Happy New Year, Charlie Brown!

Just in time for New Year's Day, this is a program from the 1974 Tournament of Roses Parade, signed by the Grand Marshall that year, with a sketch of a little character he was known for drawing.  
Jack Whitehead was an official with the Tournament for some time - I can't find any details about him - but several years back he decided to sell a lot of his memorabilia, through a friend of mine, including this program signed by Charles Schulz along with a photo of Jack and Charles together.  The Snoopy rode in the car with him.  You can see a photo of Schulz during the parade, as well as (at least just about) the only self-referencing Peanuts strip Schulz ever wrote, on the Charles M. Schulz museum's timeline page for the 70's here.

Happy New Year, folks!

All the Emperor's Quasinorms - First Time on DVD

In celebration of the 70's sci-fi comedy show Quark finally being released on DVD, I present one of the rarest "Quark" items still surviving, I imagine. Back in 1978, my dad's office was near the local NBC affiliate in Syracuse, WSYR-TV3. Every week, someone typed up their program schedule and they printed it in a little double fold pamphlet. He brought home this schedule for February 26th thru March 4th, the week Quark premiered.

The cover is illustrated with a small publicity photo of Richard Benjamin as Captain Adam Quark, and a large piece of "file art" of what looks like an Apollo / Saturn rocket. You know, to make it all "spacey." Star Wars was still playing at the Shoppingtown Mall in Syracuse at this point (10 months after it opened - and it would be there at least another three, as I recall!) and Quark was one of the first shows to take advantage off the new craze for science fiction. It had a jump on other shows because it had already been pitched and rejected before Star Wars was released, so it was ready to go in production ASAP when all the studios scrambled to release more science fiction.

Looking at the schedule, Quark premiered on Friday night. right after Bowling For Dollars and Concentration, and right before CPO Sharkey, the Don Rickles-in-the-navy sitcom that remains permanently etched in my brain today. It's also a showcase of many other barely remembered and mostly forgotten shows: Project UFO, James at 16, and Grizzly Adams are all vague memories. But "The Chuck Barris Rah Rah Show" and "What Really Happened to the Class of 65?" are virtual blanks in my personal TV database.
I strongly recommend Quark if you like clever writing, silly comedy, and cheesy special effects. It's only 15 bucks at Amazon (sorry - I mean 14.99)! The Betties and Gene/Jean will thank you.

Prehistoric Memories (Tales From Storage Part ?)

In the 70's Aurora models released a series of prehistoric model kits; I loved them.  Part of the appeal was, if you got all the sets, the bases would lock together into one giant scene of caveman vs. dinosaur carnage: saber-toothed tigers menacing allosauruses without a moments worry about several million years difference in the time they actually walked the Earth.  I remember at least one of my sisters liked them too, and we got several sets between us.

I have one specific memory of walking over to the Variety store in our neighborhood with my parents, and them - for no particular reason apparent to my young mind - telling me to go ahead and pick out a toy.  I picked the tar pit model.  

Moments like that are magical to children - every collector friend I know has at least one vivid memory of a time a parent or grandparent gave them - or more often, let them pick out for themselves - exactly what they wanted when it wasn't a birthday, Christmas, or other designated gift-receiving time.  Maybe it's as simple as the first time we realized people were giving us something because they wanted to - not because they were supposed to, or we were entitled.

As an adult, I chased after a few of the sets I never got on Ebay - they're all in my storage now.  A funny one, though, is one I got just because I remember my sister getting it.  I specifically

 remember us going upstairs in an old department store in Syracuse that had a cage elevator - this couldn't be later than 1972, I'd be about six.  We went into the toy department to get the cro-magnon woman set.  There was one and only one on the shelf and she bought it.

Years later on Ebay, I saw the box alone up for sale and bought it to add to my collection.  My vivid memory was of seeing the box on the shelf in the store, my sister taking it, and not of the model, so I'm perfectly happy with the box alone.  (I did buy myself the saber-toothed tiger, box and all though, which she had even though I don't have a specific memory of it - I just always wanted it because it was so cool!)

All my Aurora are in storage right now, so these great photos are (ahem) borrowed from here, and here, and even here.  The original art for the cro-magnon woman box can be seen here.

You'll Come Back to Carrols

So far, of everything I've shared on this site, all the stuff I've collected, I still feel like I haven't shown you much of the stuff I consider my "major" collections - things I'm actively collecting, in a fairly completist way, and enjoying very much.  One such collection is animated cels, which I've shared a couple of examples of.  Another is Big Bang Theory, of which there's very little to actually collect right now.  So, it's time to talk about one of the really big ones, which I suppose I've been putting off because it's a little hard to explain:  Carrols restaurant memorabilia.

