I make no secret that I am on an endless quest to recapture my childhood. Was childhood really better in the 1950’s and 1960’s than it was (or is) for later generations? Most of us who were alive at that time would say yes. Most of you who were unfortunate enough to be born later would probably disagree. Of course, you would be wrong, but there’s not a lot you can do about it.

Besides playing with all our “Made in USA” toys, we had a lot of time to go outside and “run around”. Parents weren’t quite so worried that every waking minute of childhood be taken up with some organized activity designed to make you outstanding enough to get into an Ivy League school. Since we also didn’t have video games to keep us quiet, we were encouraged to go outside and entertain ourselves.

This well-worn pair of PF Flyers has been preserved for over half a century.

Anyway, running around is actually the point of this article. Running around in PF Flyers that is! Brand loyalty meant something in those days, and when it came to “sneakers,” you were most likely a “Keds” or “PF Flyers” kid. I was definitely in the latter category.

PF Flyers were manufactured by the tire company B. F. Goodrich and first introduced in 1937. PF stood for “Posture Foundation” which meant there was a wedge inside the shoe that more evenly distributed your weight. The promise was that you could “run faster and jump higher” with a pair of “PF’s” strapped to your feet. I totally believed this to be true! Putting on a new pair of PFs felt like you were walking on a cloud, and running as fast as you could to test out your new superpowers was part of the routine. Unfortunately, one of the more negative realities of growing up in the 1950’s and ‘60’s is that dog poop seemed to be everywhere. Once, while racing down the street, I managed to find a fresh pile with my brand new sneakers. What a mess!

I found this vintage and well-worn pair of boy’s sneakers at a flea market last year. Why they got saved is anyone’s guess. They are marked Hood PF Flyers. I found out that BF Goodrich purchased Hood Rubber Company in 1929 and the Hood named was used until the late 1950’s on some PF Flyers. I also found a reference indicating that the Hood name was used in 1962. I think it’s safe to say these sneakers date from the late 1950’s to the early 1960’s.

Of all the things I have collected, I think these old sneakers represent the essence of boyhood in the middle of the twentieth century as well as anything. After all, no matter how humble your upbringing, just about everyone had a pair of worn out sneakers at some point in their youth.

PF Flyers sponsored The Mickey Mouse Club, and here’s a cool cardboard counter-top display piece from the 1950’s.

Here’s another PF Flyers cardboard advertising display for another, lesser-known Disney show called Adventure Time.

Based on the girl’s hair style as well as the style of shoe, this cardboard Keds advertising display piece probably dates to the 1920’s or 30’s.

This large pin-back button shows “Leave It to Beaver” star Jerry Mathers promoting Keds, the main competition for PF Flyers.

PF Flyers are once again available thanks to the company New Balance. At least there’s less dog poop to worry about these days.

The post Vintage PF Flyers – Superpowers for Kids appeared first on The Collector Gene.

I don’t know who these people are.  Random family photos like this turn up in my possession all the time.  Clearly this is an important meal, and judging by the gigantic turkey on the table, I’m going to assume it’s Thanksgiving sometime in the late 1930’s or early 1940’s.  I wonder why Norman Rockwell didn’t paint this family scene; it’s Americana at its finest.  Please note as well the stacks of plain white bread prominently displayed on the table.  Where are the Pillsbury Crescent Rolls?  You may laugh, but a buttered piece of white bread was usually an accompaniment to my holiday feasts as a child in the 1950’s, too.  We can only imagine the scintillating conversation going on here based on on the lone man at the table who is about to doze off.  That’s the great fun of collecting old photos.  You try to imagine who these people were and the kind of lives they led.  One thing I can’t figure out, though.  Why was this photo blown up to a gigantic 11 by 14 size?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM ALL OF US AT COLLECTORGENE!

Collecting enriches our lives, and we are very thankful for that.

The post We Gather Together…A Vintage Thanksgiving Feast Photo appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Since that time I have added a few more examples to my collection which I would like to share with our readers.  I am still somewhat picky about what enters my collection, and I also remain somewhat cheap as well.  These three examples ranged in price from $25.00 to $40.00 and I think are among the best ones I have found.

I particularly like the one with the shoe painted on the side complete with “shine” lines on the toe included to exemplify the quality of their work.  Who wouldn’t want shoes with shine lines emanating from them?

I also like the one that wants to almost shame you into getting a shine.  I think the phrase, “Your Shoes are Showing” is a take-off on, “Your Slip is Showing,” something husbands would have to tell their wives before leaving the house in the morning in the 1930’s, 40’s or 50’s.  “Hav Ya Shind Em,” however, is the icing on the cake with this one. The bad spelling only adds to its charm.   I purchased this in Florida from a dealer who told me that this box had recently come out of the ghetto of Flint, Michigan.  I have no reason to doubt him.

