More From the Big Bag Of Pins
I have no idea how much the Junior Gorillas like looking at random old pinback buttons, but it is hopefully an entertaining diversion from the usual stuff on GDB. I'm still going through the "BIG BAG OF PINS", which is actually two bags, but I can't count that high. As a rule, all of these pins are 3" in diameter or larger. I have many "better" pins that I might get to eventually, but the random subjects are part of the fun.
First up is this neat "3rd Mate" button for Pops Pirate Club. What is that? PPC was a children's radio show that aired on CBS for only three days back in June of 1932, sponsored by Wheat and Rice Puffs cereal. Three days! There was also a cool-sounding "dagger premium", apparently. I need more daggers in my life. Anyway, there were at least four pinback buttons given out - 1st Mate, 2nd Mate, 3rd Mate, and Coffee Mate. Just kidding, there was also "Captain". Weirdly, I see the 3rd Mate button fairly regularly, and the other three have only shown up on specialized auction sites. I'd love to get those!
Next is this button from Nevada's Centennial - not the State, but a town in Ohio! It had its 100th birthday in the summer of 1952. What is a "shave permit"? For some reason unexplained by science, many places around the country had "whiskeroos" and other similar contests in which the local men could show off their facial hair, with prizes awarded for things such as "Best Mustache", "Longest Beard", and "Smelliest Beard". OK I made that last one up. Aren't people crazy?
Oh, if only I'd seen a launch of one of the wonderful Space Shuttles! No such luck, though. But, almost as good, I have this pinback button so that I can lie that I DID see a launch. These were made in different colors for different launches, but I only have this one example.
Some people ❤️ New York, but I ❤️ Kmart! The once-ubiquitous store was a place where you could buy affordable goods of all kinds. To be honest, I didn't really go to Kmart that often, but I miss it now that it's gone (apparently there are still some Kmarts around, somewhere?). Don't miss out on that blue light special.
These next two items are not pinback buttons, but instead are "pocket mirrors", which were popular advertising giveaways years ago. You could find pocket mirrors for just about anything, from beer to Coca Cola, from farm equipment to political candidates, and so on. I only have a few pocket mirrors, while other collectors specialize in them and have hundreds. This first mirror is for "White Cat Union Suits" from the Cooper Underwear Co. in Kenosha, Wisconsin (I've been there! Kenosha, I mean). A union suit is a type of one-piece long underwear, most often associated with menswear in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
And finally, another pocket mirror, this one for The Travelers Insurance Company. I would guess that this item is from the early 1900s, though I don't know for sure. The color and lithography on this example look pretty dazzling, and it's fun to imagine that we are about to be flattened by a steam locomotive. Travelers Insurance is still around today, and some of you might recall their distinctive pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair.
I hope you have enjoyed today's pinback buttons and pocket mirrors!
13 comments:
Major-
Do you suppose NASA served lunches at the launches, and if so, did they issue special pins for the occasion-?
Thanks, Major.
Radio Pirates: What the... 3 days!? And they have 4 pins?!? More pins than the number of days it was on the air! Now I'm curious what the show was like... and why it was cancelled after only 3 days.
Nevada Centennial: I remember when Oregon (the state, not the town) had its centennial in 1959; I was only six. Guys here, grew beards for that event as well, but it was to acknowledge our pioneer heritage.
Space Shuttle: I wonder if they just handed these pins out to people attending a launch, or if people had to pay for them?
Kmart: "Attention Kmart shoppers! For the next 10 minutes we will be giving away, for FREE, 'I Love Kmart' pins!" I didn't go there very often either.
Union Suits: So I guess they are also called "Long Johns"? Not sure if Long Johns are one piece or two. I'm guessing the Union Suits were white, hence the white cat.
Travelers: Wow, this item is beautiful! My favorite today. The thumbnail image looks better than the enlarged version; no printing dots. I'm guessing the thumbnail is close to actual size (about 3 1/2 inches on my monitor)?
It's always nice to see other things besides "the usual stuff", Major. Thanks.
KMart is your savings store.
Where your dollar buys you more!
KMart is an acronym for Ken Martinez. ;-)
My two favorite pins are the "Nevada Centennial Shave Permit" and "Buy White Cat Union suits". Thanks, Major.
I'm also curious as to why Pops Pirate Show only aired for three days. Wasn't anyone tuning in? And if not, how would they know that? Was there some kind of "Nielsen" ratings system for radio, back then?
