A Quick Jungle Book Post

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Todd

GraumannsI saw this card the other day on eBay and couldn’t resist.  It’s not all that rare…I have seen it around before.  And it’s not technically a Disney post card.  But in this instance the price was right and my resistance broke down!

What a cool card though, eh?  It’s an advertising card for Grauman’s Chinese Graumanns_0001Theatre, and what do we see on the marquee but the world premiere of the Jungle Book…”Tonight” no less!  It’s not often you can say exactly when an image on a card was taken, but in this case we can.  The film debuted on October 18th, 1967.  Take a look at this Wikipedia entry…budget $4 million dollars, box office $205 million!!  (That’s a far cry from the Silly Symphonies!)  I am not sure how they got that box office number…but it’s not surprising based on this movie being one of the all time classics from the studio.  “Come on Baggy…get with the beat!”  Phil Harris as Baloo, Louis Prima as King Louie…just fantastic!

Anyway…no new status on the checklist…I have been focusing on a few other things.  But I plan on picking it up again soon.

Until next time…

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A Donald Duck Squeaker and “The Wise Little Hen”

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Todd

It’s been a week since I last posted a “real” post on this blog actually having to do with post cards…so tonight I wanted to take a moment to remedy that situation!

Disney_biographyI have recently been reading an interesting biography, Walt Disney The Triumph Of The American Imagination by Neal Gabler.  So far, it’s been a great read with lots of detail on how Walt built the studio, and the various characters that were created there.  This afternoon, while spending a couple hours on an airplane, I was reading about the genesis of Donald Duck.  By 1934, Mickey Mouse had grown a little straight laced as a result of the studios forging headlong into realism.  Mickey was realized prior to sound and the “humanization” of the cartoons…and as he grew up he suffered a bit of an identity crisis.  Was he the hero like Douglas Fairbanks?  Or was he the cad like Charlie Chaplin?  As time went on, he had become more of the hero and had lost his edge that was on full display in Steamboat Willie and Plane Crazy.  So the studio came up with another character, Donald Duck, that could fill that need…a cantankerous, often temperamental and self serving type…a character to off-set the now squeaky clean Mickey Mouse.

 

 

His debut in The Wise Little Hen was an instant hit.  Fans all over the country loved him…perhaps because they saw themselves in him.  He was more gritty and real, expressing an attitude that was easy to identify with.

NT0553It’s no secret that Donald has gone on to be as popular (or more so?) as Mickey Mouse in the Disney pantheon of characters.  And he is well represented in this (rather rare) squeaker, NT0553.  It’s not an easy card to find, but you do see it pop up on eBay now and then.  Expect to pay around $50 for it though…maybe a little more, maybe a little less, if you are lucky.

Thanks for your patience with the site migration to the new domain name this week.  Everything seems to be working fine.  And the checklist database is up to over 1700 records!  I am nearing the end of the Nickel Tour entries…so stay tuned!

Until next time…

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D23 Expo Trip report!

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Todd

Well, I decided to brave the crowds and take a quick up and back trip to the D23 expo today!  All in all…I am glad I went as there were a few things and people I got to see and meet that I would have been disappointed to miss.

Inside the Imagineering exhibit (which was probably my favorite part of the Expo) was a small area with some original artwork.  The highlight here was the original Herb Ryman sketch of Disneyland created in 1953.  This is an awesome piece of work to see close up…the line and details are just spectacular…reminiscent of early twentieth-century pen and ink illustrators Franklin Booth or Joseph Clement Cole.  And to think this sketch was basically made in a week-end…incredible!

NT0001ANext up at the exhibit was a piece that we all know and love as Disney postcard collectors…the Peter Ellenshaw painting of the park that Walt is pointing to in NT0001!  What a treat to see this up close!  This more evolved picture starts to look like the real thing.  Don’t miss this great shot of Ellenshaw working on the painting at Davelandweb.com.

In the Collectors Forum I had the privilege of meeting Don Ballard, the author of the acclaimed Disneyland Hotel books.  His first book is back in print, so if you don’t have a copy I can highly recommend it.  I have a link to his blog on my Links page.

