Aesop Fable Doll – the Prize!

Pam’s Pictorama: Flashing back to last November, you may remember I posted Just in – a New Aesop’s Fable Doll about an Aesop’s Fable toy I had managed to score for a bargain price on eBay under a poor listing. (For those of you who are uninitiated, these wonderful toys are like hen’s teeth to find. For background on my collection I suggest the former posts, Mine, all mine…at long last and Van Bueren’s Aesop Fables – the Toys, for background.) While researching the November post I turned up an interesting ad for an Aesop Fable doll contest being held in theaters. The ad featured a four foot version of the Countess doll. I offer a refresher of the image below.

So you can imagine my stunned delight when a version of The Countess turned up at a Hake’s auction a few weeks ago that claimed to be a theater prize! I have to assume that these were made special for this purpose as she is about 10% smaller than my other Aesop Fable dolls. She is what I call a blond version, instead of black velvet she is yellow. (It confuses me a bit, but I have come to accept that various doll parts seems to have been assembled in random order to make up the dolls. Perhaps this is how they designed the endless cartoon characters in the animation as well.) Her skirt is a fabric I love, with other Aesop Fable characters dancing across the gingham surface. Best of all, under her skirt, written carefully in ink is the following: I’m The Countess and Fox West Theatre – August 20, 1932 – Junior Reed – 1909 – Lucky Number. Can you imagine being the lucky winner on August 20, 1932?

With significant help from Kim, Deitch Studios (Toy Division!) made this magnificent acquisition, beating out several other determined bidders and adding her to my growing collection. Welcome home Countess!

Bugs

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: I found Bugs one day while doing a leisurely stroll through eBay of the kind I (perhaps luckily) rarely have the chance to do. While looking through the listings for vintage character toys I stumbled on him. No one was showing any interest in him which was surprising for such a nice toy and he was an excellent price. I figured what the heck, and put a more or less minimum bid on him. The next thing I knew, he was mine and he has a place of pride among the cat collection.

In no way was I disappointed – he is a splendid toy in excellent condition. He is made by the M&H Novelty Company, NY, NY and is a Warner Bros. toy. His carrot is detachable with a small hook and eye of which the eye on the carrot side is currently lost. It unfortunately also looks exactly like a variety of catnip carrots I purchase for the kits which is filled with a heady mixture that makes them just insane.

Of course, Bugs Bunny cartoons played an enormous role in my formative years. Whereas a young Kim Deitch was being treated to television runs of silent Aesop’s Fable cartoons, for me it was Bugs, Elmore Fudd and The Road Runner. In some ways this makes me and my generation somewhat deprived by comparison, but nonetheless I retain a deep affection for Bugs. Kim and I agree that Bugs was the first to introduce us to certain early tunes – who can forget him singing about The Daughter of Rosie O’Grady for example? A snatch of As Time Goes By? Warbling a passage from It Can’t Be Wrong. Or singing I dream of Genie with the light brown hare… Kim has pointed out that these are generally tunes used in Warner Bros. movies which does make some sense. Other notable examples, Ain’t We Got Fun, There is No Place Like Home (Be it every so crumbly, there’s no place like Rome…) and You Ought to be in Pictures to name a few.

Meanwhile, a quick internet search reminds me that while Bugs would memorably sing snatches of popular music, his roots in classical and opera run deep as well. Without drawing it to our attention, Bugs and company introduced us to everything from Wagner (The Flying Dutchman and Pilgrim’s Chorus featured in What’s Opera Doc?) to Strauss, Chopin (who can forget him singing I wish my brother George was here to the tune of the Minute Waltz in Hyde and Hare?) and Rossini.

Bugs thew off one-liners like a Borscht belt comedian, sang, danced and crossed-dressed his way across our televisions in an endless loop where we absorbed and memorized his vaudeville style lessons without realizing we had done so. Suddenly we found ourselves to be nascent adults, reciting whole passages of the cartoons during college drinking games or late-night first dates. There are whole websites devoted just to the music of Bugs Bunny – the lyrics of the popular songs (Looney Lyrics) and another which is devoted just to the classical tunes and opera (15 Pieces of Classical Music That Showed Up in Looney Tunes Cartoons.)

Is it any wonder that when I discovered popular music of the 20’s and 30’s I felt like I had come home? Nope – I was just following my nose down the road where Bugs lead me during my most formative years.

