Souvenir Annex

Rather than visiting my souvenir dungeon, we're going to take a trip to my souvenir annex, housed in an abandoned missile silo somewhere in California. It's quite cozy really, and still has lots of machines with blinky lights.

In addition to my Disneyland collectibles, I have a number of side collections. I'm not proud of it, but there you go! Years ago I saw a documentary about the 1939 World's Fair on PBS, and just a few days later, found my first souvenir pin from that fair at the Pasadena City College swap meet. Since then I have acquired quite a variety of pins; they look pretty cool when seen in a group! The photo below shows some (but certainly not all) of my pinback buttons.

As you can see, most of the buttons use the fair's theme buildings, the Trylon and Perisphere, in their designs. But you also have some unusual examples featuring various products and personalities, such as Abbott and Costello at the Midway. "Lucky Teter" (upper right) was the star of the "Hell Drivers" stunt show; Guernsey cows were part of the World of Tomorrow; the little girl in the chef's toque was "Little Miss Junket"... Junket was a rennet product (look it up if you dare) that was apparently popular at the time. A young William Holden appears on the "Golden Boy Day" pinback. "Inbad the Ailer" says it is time for Saraka (a laxative).

The "Where's Elsie?" button refers to Elsie the Cow (supposedly Borden's exhibit opened without their star mascot, and visitors constantly asked where she was. It was a meme, 1939 style)! "American Jubilee" was a massive stage show with scores of dancers and other performers in elaborate costumes and sets, celebrating the history of the U.S. of A. And don't forget the "Anthracite Boosters", for you fans of clean-burning coal!

If you've enjoyed looking at these, I have lots more pins from 1939/40 to share with you!