The last one is painted silver to give it a classy look to go with the classy shine you would have gotten.  This is the box of an upscale establishment.  Either that or they were just using up a can of radiator paint.

I still feel that shoe shine boxes are great Americana and remain underpriced.  They are great folk art for the budget minded.

After each purchase, I still get the same question:  “Are you starting a new business?”

For more examples of shoe shine boxes, please see my first article right here on The Collector Gene.

The post Shoe Shine Boxes – Part II – More Shine Is Just Fine appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Santa Clauses and Easter Bunnies are relatively easy to find in the antiques and collectibles world. But if you want to collect and/or display vintage St. Patrick’s Day decorations, you’ll need the luck of the Irish!

Aside from postcards, cardboard cut-outs, and pinback buttons, most antique shops do not have many older St. Patty’s decorations for sale. That’s why we count ourselves very lucky that we’ve been able to amass as many pre-World War II Irish-related candy containers, figures, and toys as we have. A good portion of our collection came in one fell swoop over thirty years ago when we encountered a table at a local flea market just loaded with neat St. Patrick’s Day decorations that the dealer had acquired from one family. We scooped just about every one up and had an instant collection!

There are many symbols associated with Ireland and the Irish, and these antique St. Patrick’s Day decorations reflect that symbolism.

The shamrock, of course, is a species of clover native to Ireland, and it often appears on St. Patrick’s Day postcards. We have a little pot of artificial shamrocks in our collection, and shamrocks decorate our clay pipe, our Irish potato candy containers, and a couple of our Irishmen’s hats.

The shillelagh is a traditional Irish fighting club made of blackthorn wood. Legend has it that blackthorn hedges are home to fairy folk. We have a shillelagh candy container in our collection and a shillelagh that opens up into a circular paper Irish flag.

The national symbol of Ireland since 1542 is the celtic harp, one of the world’s oldest instruments. Celtic harps often appear on antique postcards. We also have some paper horns and a silk Irish flag that display the harp.

And then there are the green pigs. While I can’t find any specific reference to Irish pigs as symbols of good luck, I did find references stating that several European cultures including the Irish considered pigs a symbol of good fortune. Pigs are often shown with four-leaf clovers for extra good luck. Because we have four green pigs in our collection, all dating from about 1915-1930, I think it’s safe to say that they are St. Patrick’s Day decorations. The typical lucky white or pink pig is turned green to honor the Irish. We also have a couple of St. Patrick’s Day postcards that prominently feature pigs as lucky symbols.

The green pigs pictured here are mere inches in length and height.  The largest pig is a candy container with a removable head.

Our favorite antique St. Patrick’s Day decorations all come from that wonderful era just after World War I and up into the beginning of the Depression. That was a time when German and American factories were churning out the most whimsical little cardboard and composition holiday and party decorations. It’s very easy to picture our candy containers as part of a St. Patrick’s Day table setting. They might also have been handed out as prizes or favors at a classroom party. By that point in time, too, most Irish-Americans had been in the United States for several generations and were taking pride in their heritage.

Enjoy some pictures of a portion of our collection, and good luck to you as you search for your own St. Patrick’s Day collectibles.

Almost every Irishman pictured here is a candy container.  A couple have removable heads.  Three have space for candy underneath.  One is a composition figurine glued to a little chipboard box.  Only the wee green-suited guy carrying the bundle of sticks is not a candy container.  You’ll note that most of the Irishmen have red hair and a tall black top hat.  And, yes, the tall black top hat made of cardboard is a candy container.

Which came first – the postcard or the figure?  Look carefully and you’ll notice that the composition figurine is most definitely based on the depiction of the Irish lass on the postcard.  The postcard art is by well-known American artist Ellen Clapsaddle, but the postcard was printed in Germany.  Clearly, German artists turned the picture into the figure.  We owned the postcard for several years before acquiring the figure.  The figure is in near-perfect condition with a 20-cent price tag from Wanamaker’s on the bottom.

As mentioned in the article, here are our shillelagh and potato candy containers.  The circular “Irish Lobster” box is a funny gag gift.  When you open it up, there’s a little mirror inside.  Obviously, the Irish Lobster is you!

The post Top o’ the Morning and Happy Collecting St. Patrick’s Day to You! appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Sometime in the early 1960's, two trick or treaters stopped in front of the news-stand to pose for this Halloween snapshot.

What a great photo!  It combines two things I love – old magazines and Halloween.  Anyone over forty will probably admit to going out on Halloween wearing one of those lame, out-of-the-box costumes at least once during their trick-or-treating years.  It was so easy for parents.  I know I had a Minnie Mouse costume, and Jim was Donald Duck more than once. They were made of a silky, synthetic fabric that I believe was flammable.  The plastic masks were held on with thin elastic bands, but at least they were easy to flip up on top of your head for better vision when walking from house to house.