An Ode to the Toy Catalogue

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama: The seasons of childhood were punctuated by the Sears and Roebuck catalogue. The spring one passed with little notice, the fall one was where we ordered our back-to-school clothes – but oh, that Christmas catalogue! It kicked off weeks of toy daydreams. Who doesn’t treasure their memories of the Christmas catalogue? The smell of fresh ink, the cheap paper (but full color and chock full of photos) which tended to stick together on first viewing. Oh, what would the next page reveal? Stuffed animals, Barbie’s latest home, vehicle and outfits. There would be stoves that cooked (yep, had the Easy Bake, loved it like mad), bikes, cars that could be driven. You name it and it was in that catalogue, or so it seemed. Your parents didn’t necessarily buy from Sears, but it was the child’s encyclopedia to what was new and interesting in toys and we studied it like some people study the Bible.

As an adult I assumed that it was a thrill that I would never really relive. I mean, I like say, the J. Crew catalogue well enough, but to say it is a thrill would be an exaggeration to say the least. Dozens of catalogues go in the recycling weekly, some without any notes.

And then, a number of years ago, several months after bidding on an online auction where I won my Mickey Jazzers (see my post Starting Small with Mice), the first Hake’s catalogue magically appeared. It is about the same heft and dimensions as the old Sears books I worshipped in the 1960’s and the paper even similar, same inky smell. Not since those halcyon days of prepubescence had I experienced the kind of thrill that this catalogue induced.

Unlike Sears and Roebuck whose history stretches back to 1893, Hake’s can only claim fifty or so years of business, evolving out of Ted Hake’s collecting and hawking business in the New York City of the late 1960’s. Here in my mailbox, utterly unsolicited no less, was something I had not even imagined – the grown-up toy collector’s version of the Sears Christmas catalogue! Much like the Christmas books, the Hake’s catalogue is likely to feature some items in the beloved areas I follow avidly – ancient Felix and Mickey toys for example – but just as interesting, one is likely to see things undreamt of – obscure but interesting political pins, every cereal premium from everyone’s childhood ever imagined and then some. Things you have always wondered about and here they are – photographed and explained in great detail. It shows up about twice a year. Amazing!

Since the Mickeys several of my most significant toy purchases have come from Hake’s auctions – my giant Dean’s Rag Mickey Mouse display model, one of my Aesop’s Fable dolls – but the catalogue itself brings great joy to the Butler-Deitch household when it arrives unannounced in our mailbox. I occasionally seem to fall off their list and need to check out the auctions online. There’s nothing more glorious than snuggling under the covers with the new Hake’s and interrupting Kim’s book reading, sharing the highlights with until eventually he gives up and looks at the catalogue with me. Who could ask for anything more?

Be Mine! Or The Luckiest Girl in the World…

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Valentine Special!

Last year’s Valentine post was a midweek special – Valentine Bonus Post – but this year Kim’s extraordinary entry is getting the marquee treatment it deserves! As many of you FB readers know, at my request years ago, Kim has made me a Valentine’s Day drawing every year we have been together. Since I was a fan before I was a girlfriend (and then wife) I can’t think of anything better – me featured in a Kim Deitch exclusive. And here is this year’s hot off the press.

For those of you who have been following the sketches for his new book you will realize that this drawing falls within the new story, fleshing it out a bit. Here’s a sketch from this part of the story:

Kim has expanded our real estate holdings substantially, and in the Valentine I am in one of the many rooms in our building dedicated to dioramas scenes designed to feature my toy collection. (Oh joy! Oh bliss!) Here I am with a variety of life size Felix dolls, lined up for people to pose with – we all know it is one of my life’s ambitions to get my hands on one of those, let alone several as shown here. Cookie and Blackie are checking things out, and you can make out Waldo considering a room dedicated to his origin story as well.

By way of reminder, below is last year’s Valentine, which as you can see, ties in here as well. I am sporting my Queen of Catland outfit and Bonzo, my Donald Duck and Oskar are there – even then Waldo was working the Plot Robot and of course Cookie and Blackie are going wild – and we are looking back in time to when this photo was taken. Hmm, looks like Katherine Whaley, Rousseau and Mr. Varney in that Felix photo!

Happy Ooloo to Me!

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama: Back in December of ’14 I wrote Blame It on the Blog 2 where I displayed and discussed the perfectly excellent Bonzo Kim had purchased me as a Christmas gift. That acquisition had in part come out of an earlier post devoted to Bonzo (Going to the Dogs – Bonzo) where I had discovered the Chad Valley Bonzo toys. Well, we can blame it on the blog again, because while I was researching those toys – and stumbling onto the lovely Bonzos made by Chad Valley, I found a very rarified toy indeed – Ooloo the Cat!

It seems that cartoon Ooloo, designed by the same artist George Studdy, knocked Bonzo right off center stage at Sketch Magazine where his full page strips and sight gag drawings had been featured on a regular basis. Bonzo had been working the Sketch Magazine gig since 1921, but his appearances had fallen off by 1927. On January 2, 1929, Ooloo made her first appearance in the mag and knocked Bonzo right out of the box. Bonzo made only occasional appearances after that and I read that an appearance five months later in May of that year may have been Bonzo’s last in the magazine. Below is her first, fluffy premiere in Sketch.

