I wanted to do a "Stuff From the Box" blog post, but have fallen behind on the photography end of things, so I guess I will share more photos of random oversized pinback buttons from the "Big Bag o' Buttons".
This first one is pretty fun, advertising "TV's HULLABALOO Scene". Hullabaloo was an American musical variety series that ran on NBC from January 12, 1965, through April 11, 1966 (with repeats to August 1966). Similar to ABC's Shindig! and in contrast to American Bandstand, it aired in prime time. If you happened to see Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", there's a scene with Rick Dalton ( Leonardo DiCaprio) as he appears on Hullabaloo. Among the musical acts that appeared on the show were Simon and Garfunkel, The Mamas and The Papas, Dionne Warwick, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Sonny & Cher, the Supremes, Herman's Hermits, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, The Animals, Roy Orbison and Marianne Faithfull.
Here's a screen grab from "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood".
If you happened to be at a diner or coffee shop, and saw a waitress wearing this next button, you knew that your jittery days would be a thing of the past. Sanka is an instant decaffeinated brand of coffee, one of the first, being introduced in America in 1909!
This next one is pretty neat, from the 1932 National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio from August 27 to September 5. Many new raceplanes were entered this year to dramatically raise the interest level and attract more visitors. The Bendix race from Burbank CA to Cleveland would feature four new aircraft with identical engines and well qualified pilots. There would also be six other cross-country races on the on the program. Twenty one closed-course races including the Thompson Trophy Race for men and the Aerol Trophy Race for Women. Two speed dashes were again included on the program. Cool!
How about this sweet lenticular pinback button featuring The Green Hornet?? The Green Hornet is a television series shown on the ABC U.S. television network. It aired for the 1966–1967 television season and stars Van Williams as both the Green Hornet and Britt Reid, and Bruce Lee as Kato. With his insistence on using his martial arts skills, Bruce Lee stole the show as Kato. This was perhaps the first time Asian martial arts fighting was seen on American TV. The show launched Bruce Lee's career as a popular actor in the US as well as in Hong Kong. Audience interest even led to Van Williams asking to learn some martial art moves.
Williams and Lee's Green Hornet and Kato appear as anti-heroes in the second season of the Batman TV series in the two-part episode "A Piece of the Action" / "Batman's Satisfaction". The episode ended with Batman himself questioning whether or not the Green Hornet was really a criminal. Unlike the "campy" version of Batman, this version of The Green Hornet was played more seriously.
I was a huge fan of DEVO back in the late 1970s and into the 1980s. I remember first hearing them through the wall from my brother's room, and thinking they were awful. But a few weeks later I loved them! Was the theory of "de-evoltion" a joke? Maybe not. Devo's lyrics were frequently a bit naughty or suggestive, but I will not sully your minds by printing them here. You're welcome! I saw DEVO at the Santa Monica Civic in 1980, it was a great show!
This final button is a whopping 4" in diameter, and is an advertisement from the now-defunct Burger Chef chain of restaurants. It began operating in 1954 in Indianapolis, Indiana, expanded throughout the United States, and at its peak in 1973 had 1,050 locations, including some in Canada. The chain featured several signature items, such as the Big Shef and Super Shef hamburgers. I only ate a Burger Chef a few times in my life, but I remember liking it. "Funburger is here!". A motto anyone would be proud of. By 1996 the last Burger Chef restaurant had closed.
I hope you have enjoyed today's Pin Pix!
26 comments:
I'm trying to rub a few brain cells together and come up with a vague memory of Hullabaloo. The name sounds sorta familiar. Did I watch it? I dunno. Pretty sure I watched Shindig though, well, a couple of episodes anyway. I definitely watched Hootenanny. The pin is an iconic example of the Go-Go years.
The Sanka pin looks a lot like it could be for Ovaltine. There's the big "O", and the colors are the same. Wow, I didn't know Sanka was around in 1909. It probably wasn't instant coffee at that time though. Seems like that didn't come about till the '50s.