By the early sixties, Hanna-Barbera was on a roll.  Huckleberry Hound was introduced in 1958, and Yogi Bear became a break-out star in 1961.  The older kid on the right has the cool Yogi costume; his/her younger sibling appears to be wearing a more generic clown costume.

Of course, what really makes this photo for me are all of the magazines on display behind the kids.  It looks like Fidel Castro is on the cover of the “Look” magazine.  This could very well be from Halloween 1962, in which case the Cuban Missile Crisis had, literally, just ended.  The kids, however, probably don’t care.  They just want to load up on those nice, full-size candy bars that everyone got back then – and avoid the apples at all cost!

The post Happy Halloween! A Nostalgic Snapshot of a 1960’s Yogi Bear Trick or Treater appeared first on The Collector Gene.

It has been said many times before in our blog and will probably be said many times in the future. When you collect to the extent we do, you never know what you’ll be bringing home after any given “hunt.”

Case in point: Our recent purchase of two whale vertebrae at a yard sale.

Priced at one dollar each, we weren’t about to leave them behind. They are beautifully sculptural and they just may be the oldest items in our collection – by a couple million years or more!

Of course, when you buy something outside your usual comfort zone, you don’t really know what you’re getting. We were told by the person selling them that they had been found at different times on the beaches near Wildwood, New Jersey about forty or fifty years ago.

I’ve photographed them next to an egg so that you have some idea of the size. The larger one is about ten inches high by 20 inches at the widest point. It’s surprisingly light for its size. The smaller one is about five inches high by fourteen inches at its widest point. It’s actually heavier than the bigger one.

Doing some quick internet research, I believe we have two whale vertebrae fossils. Apparently, fossilized whale bones turn up along the shores of the mid-Atlantic region, and the southern New Jersey coast falls into that realm. One site mentioned that the fossils are often light in weight. One site mentioned that mid-Atlantic ones are often a dark gray in color. Each of these bones fits one part of that description. The smaller one appears almost complete. The larger one, though more impressive, has one side broken off.

As for age, if they are, indeed, fossils, they could be two to five million years old! The Pliocene and Miocene periods are the ones I see mentioned.

Now that’s a whale of an antique!

The post A Whale of a Tale – Our Yard Sale Whale Vertebrae appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!

The post Happy Fourth of July from Collectorgene! A Black Humor Postcard With a Timely Message appeared first on The Collector Gene.

I’m referring to a clapperboard or clapboard. If you’ve ever seen a movie in which they’re making a movie, you’ve seen a crewman go something like, “Scene twelve, take three,” and then he holds up the clapperboard and the director yells, “Action!” That’s a clapperboard, as iconic a piece of movie making as you can ever hope to find.

The reason for the clapperboard was two-fold. First, it recorded all the necessary information such as the director, date, and scene being shot and, second, the “clap” was used to help synchronize the sound.

Reproduction clapperboards can be found just about anywhere, especially at souvenir shops in Hollywood or at Universal Studios theme parks. They’re not very expensive or you also can buy one of the many fakes on the internet.

Finding a real one is a little more difficult.

On my most recent flea market adventure to Pennsylvania, however, that’s just what happened, and for thirty bucks I am now the proud owner of my own authentic movie clapperboard – something I didn’t even know I wanted to own!

Just looking at this object I could tell it had been well used. You could see wear to the black paint especially where the “scene” and “take” would have been changed many times during filming. A chunk of the corner had also broken off and been re-glued. Had this been damaged on the set and thrown away only to be taken home as a souvenir? That’s an intriguing possibility.

Even more intriguing were the letters written on the back. Obviously written long ago and now faded, the letters A R S E N appear.

When I got home, I quickly went to my computer to check the “Internet Movie Database” website (www.imdb.com). I typed ARSEN in search and very little popped up. I quickly ruled out Arsenio Hall as he probably wasn’t even born when this thing was made. The only other possibility seemed to be the title of the movie “Arsenic and Old Lace”.

Based on the very popular Broadway play of the same name, the movie “Arsenic and Old Lace” was made by Warner Brothers Studios in 1941. It wasn’t released, however, until January 1, 1944 due to the fact that the studio had to wait until the Broadway production had ended. It was directed by Frank Capra, who is probably best known today for making “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the Christmas classic. It starred Cary Grant as the nephew of the two old maid aunts who kept bumping off elderly bachelors by poisoning them.

Can I prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that my clapperboard may have once found itself between Frank Capra and Cary Grant, two giants of the golden age of Hollywood? Well….no, but the circumstantial evidence is strong enough to make a case for it. Plus, I can’t think of any other logical reason to write “ARSEN” on it. Do I believe it was used in the production of “Arsenic and Old Lace”? Yes, I do.