However, Bonzo got his revenge fully in the long afterlife of marketing. Bonzo seems to have launched items in his image, both licensed and clearly off-model, that rival Felix and Mickey Mouse both in breadth and sheer number. His longevity, considering the limited reissue of and interest in the actual strips, is extraordinary and reaches not only throughout Europe and the United States, but seems to reach as far as Japan. His ubiquitous, sleepy, dog face image plays out over Valentines, figurines, lamps, a band, toys – you name it! I have personally speculated on the possible influence of his image on the Japanese character Norakuro (featured here Norakuro – the Japanese Felix and also in an early post here, Pam’s Toy Post) but have never established a link.

Ooloo, by comparison, is little known today and sadly toys did not proliferate. As above, I discovered this outstanding Chad Valley Ooloo when researching the toys for the other post. They are indeed rare however and frankly I had little hope of ever acquiring one of these fine specimens. Therefore, I was over the moon when this one appeared on eBay just before my birthday this year! Kim generously stepped in and Ooloo, thanks to the considerate quick packing and shipping of the seller, arrived within days of my birthday. (As a bonus, the seller turned out to be the same wonderful woman in Belgium who sold me Bonzo! A shout out to Regine who certainly has an extraordinary collection of toys.) As I always say, I am one lucky toy collecting woman. Yay!

Ooloo is a truly outstanding addition to this woman’s toy cat collection and a very finely made toy. In the photos I have tried to show some of the touches and details that make this an especially wonderful toy: the bits of color in the ears and around the nose – the tiny stitches under the eyes. Ooloo retains her whiskers and these interesting thread bits on one paw that seem to be claws – I thought they were just pulls in the fabric in the photo but have determined that they were meant to be there. It is a thoughtfully made toy indeed.

Below is an image of an Ooloo perfume bottle, one of the few fairly available Ooloo pieces of merchandise. There may be one or two other toys out there – and be assured I will be ferreting them all out for your pleasure – and mine!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Nathan Albert Headwear

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Pin Post: I usually limit my forays into pin purchase to Felix and Krazy Kat – I have collected several of the little enamel pins of each. However this little number called my name on eBay the other day and I purchased it for a couple of dollars. I learned from the posting that most of these pins have Nathan Albert Headwear stamped on the back, although oddly this one does not. I thought that nothing would be easier than finding this haberdasher online – or at least some reference. Oddly, although the pins (which are great) exist in abundance in a variety of colors online, I can find pretty much zero about the company. Please enlighten me, any of you readers if you have info!

I wonder if there are many cases of this – a great logo living on well beyond the product it advertises, the product fading into the mists of time. I cannot think of another example, although I occasionally wonder if the Geico Geko will not somehow outlive the memory that he was tied to insurance. Meanwhile, who wouldn’t this splendid cat and fiddle appeal to? On the other hand, what did it have to do with hats? I had trouble getting a good photo of it and have ended up snatching the one off the listing.

It inspired me to dig around a bit and I grabbed up several notable buttons in our household collection, featured below. There is a Countess Aesop Fable pin that would have been sported by the doll, (I believe I purchased the pin alone before buying the doll) of course Bonzo’s Chad Valley pin which is affixed to my Bonzo, and I have (for good measure) included two versions of Kim’s Sunshine Girl pin – one original one from the Kim Deitch archive, and a splendid one that Bill Kartalopoulos had made for an exhibit a few years ago. Last but not least, I have thrown Kim’s Buck Jones Ranger pin in for good measure – certainly a collectible in its own right.

A Cuppa Felix

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

54321d9a-8df3-492b-9265-63ffffa68d91

Pam’s Pictorama: I bought this silver plate and enamel Felix cup for next to nothing on eBay a couple of years ago. I had not seen this piece and evidently I was the only person who was biting that day. Admittedly Felix is a bit damaged by someone who tried to polish this with paste, some of the enamel in his legs is missing. This is about as good as it polishes up without using paste, some of the silver plate having worn through in places.

Wonder if it was meant as a baby cup – lucky kid! No markings and perhaps he is a kissing cousin to the enamel spoons, although the Felix looks a bit different. I use it as a catch all on my bedside table where it tends to attract earrings missing a mate and seldom worn rings.