Seems odd that they would have separate air races for the women. One would think that the skills required would be the same for men and women. I guess the women's planes were smaller and weaker and looked prettier. ;-)
Somebody must have known what they were doing when they made the Green Hornet lenticular pin. Usually, you can see a ghosty image of the other picture, no matter how hard you try to isolate each one.
My, what big... balloons the gal has in the Devo pin. A prime example of the ghosty image I mentioned above.
I don't think I've ever heard of Burger Chef before. I certainly never ate at one. And the toque-wearing happy face logo doesn't ring any bells. Oh well, I'll just have to get on with my life... somehow. I wonder what the fun part of the funburger was?
A fun group of pins, Major. Wildly varied, but fun. I think my favorite today is the Green Hornet pin; I'm hypnotized by the swirling colors.
My favorite pins in this post are the lenticular ones, because I love lenticular pins! I think I also like saying, "lenticular."
Sanka is what Knott's used, when I was working there. When people asked for decaffeinated coffee, we would give them a cup of hot water, a packet of Sanka, and a little plastic stir stick. I remember on more than one occasion, the customers were disappointed that it was instant. I guess they wanted brewed decaf? We didn't get requests for decaf too often back then, so I guess management didn't want to bother to brew a whole batch, or even just a single pot of it.
Remember Major, when a problem comes a long....or if something's going wrong....you must whip it.
The 1932 National Air Races button is my favorite today. Jimmy Doolittle (who later commanded the 1942 Dolittle Raid and somehow learned to talk to the animals) won the Thompson Trophy that year. That has to be a rare button as the contest committee can’t have numbered in the high hundreds.
Second favorite is Burger Chef. We had one here when I lived here as a kid, and it was our family’s go-to fast food joint rather than the McDonald’s next door. They pioneered the fast food kid’s meal package with the Fun Meal, which came in a folded cardboard tray that had activities printed on it cereal box style, specific spots for your drink, fries, and sandwich, and included a prize. I still have a few of those prizes left - a couple of flexible vinyl Halloween records featuring the Burger Chef and Jeff characters, a round baseball card, and a few other bits and bones tucked away in shoeboxes with a bunch of other random toys.
Thanks again, Major!
“Bits and bones?” Really, Autocorrect? I meant “bits and bobs,” a legitimate English expression that doesn’t give the impression that I collect body parts.
Major, these are some stand-out swag today.
I remember Hullabaloo vaguely because I wasn’t allowed to watch it. Hippies, you know.
Sanka is pretty familiar, although we didn’t buy it. All the coffee shops had a little sign for it.
Air Races! My Dad would have loved that one. JB, the ladies planes had lace doilies.
Green Hornet! That one takes top prize! There’s some version of this shown on Amazon, not the Adam West crossover, maybe earlier. Fun stuff!
Devo! Are We Not Men?! I had a skinny tie in bright red with a graph paper pattern. JB, those are “vast tracts of land”…
There was a Burger Chef in Fresno, we would get lunch there occasionally. I guess when the budget couldn't handle Bobs Big Boy. I remember liking it better than MCDonalds. I don’t know when it closed, but the building is still there. I drove by it a few years ago, now it’s a taqueria. The little guy in the pin brings back a memory.
Thanks Major and everyone, a nice look back.
JG
Major-
So much talk about Sanka. What about Postum-? Yeah. And besides... Sanka was an original, alternate sponsor of a 'certain television show'.
Thanks, Major.
I casually collect buttons, so these are neat to see. I hardly ever wear them because I don’t like making holes in my shirts! Come to think of it, I really don’t see people wearing buttons unless they are part of a work uniform. Or occasional birthday ones, mostly at theme parks and zoos. I’m vaguely familiar with Burger Chef but don’t think I ate there. I wonder why they spelled their burgers “Shef”? Doing a bit of googling, I found that as Chuck recalls above, they had Kids’ Meals before McDs with spooky-sounding mascots like “the magician Burgerini, vampire Count Fangburger, talking ape Burgerilla, and Cackleburger the witch”. Fun, indeed! Thanks, Major.
