Hey hey! It's time for more STUFF FROM THE BOX! The award winning-feature that the Kardashians are talking about. "What awards, Major??". BIG ONES, don't worry about it.
On many occasions, I've mentioned my fondness for old employee pins and badges. What I can't do is explain why I like them, but why even try? These first two were given out to Texaco employees, "Safe Driver" pins - perhaps these fellows drove the big trucks full of volatile gasoline? I actually like the "14 Years" pin more than the "21 Years", you'd think that by 21 years they'd add something fancy like a diamond chip or a photo of Marilyn Monroe.
I saw this Easter Seals badge at a collector's show in Glendale (CA), and the "Space Ranger" theme appealed to me. I'm assuming it is from the 1950s. Easter Seals (now "Easterseals") is a non-profit organization that provides services to people with disabilities and their families.
Next is a tiny (roughly .75" high plastic button - not a pinback button, but a button that could be sewn on to your shirt. It'll help keep your shirt closed so that you don't look like a slob. I've seen other buttons from the 1939 New York World's Fair, but this is the first time I've ever seen this particular variety - not that I have looked very hard.
Another employee pin! Given out for 15 years of service with the Westinghouse Corporation. The fact that I have previously shared a photo of a similar pin, only it was for 25 years of service, takes the wind out of this one's sails a little bit.
Yet another sub-category of collectibles that I like is airline-related pins. Many employee pins can go for big money, so I don't have those - as a rule. The two below were surely worn by employees, maybe flight attendants. I find them visually appealing, my favorite is the one on the left, just because the red enamel is so striking. but the blue one on the right is nice too! The "five" probably meant that the employee could eat five lobsters in one sitting.
And finally, here's a nice brass pin featuring the Shmoo, from Al Capp's "Li'l Abner" comic strip. Shmoos are among the stranger concepts in any comic: The unusual creature loved humans. A Shmoo laid eggs and bottles of Grade A milk in an instant, and would gladly die and change itself into a sizzling steak if its owner merely looked at it hungrily. Its skin was fine leather, its eyes made perfect buttons and even its whiskers made excellent toothpicks. Shmoos multiplied much faster than rabbits, so owning a pair of Shmoos meant that any family was self-sufficient. There is another larger brass Shmoo pin that I will share here if I can ever find my example.
I hope you have enjoyed today's STUFF FROM THE BOX!
Major-
ReplyDeleteThe Texaco '14 year' pin is a beauty. Evidently the top brass at Texaco were discouraging long-term safe driving by offering a tacky safety pin for extended years of safety on the road-? (I wouldn't be surprised if employees with 25 Years of safe driving were "awarded" a flat tire-!)
I would think unless one owned a shirt with oddly-sized button holes, attempting to use this [rather large] button would prove difficult if not outright annoying to use. ¾" diameter buttons are usually found on pajamas - not casual or dress shirts...
I'm afraid it's not only the striking, red enamel of the 1st pin, but also the design which places the "TWA" in the center of the 'propeller'.
Thanks, Major.
oOoOh! I like that 14 year Texaco pin. You've shown us something very similar to that one before. I don't think it had the gold leaves or the "Safe Driver" though. The 21 year pin has a certain restrained elegance about it, but like you, I prefer the other one. This might be my favorite today, but I'll have to look at the others.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what "Space Ranger" has to do with Easter Seals, but it caught your attention and you paid good money for it. So I guess the designer knew what he/she was doing!
The simplicity of the '39 World's Fair button is all it needs; we know immediately what the subject matter is. Well, Jr.Gs know anyway.
Wind or no wind, the Westinghouse pin looks classy with its blue and metallic gold motif. Hmm, maybe this one is my favorite?
I agree, the red & gold TWA pin outshines the blue & silver(?) one. Plus the "TWA" looks better in the center instead of scattered around as in the blue pin. Now I'm thinking THIS is my favorite!
Hmm, now my eyes are getting all swirly seeing that gold(brass) Shmoo. Sooo tempting.
[JB thinks for several hours trying to decide which one of today's offerings he likes best...] It's a hard choice, but I like the red & gold TWA pin best! (I can tell from all the Jr.G's exhalations that you're all glad I finally made my choice. :-p )
A nicer-than-usual selection today, Major. Thanks.
