More Stuff From the Box

It's time for more Stuff From the Box! I'm going to have to switch to a different box pretty soon - I've already photographed another 50 or 60 items. But for now, we're near the end of box #2. 

Let's start with this fun "Kool-Aid Treasure Hunt" premium ring, from 1940. The mysterious symbols were "...used by pirates to point the way to hidden treasure", while the bronze insert was supposed to be a replica of an old pirate coin. Until doing research for this post, I had no idea that this ring was over 70 years old!

Here are the sides of the ring, for those of you who needed to see them (K. Martinez!). 

Here's an amusing, large pinback button encouraging us to VOTE FOR IKE. His opponent for the 1952 Presidential race, Adlai Stevenson, had been photographed with his legs crossed, exposing a large hole in the sole of one shoe. It became a meme, 1950s-style. Stevenson responded with as much good humor and grace as he could, but it was just too rich for the Eisenhower campaign to ignore.

In 1959, Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states (respectively). Jay Ward was the creator of "Rocky and His Friends" (1959-1961) and "The Bullwinkle Show" (1961-1964); I'll let Wikipedia tell the story, since it does such a good job: In 1962, as a publicity stunt, Ward leased a small island on a lake between Minnesota and Canada, which he named after "Moosylvania" (shown in the later Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons). In a campaign to make the island into the 52nd state, he and Bill Scott (Ward's head writer) drove a van across the country to about 50–60 cities collecting petition signatures. Arriving in Washington, D.C., they pulled up to the White House gate to see President Kennedy, and were brusquely turned away. They then learned that the evening that they had arrived was during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This is why we only have 51 states today.

Here's a rare decal from that same failed campaign for Moosylvania Statehood.

Next is this 1936 ring from Ovaltine, telling all of your in-the-know friends that you were a member of Radio Orphan Annie's SECRET SOCIETY! It seems unlikely that this ring would have real silver in the metal, but these do tend to tarnish.

Speaking of Orphan Annie, here is a porcelain bisque figurine of her faithful dog, Sandy. ARF! This is from a set  of bisque figures made in Germany; I think I have the Annie figure somewhere, but I don't have Daddy Warbucks, or Joe Corntassel, or Punjab. Sadly.

And finally, here's a 1937 Tom Mix "Straight Shooter" badge, released as a premium prize by Ralston cereals. It looks like Tom's horse Tony is doing a polite bow, which shows how smart and civilized he is. There's a silver-toned version of this medal too, and I believe that Ralston released at least two different designs for other years.

I hope you have enjoyed this STUFF FROM THE BOX!