Can’t spell.
Category Archives: Uncle Bob’s Pix
Goodyear Hot Wheels Blimp
This neat little model of the Goodyear Airship came out in 1992, according to information up on the web. On the bottom of the passenger car is “1991 Malaysia”.
Turning the tailpiece changes the display.
It’s 3.5″ long and about 1.5″ from bottom to top.
PT-19, Fairchild M62
This airplane debuted in 1940, so the date on the reverse is probably correct. Parks Air College (1928 – 1966) was the first federally-certified school of aviation. Located in Cahokia IL.
The card was printed by Curt Teich in Chicago.
Cunard White Star Lancastria
The ship was sunk just six months after this card was sent. Read about her terrible fate here.
And I hope the lady with the excellent handwriting was able to see Gone With the Wind fairly soon up in Marion.
Eight Names, One Ship
Before this ship was launched as a troop transport in 1944, it was briefly named General R.M. Blatchford (Spanish-American War, WWI). Upon launch, though, it was the General W.P. Richardson (explorer and geographer for the U.S. Army in Alaska). Then it was the LaGuardia, then the Leilani then the President Roosevelt. After that it was the Atlantis, then this Emerald Seas (1972 – 1992), and, finally, the Ocean Explorer I before it was scrapped in India in 2004. The full history is here.
I think the card dates to between 1963 (when Zip Codes went into effect) and maybe 1970. It was printed by Koppel Color Card Company in Hawthorne NJ, which operated in the 1960s, and distributed by the Color-Ads Productions noted on the reverse.
Elvis ’68
This was RCA doing a little promotion for the Elvis comeback tour of ’68. Size is 3.875″ x 2.25″.
Vrrrrm! 1932 Marmon
This card was light damaged, so I have changed brightness/contrast parameters to make it more viewable.
Another Cinderella Stamp
This a more developed Cinderella. It apparently came as part of a perforated sheet of stamps. It has glue on the back.
In May of this year, a second well had just opened up in the Permian Basin in Texas…on land owned by the University of Texas. Whoopee! Break out the bubbly!
I browsed the AGA monthly issue that had notice of this convention in 1923. The proceedings looked…well (pun intended), interesting to them what was there, I’m sure.
Nice poster design, though. The stamp is 2.25″ x 3.5″
Same Thing, Big Difference
This little (1 x 2.375″, no glue on reverse) Cinderella stamp has one thing going for it: it promotes an Exposition that was taking place the same summer as the seminal International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. From its French title, we get the term Art Deco.
3, 698 miles apart, same thing, big difference in influence. And we got Erté, which is not a bad thing (the name shows up frequently in the New York Times crossword puzzles).
’56 Chevy Bel Air
I grabbed this card as soon as I saw it. It was $1. That Chevy, in 1956, cost the princely sum of $3,500.
North Central Pinback
This scruffy, 2.25″ wide pinback is nearing 50 years old.
The history of North Central Air Lines is here.
Be sure to read about Herman the Duck.
Not Too Subtle…
I can’t make out where this was mailed from, but it’s a not-too-subtle message from your friends back in 1910.
- American Post Card Company in New York went out of business in 1910.
- Blue Eye MO got its name, reportedly, from the eye color of the first postmaster.
Dog Show
The original of this Cinderella stamp is 1.5″ x 2″, flimsy paper, blank on the back, no glue.
Btw, “Beaver Chocolate”, a Chesapeake Bay hunting dog, took Best in Show.
That courtesy of the Oakland Tribune, April 15, 1930.
Oh, and a dog accidentally swallowed a diamond from a lady’s ring at this show. Um, everything came out all right…
Toy Roundup
This is a 2″ x 3″ advertising Cinderella stamp on paper that’s a little stiffer than copy paper. The reverse is blank and has never had any glue applied to it. This is one of a collection of trade stamps, mostly from the 20s and 30s that I bought around thirty years ago. I’ve been unable to find out much of anything about them.
Magnet Compass Game
Ah, things were simpler then. Here are the directions:
Yeah, a real thigh-slapper for the under 5 set…
This is probably from the late 40s. The magnet was missing when I bought it. A friend found a magnet at a flea market, but it’s so strong it paralyzes the compass’ needle.
Beechcraft Wichita
Scruffy old postcard from Ellington Field. Published during WWII. Between Beechcraft (whose headquarters are in Wichita KS) and Globe Aircraft, about 2,000 of these A-10s were manufactured.
The Mighty DC-8
The postmark is 1973. The Douglas or McDonald Douglas DC-8 was built from 1958 to 1972. It was in competition with Boeing’s 707 in the new era of jet travel. 556 were made and a few are still in service. In August, 1961, this was the first civilian jet liner to achieve (for 16 seconds) supersonic flight.
Remember the song lyric, “a big 707’s set to go.” (Gordon Lightfoot,”Early Morning Rain”) “Big DC-8’s set to go” doesn’t scan as well…
N. H. D. V. S. Barracks, Johnson City TN
The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers had just recently been built when the picture was taken (note the horse and wagon in the foreground). It’s a lithograph printed in Germany.
Spurlock’s Bluing
Is that a cat or a dog? And that’s one hell of a pompadour on the kid.
Anyway, this is a 4″ x 7″ mezzotint trade card for a company I can’t positively locate; however, the printing company, Brandon Print Co. of Nashville, can be fairly well dated, since they did a lot of state government work. The earliest citing I’ve found for Brandon Print Co. is 1887 and the latest is 1913. The extant Brandon Print Company building, 228 2nd Avenue in Nashville was built in 1892.
Uncle Bob's Pix 