We didn't shop at Kmart very often, either. We also didn't shop at White Front, Zody's, or The Treasury very often. And we never went to FEDCO. We were GEMCO shoppers, back in the day! I miss GEMCO.....And Lucky Supermarkets, which was the same parent company.
I love the art on the pocket mirrors. My mom had one with a lady holding a bottle of Coke on it. The artwork looks like it's from the 20s or 30s, but it may have been a reproduction. It's still over at my mom's......I should look for it.
Thanks for sharing, Major!
Interesting finds today, and I learned something! Are the pocket mirrors reflective in any way? They don't appear so. Never got to see a shuttle launch, but I did get to see the Challenger up close under construction (Dad was a Rocketdyne engineer). Is that K-Mart in Westlake still there? We shopped there frequently!
The Hartford Insurance pocket mirror is my favorite. How well do the mirrors survive?
Ironically, the cat isn't wearing any underwear at all.
Thanks, Major. I never knew these existed.
Zach
I also did not understand the kitty cat with no underwear on...buy underwear..."just cuz"..."but I don't wear that noise" says kitty....a union suit sounds very practically impractical: but of course I did my research, and these "long underwear" items are available...in many colors, including a traditional red...and they look really really cozy! I think I would wear that just hanging out watching TV. I don't need them outside: I'm still in shorts shoveling snow despite some "teen temps" as a true Norseman. However, I think my Norse ancestors do wear "union suits" or Helderress...I'm sure there is a more regional name for it...depending on the region...but normally, you wear woolen two piece Union Suits...and strip off what's not needed...another name for a union suit is "Onesie"...also very cozy. I wasn't a Kmart Blue Light Special Shopper....and the reason is simple: I didn't like the logo or the color combinations or the font. I did not have a Gemco Golden Values card....but a TG buddy did and we went there for lee press on nails. Of course, VERBOTEN ON PROPERTY! But if you are blonde and pretty, well....rules seem to disappear. I was blonde for a short period of time, and I'll say it's the only time a guest tried to pick me up. I digress to a shave permit. I need to do some research as I am intrigued. Was the 100 years of progress going from "NO PERMIT NEEDED TO SHAVE" to "PERMITS FOR SHAVING MUST BE OBTAINED AT CITY HALL ON THE THIRD FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH!!!" Who knows. I did see a space shuttle...on a side trip to Cape Canaveral from the house of Mouse...or the World of Mouse...it's not a quick drive, but it's doable. I was more interested in finding a Jeannie bottle...and although the scale and scope of rockets are impressively monumental...In retrospect, I think I would have rather gone back to EPCOT Center another day, but happy to say "I was there". I have very few memories of it, other than I thought it would be a tad more "1967 Tomorrowland" than...empty lots and used rockets...Kind of like when you see backstage Disneyland....just a bunch of crappy old stucco buildings, and random wood. Purposefully of course. We were always told that the use of more practical mediums...was to indicate to guests that they had entered a "backstage" area....I thought it was the smell of the trash compactors...but I digress....Thanks Major for the bag of pins!
Nanook, all I can say is that pins should always be issued for all occasions!
JB, I know, 3 days is nothing, especially when we’re talking about those three days from 1932. Over 90 years ago! I don’t think it was cancelled, I believe it was just a “limited series”. The town in SoCal where I spent my high school years had an annual carnival that included a “whiskeroo”, including some rather elaborate and incredible mustaches. I believe that those shuttle pins were just handed out, it seems hard to believe that they’d charge for them. But you never know! Most of the time I went to K-Mart was with a friend, who liked that store because he could buy plain white t-shirts for cheap. Yes, I assumed Union Suits are basically Long Johns. I don’t mind the dots on the Travelers Insurance item because they have that “stone lithograph” look rather than the more-mechanical ben-day dots of modern lithography.
K. Martinez, ha, I never knew that K-Mart was short for Ken Martinez!!
TokyoMagic!, I can’t find very much about that old Pops Pirate show - I wonder if they still exist in some form? 1932 is pretty early, if they were preserved on phonograph records (as some shows were) they might sound pretty rough. I didn’t go to any of the stores you mentioned, though we did sometimes go to Pic-N-Save. I once bought an employee badge that I thought was from GEMCO, only to realize when I got home that it was from CEMCO. D’oh. Genuine Coca Cola pocket mirrors are often very nice, but they have been reproduced by the thousands. I hope yours is a genuine antique!