Felix has a winning grin here. It barely reads as Felix, yet is also immediately recognizable. This is British – no surprise. The Brits seem to have incorporated Felix into all sorts of decorative and household items. I think his ubiquitous presence is hard for us to imagine now. While one thinks of Mickey Mouse having a greater impact I sometimes wonder when I see these items as I examined in my former post Living the Felix Life and Spooning with Felix which highlights a not entirely dissimilar enameled Felix spoon.

As for me, I will always be happy to decorate with a little bit more early Felix.

Handy Felix

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

1d1f5c4e-8d81-4dbf-8b6b-2c0a455bb821

Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: I have done much blogging about some of my more obscure Felix items (with more to come!) and this puppet is another. There are many items I pay up for, but my constant combing occasionally pays dividends with an item that is great and that no one else seems to want. This was one of those. I have never seen another puppet exactly like this it, and I bought it for a nominal amount uncontested on eBay many years ago. It interests me that the Steiff Felix puppet goes for a fortune and this little guy didn’t even earn a nibble. My good fortune.

I assume this is mostly likely one of those East London Toy Factory Felix toys that I wrote about last year. He most definitely has a handmade, slightly less than professional appeal. He is awkward to use – I realized this when trying to take his photo on my hand – and isn’t balanced quite right for ease of movement.

He is very endearing however and he instantly became a favorite of mine. I have not found an optimum way to display him. He hangs out with the other Felix dolls on the shelves, just folded in half. I like to take him down one in a while though – he looks well loved, and despite his flaws he was clearly a much loved and well used toy, which in turn was well preserved these many, many years. Thank you British child somewhere!

Fabulous Flash

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Let me begin with some full disclosure – the above ring is not the ring Kim gave me a few years ago. This ring was a door prize at the Met’s Met Family Circle pajama party recently – however it reminds me fondly of a light up ring he gave me a few years back. This one has a nice fancy bat design (I admit that with my single track mind I thought cat at first!) – the earlier one is shown below.

Kim and I share a passion for things that light up. For my part I have given him several variations on bouncy balls that light in bright colors when they hit the ground. I believe the first came from the store at SF MoMA years ago, when I was on a business trip. The cats have shared Kim’s enjoyment of all of these and ultimately spirited them away. The ring Kim bought me was discovered at the Museum of Modern Art here in New York, in the shop one evening while we were killing time between early German film features at the museum. I loved it and subsequently bought them for many people on my Christmas list that year.

All of these LED light up toys are by their very nature, sadly, ephemeral. Perhaps it is part of their charm as well. This Christmas I found tiny “fairy” lights and decorated a stuffed cat in my office with them as a nod to the holiday season. For those of you who have Amazon Prime and are still scrambling this holiday season, I offer the links below. Maybe a light up toy is exactly what you or the person on your shopping list really needs this year.

Just In – a New Aesop’s Fable Doll!

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Which doll is this?

Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: I have a deep relationship with both the Aesop’s Fable cartoons and these splendid toys. (For another post on the subject and my collecting mania in general see my earlier post, Mine, all mine…at long last.) When I discovered the cartoons, well into adulthood, I felt as though these were finally the long lost cartoons I had always been looking for. Reel after reel of endless black cats and mice – chasing, charmingly anthropomorphic. I share an example that somehow is a high water mark for me Makin’ ’em Move, In a Cartoon Studio. It is, of course, animator cats, dogs and pigs, slaving away at the drawing table – just like something out of Boulevard of Broken Dreams…one of my favorite Kim Deitch books!

The existence of the toys came to me even later, but I fell hard for them. The promotional photo below was my introduction to them. Not surprisingly, the cat in the polka dot skirt was my first acquisition – The Countess. I bought her in a Hake’s auction (I believe Kim helped on that one – in fact I believe he’s had a hand in helping to purchase virtually all of these. He’s very nice about supporting my habit.) We really paid up. She is pretty pristine. The dog in the red pants (Don the Dog) came off of eBay and I got a pretty good deal. The very hurt one on the lower right (another version of The Countess?) Kim picked up during a visit to San Francisco a few years back. The slightly grimy one in the maroon corduroy, I frankly don’t remember acquiring, although I am thinking it must have also been on eBay – he seems to have been altered and I am not sure who he is – Raffles is my guess.

The good news and the bad news it seems is since people don’t know what these dolls are so one most often just stumbles upon them.

The question I pose for today is – which doll is this new one? It is generally thought that these six were it. But careful study shows he just isn’t one of them – and he’s in pretty pristine condition so I don’t think he’s been altered either. Any thoughts out there in cartoon land?

Lastly, this tidbit I turned up while searching for the new doll. This is an old advertisement for a theater contest giveaway of Aesop’s Fables dolls! Oh lucky people of the past. Evidently the outsized Countess was four feet high and a replica of the doll! Would love to find that some day. As I’m sure you know, I will just keep looking.

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28