Stuff From the Box

"Hey, Major Pepperidge! What's in the box?". "STUFF!". Here are six more random items of mirth for you.

First up is this odd-looking ring; it is a Straight Arrow Golden Nugget Ring, given out by Nabisco Shredded Wheat in 1950. It's genuine plastic! Not that phony stuff. The Straight Arrow radio program is a western adventure series for juveniles which was broadcast, mostly twice weekly in the United States from 1948 through 1951. A total of 292 episodes were aired.

Initially broadcast on the Don Lee Network, on February 2, 1949, the program debuted nationally on the Mutual Broadcasting Network. All the programs were written by Sheldon Stark.

The protagonist, rancher Steve Adams, became the Comanche Indian, the Straight Arrow, when bad people or other dangers threatened. In fact, Adams was a Comanche orphan who had been adopted by the Adams ranching family and later inherited the ranch.

 

It was tricky to take a photo of the view as seen through the lens of the ring using my phone, but this ultimately turned out OK. This type of device, with a lens revealing a micro-photograph, is known as a "Stanhope". My mom gave me two of these rings over the years, and both of them lacked the photo - there was just a clear lens, and nothing else.

Here's a vintage ad that I scrounged from the Internet, for your edification.

This next one is something I picked up on a whim at a collector's show in Glendale - I'm not sure I'd buy it now, but I was probably hip-mo-tized by those four genuine Tanzanites, presumably indicating forty years of service with the Kroger organization.

Here's a heavy little copper charm from Knott's Berry Farm. Use it as a keychain, a watch fob, or just throw it at your friends when they aren't looking. I can't tell you anything about it other than what you can glean just by looking at it. 

Here's another employee badge that I picked up at a collector's show, for Fisher Body's plant in Hamilton, Ohio. What was Fisher Body? It was an automobile coachbuilder founded as the Fisher Body Company by Frederic and Charles Fisher in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan when they absorbed a fledgling autobody maker. By 1916 the concern had grown into one of the world's largest manufacturing firms, the Fisher Body Corporation, and was producing over 350,000 vehicles a year for nearly 20 different makers. In 1919, under the guidance of its ever-aggressive president, William C. Durant, General Motors purchased a 60% stake in the company.

Before stamped metal bodies and interiors became the norm, the company owned 160,000 acres of timberland and used more wood, carpet, tacks, and thread than any other manufacturer in the world. It had more than 40 plants and employed more than 100,000 people, and pioneered many improvements in tooling and automobile design including closed all-weather bodies. In 1984 GM dissolved its Fisher Body Division as part of its extensive North American restructuring.

These are not hard to find!

Next is this nice, vintage, genuine enamel pin featuring J. Wellington Wimpy, beloved character from the "Popeye" comics and cartoons. He made his debut in 1931, and was a fairly major presence in the comic strip, but became rather one-note when he debuted in animated form in 1933. He loved hamburgers! And his catchphrase was, "Cook me up a hamburger; I'll pay you Tuesday" (the line was altered over the years, I knew it as "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today"). He would have gone perfectly with the Olive Oyl pin I pictured in an earlier blog post. Yes, I have the Popeye pin too.

And finally, here is an oddball pin that I know nothing about. And, because I can't read Cyrillic, I have no idea what it says at the feet of those sturdy, wheat-lovin' proletariats. The man who sold this to me said it was from a "harvest festival", but he was likely just guessing. It reminds me of a pin from the 1939 New York World's Fair featuring a statue nicknamed "Big Joe" (see two variations HERE).

Stay tuned for more STUFF FROM THE BOX!