Steve DeGaetano, yes, the mirror side of those pocket mirrors is just what you would expect, a little oval mirror (instead of a pin or clasp). It seems like the ones that I have often darkened over the years, as old “silvered” mirrors often do. The Westlake K-Mart stood empty (as did the entire shopping center) for a long time. 10 years? It was finally torn down for a big apartment complex, the last time I drove out that way it was shocking to see nothing but dirt and earth-movers.
zach, the mirrors don’t tend to break, but of the 10 (or so) that I own, they often have dark spots on them (moisture issues?) or they’ve darkened overall to a degree. I didn’t notice that the cat was not wearing underwear, but then again, I usually don’t notice that Donald Duck doesn’t wear pants.
Bu, I guess underwear is one of the things that separates us from the animals. Think about it! When was the last time you saw a beagle wearing Fruit of the Loom undies? Almost never! When I lived on the east coast, and winters could be sub-zero, I had long johns, and they were very welcome. Maybe I was extra-sensitive to the cold, having just come from Huntington Beach. That being said, I remember going outdoors in the snow in light clothing, at least for short periods of time. We tried making “Slurpees” using snow and Hi-C, and we’d run out in our bare feet. The Slurpees weren’t that great. No idea what Norsemen did in the cold. Probably ate some fish. I have a fondness for K-Mart that makes no sense, since it wasn’t really a part of my life. But now that it’s gone, I somehow miss it. I think my family didn’t go to some of those discount department stores because my dad was in the Navy, so we’d just go to the Navy Exchange if we needed something. My mom even bought my first iPad at the Navy Exchange. Now it’s too hard to take her there (at age 90) even though she’d like to go. Not long ago I decided to let my beard grow out, only to find that it is so gray that I look like a grizzled geezer. So off it went. Now I look like a fresh-faced 20 year-old! ;-) I would have loved to see a shuttle launch, Rocketdyne did tests of rocket engines many miles from my mom’s home, and we could hear and feel them. It was impressive. I know that “backstage” is nothing very sexy at the Disney parks, and yet I’d still love to see it all!
I remember seeing an historic film dug up out of an old closet when the Cla-Zel Theater in Bowling Green, OH, was undergoing renovations in the early 2000s. The film was labeled “Bowling Green, 1950s” and was full of all sorts of random, black-and-white film segments of major community events from that era (it was fun picking both of my parents out of a group shot at the old junior high).
Anyway, there was a segment showing folks who had participated in the “Pioneer Days Beard-Growing Contest” that I think was associated with the town’s centennial in 1955. Bowling Green is just two counties over from Nevada and Ohio had just celebrated its sesquicentennial in 1953, so this was probably a common occurrence in that era.
I think the third button may have actually been on the control panel of the system used to eject unruly visitors from the Visitors’ Center.
Nanook, you weren’t a writer for the Krofft Brothers, were you?
Ken, thank you for that jingle. I had totally forgotten about that ear worm. And I love that the store’s name is an abbreviation for your name! I will probably always think of you when I think of Kmart now. :-)
Thanks, Major!
Mirrors of course figured prominently in premiums from cereal, radio, and kids' shoes. But they were always for reflecting coded messages to fellow Cosmic Deputies and such. Real men didn't need to look at themselves the way girls did.
Chuck, wow, I can only imagine how cool it must have been to see your parents in that black and white footage! The only equivalent I have is when I was looking at photos from my dad’s old high school in Minnesota, and found one in which he was posing with three other fellows in a barbershop quartet. My mom later revealed that she had a copy of that photo! Based on pinback button records alone, beard-growing contests were common all over the US for a time. I’m sure wives of the men who participated loved it! I would have been one of those unruly visitors, because I love to whine and complain! The Krofft Brothers? I don’t get it.
DBenson, yes, boys don’t care how they look, but they do need to flash “SOS” to their friend across the canyon. It’s very important!
I couldn't find any episodes of Pops Pirate Club on archive.org's old time radio collection or the Old Time Radio Researchers' site (usually the best places for obscure radio shows). It's unlikely a show from 1932 survived as a recording unless is was transcribed onto a record for syndication, which doesn't seem like it would have happened for Pops.
There were quite a few discount department stores in my area decades ago - K Mart, Two Guys, Caldor - and my family went to all of them. They're all gone now, but K Mart's jingles resonate through my house every Christmas as I wrap presents through this youtube capture of a 1974 in-store tape loop.
Shopped a lot at KMart, I think most of my school clothes came from there.
Ken, I can hear that music… I have an audio track of KMart Muzak, complete with blue light special ads. It’s great.
Never knew mirrors were such a thing…
Thanks Major!
JG
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