JB, I only know of Hullabaloo from reading about it; same with Shindig and Hootenanny. I can’t listen to that evil rock and or roll. The Sanka pin does look like a big “O”, but I wonder, is the brown shape supposed to represent a stylized coffee bean? Not sure. The women’s air races were much more difficult because they were also judged on their outfits. The Green Hornet pin photos did turn out good, not sure what is different about that one compared to the others that get “ghosty”. Burger Chef… how did they go from over 1000 restaurants to going out of business?? What happened?
TokyoMagic!, I do like lenticular pins a lot too, and have maybe 20 or so in my “collection” (or is it an “accumulation”?). I think I would be disappointed to get a packet of Sanka powder too; it’s like when I go to a restaurant, order a Diet Coke, and they bring me a can of the soda. What? No ice? Also: Whip it good!
Chuck, somewhere I have a photo of my grandparents standing with Jimmy Doolittle, not sure how that happened. My grandpa is stealing Doolittle’s wallet while my grandma distracts him by burping the alphabet. It’s been so long since I ate at a Burger Chef that my memories are pretty vague. I seem to remember that my burgers had a lot of mustard on them, which I liked! Cool that you have those flexi-discs, but the Halloween example is probably way too scary to listen to.
Chuck, I don’t know, it seemed OK when I read it!
JG, nobody should watch hippies on TV ever. Well, maybe on “Dragnet”. My dad had a jar of Yuban instant in the cupboard, my mom would use it to make iced coffee sometimes. I liked it with lots of cream and sugar! I figured the Air Races pin and the Green Hornet pin would probably be popular today, because they’re pretty cool. You should still wear your skinny “graph paper” tie. Having just read that 500 Burger King restaurants are going to close - Burger King! - I guess I can’t be too amazed that Burger Chef went under. Meanwhile, I do not like Burger King.
Nanook, Sanka sponsored “Dragnet”??
Kathy!, I don’t tend to wear buttons either, unless it’s a very specific occasion. But I love them and have a decent collection of ‘em! You know how marketing guys are, they love cute spellings like “shef”, even though it makes them look dumb. “Burgerini”, ha ha!
I like the Green Hornet badge! I have the Corgi Toys Green Hornet car from the 60s. I'm not sure if the missile launcher or radar launcher still works, since I don't have any to try. Still it's cool... I like the car better than the show, but the show was ok...
These are all pinner winners! I want to put them all on a denim jacket and wear it to the mall.
Trivia: Hullabaloo was replaced by The Monkees. The network must have been aiming for the same demographic.
One of my favorite lyrics from Kiss Me, Kate is "I'd switch from coffee to Sanka, to Sanka for Bianca." I ha comlpetely forgotten Postum, nanook! I tried some at Grandma's once, and I remember it tasting vile. It could have been partly due to the name, which sounds like some kind of industrial waste.
THE GREEN HORNET! I love that show just as much as Batman, even though they were so different in tone. I'm particularly fond of the jazz version of "Flight of the Bumblebee" they used for theme music. (JG, you can watch the whole series on YouTube.)
I made a DEVO costume for Ken the doll once, but the energy dome was crap and I didn't save it.
Peggy Olson's Burger Chef pitch on Mad Men was almost as good as Don Draper's Carousel speech I mentioned yesterday.
Like many of you, I don’t normally wear buttons, either. Fortunately, my tie usually hides that fact from my boss.
Major, that is so cool that you have a picture of your grandparents with Jimmy Doolittle! I actually do remember being slightly scared by the Halloween record. But that was last year…and I’m a big boy now!
Melissa, THANK YOU for the Green Hornet tip, much appreciated!
Yeah, maybe it was Hootenanny I wasn't allowed to watch, of course, I wouldn't have been allowed to watch either one so it doesn't matter. Even now, my Mom would not let me watch South Park.
And yes, I also forgot Postum. We had a jar in the house when I was a kid because my Dad's cousin and his wife were Adventists and they forswore the use of caffeine, even Sanka and tea, as well as pepper, chocolate, hot sauce, and meat, of course. Anything that was vaguely stimulating I guess. I remember Postum tasted worse to me than it smelled, which was really something, like burnt sawdust. His wife wouldn't even drink Postum, only hot water with nothing in it. Well, that was a memory hole. Thanks Melissa and Nanook!