Even if it wasn’t, it is still an authentic piece of Hollywood history that was used in movie production.
Not a bad day at a Pennsylvania flea market.

The post Find of the Week: Arsenic and Old Clapperboards appeared first on The Collector Gene.

My pick of the week did not come from that flea market.

The flea market was a two-day show, and though I had the option of setting up both days, I decided against it, mostly because I’m really exhausted after just one day. Even though I was trying to take it easy the day after the show, I decided to hit a thrift store when I went out for lunch, and boy, am I glad that I did.

Bart prepares for a visit from his icon with Krusty (non-toxic) Kologne!

This is an animation cel featuring Bart Simpson. Specifically, it’s a cel from the classic Season 3 episode, “Like Father, Like Clown,” where Krusty the Clown is reunited with his estranged father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofski. In this very specific moment, Bart is using Krusty (non-toxic) Kologne in preparation of the dinner Krusty the Clown owed him for proving his innocence in an earlier episode.

The cel is hand-painted, but the background is laser-printed. However, the cel does have an official 20th Century Fox stamp, so while the background isn’t original, it was laser printed specifically to match this cel. Despite the fact that The Simpsons still looks the same today in 2013, traditional cel animation was replaced by digital ink and paint animation beginning with Season 14, which began in the fall of 2002. In other words, this form of animation has not been used in over a decade on The Simpsons, so you can’t buy this sort of thing for any episodes newer than 2002.

I’ve written about The Simpsons before, so it should come as no shock that I was ecstatic to find this in a local thrift store. Now, it wasn’t as though they were giving it away, but it was priced at a mere $25 and labeled “as is” because some of the white paint along the border of the frame was missing. I can replace the frame. I couldn’t replace this cel, but thankfully, it’s fine, and examples from seasons this early appear to be quite valuable and desirable if completed listings on eBay are to be believed.

This just goes to show that even when you go to a place where you know you’ll find amazing things, you really do have to keep your eyes constantly open and be prepared that something amazing could show up literally anywhere and when you’re least expecting it!

The post Pick of the Week: Animation Cel from “The Simpsons” appeared first on The Collector Gene.

In the early 1990s, the sketch comedy show In Living Color was enormously popular. It was the first truly well-received sketch show alternative to “Saturday Night Live” in a long time, running for a total of five seasons on the Fox network, which at the time was a relatively new network trying to find its footing as it tried to compete directly with the “big three” networks. It also ended up launching several very successful careers, including Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, and Jennifer Lopez, as well as those of the Wayans siblings.

Of course, like any sketch comedy show, the cast members were responsible for several very memorable characters, such as Carrey’s Fire Marshall Bill and Damon Wayans’s and David Allen Grier’s “Men on Film.” While Saturday Night Live had characters such as the Blues Brothers, the Coneheads, Toonces the cat who could drive a car, and Ed Grimley (although Martin Short created him for SCTV, the character rose to fame when Short brought him over to SNL) that would go on to receive merchandise, these characters seemed somewhat tame and even kid-friendly when compared to Carrey’s burn victim or Wayans’s and Grier’s overtly homosexual stereotypes.

That’s why I was shocked to learn that In Living Color did receive one piece of somewhat kid-friendly merchandise: a 24” tall plush doll of one of their most popular characters, Homey D. Clown.

Since In Living Color ended its run nearly 20 years ago, I feel like the premise of the Homey D. Clown sketches is not nearly as well known as it once was. Played by Damon Wayans, Homey is an ex-con who works as a clown as part of his parole agreement. Not surprisingly, Homey isn’t thrilled with having to perform as a clown, and if anyone attempts to cajole him into doing typical clown things like juggling or making balloon animals, an agitated Homey takes a black sock full of tennis balls, smacks whoever is bothering him, and says his signature phrase, “Homey don’t play dat.” Throughout his appearances, he frequently expresses a desire to get back at “The Man.”

Why on Earth Acme Supply Company thought that Homey was a great character to turn into a doll is beyond me. However, back in the early 1990s, there were stores like Spencer Gifts where you could buy “toys” that had sort of a risqué or overtly offensive or political quality to them. That’s why it’s so depressing to walk into a Spencer’s store these days. Those of us who remember how great it was in the 1980s and 1990s long for the kind of store it used to be, since that was before online ordering was commonplace and the store was perhaps the only place you could go to reliably find oddball items like Homey.

I bought this at an antique store in Cape May County back around the 2009 holiday season. I think I paid about $20 for it, so it wasn’t exactly a bargain. However, for a plush toy, it’s in remarkably nice shape with its original hang tag. If you really want a Homey D. Clown plush for your own collection, they’re not incredibly hard to come by, but they do command a pretty hefty price tag (approximately $40 to $50) for an old plush toy that’s only a little more than 20 years old.

The post In Living Color Homey D. Clown Plush Doll appeared first on The Collector Gene.