When I was a kid in Syracuse, NY, we used to go to a fast food place called Carrols.  It was only a few blocks away from our house, and I remember very little about it except that it was decorated mostly in orange.  (This photo looks very little like that restaurant, though it represents that era).  I do remember, though, when in 1975 all the Carrols restaurants became Burger Kings.  In fact, the Carrols Corporation still exists today, still headquartered in Syracuse, NY, and is the largest franchisee of Burger King, with over 300 restaurants.

So fairly recently, almost entirely with the help of Ebay, I've started collecting Carrols memorabilia.  Some dates back to before my time, like this take out box shaped like a restaurant.  It's just big enough to hold a hamburger, french fries, and maybe some napkins and ketchup.  I never saw a restaurant like this myself, the one in my neighborhood was sort in a strip of shops, not a stand alone.

Other items seem to be more recent corporate items, like this pin with 3 stones in it.  I'm assuming it's a service pin of some sort, for 3 or 30 years with the company, or something like that.  

Still other items I've come across surprise me that they still exist anywhere.  One guy had worked at a Carrols for years, and on his last day, took home one clean piece of every paper item they had, like this french fries envelope.  (Servings were much smaller back then!  Insert social / health comment here).

The funny thing is, I can't remember the food at all.  The menu was pretty much the same as McDonalds, with their specialty burger called "the Club Burger."  So I'm not sure why I started collecting it.  

I think part of it is a tie to my family - I was only 9 in 1975, so I never went to Carrols without my parents or at least older sisters.  (Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if I ever went to any Carrols other than the one in walking distance on Marshall Street in Syracuse).  I'm sure my interest is partially spurred on by the fact I could find very little about Carrols on the web, though nostalgia sites for other restaurants abound.  

In any case, I've learned an awful lot about the restaurant, what became of it, and oddly, why it's not completely extinct today.  (If you like spoilers, read up on wikipedia.  If not, I'll be continuing the story soon).  The Carrols memorabilia is displayed on a shelf in my living room (part of which is visible in the banner for this blog!)

Now if only I could find someone who knows about Carrols cinemas, which were still around years after the Burger King conversion.  Or...anyone out there got a ticket from one they want to auction off?

I'd like to invite anyone reading this who has any recollection of Carrols at all to please, comment here.  I'm really interested in compiling your impressions of the place.

I Go Mego: The Collectible Reissue

As a kid and comic book reader in the 1970s, I naturally was totally into Mego dolls. Mego created the best, most posable action figures in the 70s, hands down. The dolls (they really were dolls) all had real, cloth costumes, and accessories, and originally, big shiny silver buttons at their joints. I had the original, cowl-removable Batman (now worth big bucks Mint) and I'm proud to say I played with it mercilessly and it's a tattered, worn Batman who is buried in a box in my storage space.

After the superhero lines were well established, they did a series of Star Trek dolls that were, for the time, incredibly good likenesses of real people. And, a lot of fun to play with in the back yard. I got all the main guys - Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty (a used one salvaged from another kid - I'll tell that story when I find it and can post a picture) and even Uhura. I even got the Enterprise playset when it was half price at the Woolworth's in downtown Syracuse - I remember they had a big stack of them by the window on the side of the store. Half price means it was probably about six dollars. This is one item I no longer have - I asked my Mom to sell it for me when I was new to Los Angeles and low on money.



I never did get the aliens, though. I got two of the Klingon figure - which was released as part of the "main" series - but I never even saw one of the Aliens on their own cards, like the Mugato here. Unlike the actors, who were good likenesses, these were bizarrely unlike the creatures that appeared on the show. The Mugato, for example, was a wild furry white apelike creature that didn't wear clothes, so I don't know who picked out this outfit for him, probably to "help him sell better?"

As years went by, I heard that the Aliens were selling for as much as 400 bucks apiece. So, when I drove cross-country to Los Angeles in 1988, I had visions of stopping in a drug store in the middle of nowhere and finding Star Trek aliens dusty on a forgotten toy rack still marked at $4.99.

This did not happen.



So recently, when it was announced that Diamond was recreating and reissuing the Mego Star Trek dolls - including the aliens - I was thrilled, and I bought them all to date (and will continue to as they're released). Finally, I had the elusive Romulan, and the Andorian - one of my favorites from the show, for some reason. I think because of the funny blue antennas. Reissues are happening more and more often these days, and it's a great way to get something you always wanted - or a reasonable facsimile, anyways - without breaking the bank on Ebay. (One side effect: the value of the originals often goes down, too, just because there is less of a demand with the copies available).

What's funny, though, is that I displayed on top of my shelves the reissues of figures I had as a kid - the crew and Klingon -
and the aliens I had sought for so long are not displayed at all, but shoved sideways on a shelf below (partly blocking my fictional beverages!).

I guess it's more fun to see the toys I had, and remember playing with friends in the backyard, digging holes as alien landscapes... than to see the toys I sought, later, and remember looking in vain in drugstores for a "collectible deal." I'm glad I got them - no doubt about that. And coming soon - "Mego" versions of Chekov and Sulu - to fill out your collection with two characters who were never available in the 70s...