The Texaco pins should've also had "......And I Still Haven't Caused A Big Rig To Blow Up!"
ReplyDeleteI love that real "button" from the '39 World's Fair. Maybe if you used it as a shirt pocket button, you wouldn't have to "button and unbutton" it as often, if at all.
Of course everyone remembers when the Shmoo and Fred Flintstone were in a series together, right? I wasn't watching any "new" cartoons at that point, but I remember seeing the ads in TV Guide and wondering, "What the........?"
Thanks for sharing "More Stuff From The Box" with us, Major!
Major, I agree that the Shmoo concept is downright bizarre. Makes me wonder what that cartoonist was putting in his drink. Any ideas why such a pin was issued?
ReplyDeleteI like the Texaco 14 pin but I’m going with the Easter Seals rocketry pin today. I should send you some of the pins my old employer handed out based on client input questionnaires. If clients liked your work, you got a pin and a bonus.
Thanks for showing more of your collection.
JG
Nanook, I really am surprised that there isn’t at least a tiny simulated diamond on that “21 Years” pin. I only have a few of these Texaco pins, it would be fun to see an array of, say, 25 year’s worth. I agree about the WF button, the size and shape is very odd. Maybe back then, “Mom” could have altered one button on one shirt?
ReplyDeleteJB, yes, I’m pretty sure I’ve shared at least one or two Texaco pins before. If only there was a way to look it up! I’m sure the “Space Ranger” theme was just an attempt to appeal to kids who might wear that badge. The Westinghouse pin does look appropriately classy! And I like both of the TWA pins, but that red really pops. Shmoos are just weird!
TokyoMagic!, there is a well-known carded set of plastic buttons from the 1939 World’s Fair, I think I have one or two loose examples, which must mean that at least some people actually used them on their clothing. Fred Flintstone and the Shmoo? Wow, they were really grasping at straws. Perhaps in the 70s (?) kids still knew what a Shmoo was.
JG, Al Capp was, by all accounts, a brilliant and cantankerous guy, maybe the Shmoo was commenting on some aspect of American culture. The Shmoo was a popular character, and there were many licensed products featuring his likeness. It sounds like you don’t love and treasure the pins that you got from your employer! Or are you (like me) just trying to get rid of stuff??
these are all nice. I like the World's Fair button, would make a great poster... I wonder if it actually was a poster first before it was a button. the Easter seals pin is in precise perspective, if you were standing about twenty feet above the rocket looking towards Earth. all employee pins are great, as usual, though sometimes a bit puzzling. thanks, Major.
ReplyDelete"Easter Seals (now "Easterseals")...."
ReplyDeleteMajor, they probably had to change their name in order to stop being confused with the other group -- the one with the black marine mammals that wear rabbit ears.
When I first looked at the TWA pins, the second one read as "A T M," in my brain.
My favorite is the 14-year Texaco pin. I love the addition of the lime-green "T."
Thanks, Major, for sharing more fun pins.
Major: In the comic strip, Washington quickly realized the schmoo was a deadly threat to America. If people had schmoos, they had no reason or desire to work, travel, fight wars, or pay taxes. So schmoos were banished. Capp was accused of being anti-capitalist, so he did a follow-up where commie dictators were equally threatened by schmoos, because why bother hating Yankees or starting revolutions when the critters were around? This later story felt weaker, clearly more about reinforcing Capp's American bona-fides than having satiric fun.
ReplyDeleteThe Saturday morning cartoon, which appeared years after the comic strip stopped running, featured no other characters from "Li'l Abner". This schmoo was a shape-shifter and nothing else, tagging after another set of teenage ghost hunters.
For a while it seemed like any character with a trace of recognition was bought up and dropped into a bizarre premise: Olive Oyl and Alice the Goon left Popeye to join the Army; Casper the Friendly Ghost teamed with outer-space policewomen; the The Thing forgot about the Fantastic Four and became a gawky teen who could turn into The Thing at will; Gilligan traded his island for an equally lost planet; Tom and Jerry and others were repackaged as kids; and the Three Stooges became knockoff versions of Bionic Man / Inspector Gadget.