    DE.WIKIPEDIA.ORG