Major, Mom and Dad drank Maxim "Freeze-Dried" and eventually the Yuban crystals, which was my start on coffee. I love coffee, and now both the acid and the caffeine have to be left alone. Maybe I should have been Adventist after all, my cousins were really nice people.
As I recall, Burger Chef burgers were flame-broiled on a cooker with a chain conveyor, the raw patty went in one end and was done by the time it came out the other end. This gave it a nice even char-broiled flavor. I guess that Burger King eventually did for them, since BK had a similar process. Major, I'm like you, the only times I had BK anything was when it was the only option on a Scout trip. Now it's In-And-Out or nothing. Do Not get me started on Five Guys.
JG
Major-
In 1968 General Foods bought Burger Chef and doubled the number of locations to more than 1,000 in about four years. And yes, at one time had 1,200 locations, just behind McDonald's. They even secured an exclusive licensing deal with 2oth Century-Fox in 1978 to create seven different 'Funmeals' with star Wars toys included. (And yes, Burger Chef brought out their kids meals prior to McDonald's introducing their Happy Meals in 1979. The Burger Chef Funmeal was introduced back in 1973).
Over expansion and competition started the great decline. In December 1981, General Foods sold the chain to Hardee's - converting some locations into Hardee's; other locations simply closed. Hardee's parent company, Imasco, had little interest in Burger Chef, and took a write-off, letting many current franchisee's to fend for themselves. And so it goes.
Chuck, I thought you typed "bits and bones" deliberately. I like the sound of it.
JG, "vast tracts of land"... [whiny voice] "But I don't want any of that. I just want to... Sing!" [ The swelling soundtrack suddenly winds down like a deflating bagpipe.]
Major, as you (and everybody else) know, brown and orange are the universal colors denoting "decaf". I bet todays 'decaf' colors harken back to Sanka's colors. And yeah, that brown oval could be a nod to the coffee bean.
The women's air races were also more difficult because they had to fly in high heels and do it backwards!
Melissa, pinner winner, chicken dinner!
Stu29573, I think I had the Corgi “Black Beauty” car (I seem to remember the green headlights), those toys were the best. We had the Batmobile and the Yellow Submarine too. All long-gone of course. Well, I’m going to cry now.
Melissa, I denim jacket would go great with my jorts! Oh interesting that The Monkees replaced Hullabaloo! Rhyming “Sanka” with “Bianca”? Hmmmm. I don’t really like coffee, so I am no judge as to what tastes good or not in that department. Just never got into it. Wow, you can watch The Green Hornet on YouTube?? THANKS! I will take a look! Gosh I watched all of Mad Men, but don’t remember the Burger Chef pitch at all.
Chuck, I prefer snaps, like when I was two years old. I don’t know what is on the Burger Chef Halloween record, but I know my little brother hated it when I would play “Chilling Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted Mansion” because it scared him.
JG, I hope all of those videos of groups performing on those TV shows are preserved in high quality somewhere. Of course they were probably lip-synching anyway, which is always a bit of a bummer. “Postum” is somehow a very unappetizing name in my opinion. It sounds industrial. So Postum was caffein-free? What’s the point! Just enjoy a nice glass of the previously-mentioned Ovaltine, I say. Or Nesquik (my favorite). Oh man, thanks for mentioning In-And-Out, now I want a double double with grilled onions!
Nanook, thank you for the info about the fate of Burger Chef; I suspected that they’d been bought up and then ruined. From now on I’m going to call my lunch a Funmeal. Even if it’s just a boring turkey sandwich it will make it more entertaining. Hardee’s… my memories of eating at Hardee’s when I was a kid was that I did not particularly like it. But it’s been a LONG time.
JB, yes I agree, “bits and bones” sounds totally OK to me. And it’s kind of gruesome, which I approve of. I did NOT know that orange and brown were the universal colors for decaf, but as I said before, I don’t drink coffee, so I am but a babe in the woods. Whoa, I’d love to see an airplane race that was backwards!