Gotta have them. It looks like despite myself, I'm a Star Trek Mego completist.

Long before Ferengi were even thought up...

I'm quite a big fan of the 1978 NBC TV show QUARK.

It only ran for eight episodes total, but included some of the funniest stuff I've ever seen on tv. Also some of the silliest. It was created by Buck Henry, and Richard Benjamin played Adam Quark, captain of a "United Space" garbage ship that roamed the galaxy mostly cleaning up after big space parties. He also managed to save the galaxy almost every week.  His crew consisted of Betty and Betty (one original and one clone - they didn't know which was which), Ficus, an entirely logical plant who looked human, Gene/Jean, a tough guy whose dual set of chromosomes could turn him effeminate in the blink of an eye, and Andy, a cowardly robot.  The last figure on the sheet music there is Conrad Janis as Hugo Palindrome, Who sent Quark on his missions.

Being eleven when it first aired, I loved the show, and dutifully recorded the audio of each episode on my modular Panasonic tape recorder much like the one shown here. Years later, I was able to buy a couple of shaky VHS tapes of all the episodes at comic book conventions (shown below). With those, and the sheet music above, I liked to joke that I have the world's largest collection of memorabilia: three items.  I have to believe the sheet music was the only "merchandise" made for this show.

In the early 90s I was working for a small film distribution company that was working with Conrad Janis and I had the opportunity to meet him.  This, I thought, was the perfect chance to get better copies of the shows than the shaky bootlegs I had.  I introduced myself as a Quark fan and he said in his most delighted "Mindy's dad" voice: "Ah, Hugo T. Palindrome.  You know, I've never seen an episode!"  So much for borrowing copies!  He also related a story about getting a check for residuals for under 2 dollars, because the show played in Turkey or Hungary or someplace like that.

One more interesting thing to note: when I decided to show the sheet music on this blog, I did a little research and found out that Perry Botkin Jr., the composer, has his own website.  I wrote to him there, sent the jpeg of the sheet music, and asked if he had any thoughts on the theme song - or if it might be a small, forgotten job from the distant past.  Less than three hours later I had a reply:

Interesting.  I just ran into the QUARK main title on the Net yesterday.  Hadn't heard the theme in many years.  Hmmmm   Sort of  "Star Trek" sideways with a disco beat.  I did get "MORK and MINDY" because of it so somebody at Paramount must have liked it.  It was a marvelous show wasn't it.  Really too hip for it's time but very very funny none the less.

P.

It's really amazing to consider, in this relatively small way, the effect the internet has had on collecting and fandom.  Not only did I buy the sheet music on eBay, but I was able to find the composer, contact him, and hear back in one afternoon.  I'm dating myself here, but way back in, say, the 1980s, if you were a fan of a show it took legwork at a library or at least on the phone to find a place to contact the creators.  If you sent off a letter, you were most likely to never hear back - but if you were lucky, you might get a form letter in a few weeks.

Also if any of you are moved to learn more about Quark, go to your local internet browser.  You can find Quark fan sites, and even episodes posted on YouTube.  (that'll give you a fast listen to the theme song, too).

As rare as the sheet music must be, I do have one even rarer Quark item to share in the future on this blog...

The Galaxy, and Infinitum!

Senor Microphono es Numero Uno!!

Just another "marking time until my DSL is back up" entry here. Boy, you won't believe how slick this place is going to look when I'm posting from home again. Here, I can barely get my thoughts on collecting straight at the end of the day...

Todays item is an authentic, never out of the box, Ronco Mr. Microphone. If you watched tv in 1979, at least on the East Coast, then the phrase "Hey Good Looking, we'll be back to pick you up later!" is probably permanently etched into your memory. According to Business Week that campaign sold over a million units, but the first one I ever saw on my last trip home to Syracuse. I went to a little collectibles store with my Dad and there it was, mint in package (well, the shrink wrap was torn as you see here, but the Microphone is mint) for the whopping price of ten dollars. That's right, this collectible was worth $4.88 less than it was new in 1979.



Here's a look at the back of the box, showing cool seventies people using Mr. Microphone, and a detail with some fun suggestions: play with it while you're driving, and set it right in front of the radio for a fun "feedback loop" sound effect. (Normally I'd provide a link here, but if you search youtube for Mr. Microphone, you can see several of the classic commercials).


Now, Mr. Microphone has a place of honor above the books on the right of my desk - right above the mini-figs in my very first post, actually. It's the kind of thing I usually try not to pick up - it's "off topic" for my collections, but I guess it fits in as "70s" or "childhood" or something like that, just the same, kind of like the Carvel comic books. The danger here is it can open the door to a whole new collection for me if I'm not careful - I might not be able to pass up a smokeless ashtray mint in box, then a Record Vacuum, then a Mr. Dentist... "Buy a Second Mr. Dentist for your dog!"

Now how much would you pay?