JB, the best part of the 1932 women's air races was the swimsuit competition.
JG
Nanook, I had forgotten about the Star Wars tie ins! For years, I had a Luke Skywalker and a Chewbacca poster on my bedroom door, while my sister had Chewbacca and I think R2-D2 and C-3PO on hers. The artwork was painted, with a short biographical paragraph and the character’s “signature.” Wish I still had those, along with the “Winnie the Pooh for President” poster that was on the inside of the door. Can’t believe we just left those on the door when we moved out.
Major, “Chilling Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted Mansion” terrified me. I can remember lying on the floor of my preschool with my hands over my ears and begging the teacher to turn off the “haunted house” track. She was a very nice lady and complied.
JB, your last comment to JG reminds me of the time I brought a copy of Model Railroader to work to read at lunch back in the ‘90s. A couple of my co-workers spied it sitting in my “in” box (remember those?) and went over to take a look. One picked it up and said “Hmmm…I wonder what the centerfold looks like…,” then opened it to the middle of the magazine and turned it sideways as if he was giving it a critical eye. The other looked at it appreciatively and said “Whoa - check out the caboose on that one!”
Mrs. Chuck refers to railroad magazines as “train porn.”
[I feel like I have told that story somewhere recently; my apologies if I am repeating myself.]
You can see all four Burger Chef Star Wars posters here. My best friend had the earth Vader poster.
I forgot to mention earlier the statement in small print at the bottom stating that it was “An original poster series from the Coca-Cola Company and Burger Chef Systems, Inc.“
CURSE YOU, AUTOCORRECT!!!!
My best friend had the Darth Vader poster.
Chuck, those are the exact same designs that were on a set of four Star Wars glasses, given out at Burger King after the first movie's release. I still have my set!
Chuck, okay...maybe not EXACT same, but almost the same. The Darth Vader pattern is the one with the most differences:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/325643014221?hash=item4bd1d6104d:g:TQAAAOSw3PdkU6lS&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8CbqUpVHu3ajAl5PNqcyW8%2B4CRl8oNv%2BMjm4K828sZA1HA0lps1aAhFnHMWoHV9%2Bfttn28QUIq4cE20cR3jlrz6aSV5GyUyQHRxUyapVmxn6FTylQuKL9wYyze8zx4xMSMwFEk%2FnJlk%2FzODUeVKgKQiHAAKxvb3S3542SFeRjJ5umduqKrgR77Ehv7zjzL7cbeEEEsEw0h1lOBa2eTggmUe%2FLaoBUSyj0U3eI4fNiobmsEzeEGi8Zg77HAKgH4aI%2B0NMOVWbxemdVq6RvmzscAq5gTRkilHpBFieF%2Bg%2BRSjsEUC%2FDytzAmp%2FyxXpZmUxnA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7DHy-L_YQ
TM!, those are obviously based on the same basic designs. The common link between both sets is the Coca-Cola Company. Well, that and the word “Burger.”
Cool you still have your set,
So I went out into the garage to check and see if I had inherited that Darth Vader poster when my best friend’s parents moved away 12 years ago. It wasn’t in the posters they gave me, but I did find this Coca-Cola Empire Strikes Back poster. I didn’t remember that set, although I saw Empire with my buddy the first week it was in the theaters. This poster mentions the Coca-Cola Company in small print at the bottom but there is no reference to any fast food establishment.
Not sure why I didn’t remember they’d given it to me, although it was probably because they gave me his older brother’s Farrah Fawcett poster at the same time. You guys all know the one I’m talking about and will understand.
Chuck, Burger King also had a set of four glasses for The Empire Strikes Back. I didn't get that set, but I just checked on ebay, and it looks like the Luke design was completely different from the poster.
I just got a set of those Empire Strikes Back glasses from a friend. His parents apparently went to Burger King regularly in the early 1980s and got all of the promotional glasses for various movies, with doubles and triples for many. He's got more than he can ever use.
Dean Finder, NICE!!!
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