NT0439Otherwise, I didn’t find that much else to buy in the Collectors Forum, with one notable exception!  I actually found a nice copy of NT0439 (Nautilus) in really good condition for a very reasonable price!  So…that’s a big checkmark in my collection!

Other highlights for the day:  I went to the Tony Baxter “Undiscovered Disneyland” talk with tons of vintage footage of Holidayland, Midget Autopia, and a complete on-board film of the Mine Train!  Marty Sklar also gave a talk about his career which was fun to hear…and I ran into Dave Smith, retired archivist of the company!  He was kind enough to talk briefly…and informed me that the archive does not have a complete collection of the postcards!

So…it was a successful trip.  And while I might sit the next Expo out…I am glad at least that I got to go to this one.

Until next time…(which in this case will be about a week, as I am on vacation all next week!)

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Great Day at the Hal Lutsky Vintage Paper Fair in San Francisco

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Todd

Hal_Lutsky_2013_SV_0004Yesterday I went up to the Hal Lutsky Vintage Paper Fair in San Francisco (the image at left is for an upcoming show in the San Jose area.)  It was a great day at the show!  Not only did I pick up a few nice cards for my personal collection, but I got a chance to talk to a few folks who have a lot of background in collecting Disney park related cards.

Dale Samuelson of Pastime Images was set up right near the entrance of the hall.  Dale knows a lot of the key people that have built up the hobby over the last 20 years and has sold a lot of cards to them as well.  So…fair to say he has a lot of the “tribal knowledge” I was talking about in an earlier post.  We spoke a fair bit about the hobby and its past.  One thing he mentioned which I found really interesting was that he feels the rarest of the first 23 cards is NT0014, the Casey Jr. train.  Apparently, he sold one of these to a guy back in the 90’s for $180.  It just goes to show you that when somebody wants NT1136Nsomething and it is not often seen…the price can go anywhere.  I bought several cards from Dale, one of which was this copy of the Treasure Trails card, NT1136N.  I have never actually seen this card on eBay (could have missed it I guess) so I was happy to get it.  You can reach Dale at: pastime “at” dslextreme “dot” com.

I also had the good fortune to run into another collector who has a near complete collection of all the cards in the Nickel Tour.  I am hoping to share some of her knowledge with you all, especially in terms of rarity and pricing…as she has been collecting for a long time and again, has a lot of “tribal knowledge”.  So…stay tuned as I will either relay her knowledge to you, or she may potentially write a post.

DFM-0054After my visit to the paper fair, I went over to the Disney Family Museum and picked up a few cards that I did not already have.  This card show’s Walt’s Carolwood Pacific railroad as shown in the museum.  It’s a beautiful scale model train…and if you go to the museum you can see a fantastic picture of Salvador Dali riding the train in Walt’s back yard! (Pretty hilarious…if you ask me!)

I will bring you a few more treasures from this trip to the City in a future post.  I hope you are all having a great summer!

Until next time…

P.S.  I mentioned in my last post that a copy of NT1160 was lurking on eBay…well a new one has shown up…and it’s probably in better condition.  It is also being offered by someone who subscribes to this blog!  Just search for NT1160 and you will find it.

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NT1048 thru NT1084 – Miscellaneous Rarities

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Todd

NT1163Near the back of the Nickel Tour is a list of cards (NT1148 thru NT1184) that the authors captioned with the following statement:

“More Miscellaneous Card – These cards are included for completeness, but for the most part are not pictured in the Nickel Tour.”

NT1163_0001Now, there are quite a few of these cards listed…and some of them you see fairly frequently.  Some of them though, you will see on a more “occasional” basis (perhaps like this NT1163 of the Disneyland Hotel shown here).  And quite a few of them, you just don’t see…ever (at least not on eBay).  When is the last time anyone has seen a copy of NT1174 for sale?  Or, how about NT1159?  Maybe these cards are more prevalent at postcard shows (like the Hal Lutsky Vintage Paper Fair I will be attending this weekend in San Francisco)…but otherwise they are just not findable online.

That said…you do occasionally stumble across these cards in the odd online auction.  And on that note, here is your tip for the week!!  Right now, on eBay, there is a copy of NT1160 up for sale.  See if you can find it…it’s a little hard to spot, but it is there!  It will be rather interesting to see where that sale ends up!

If you are planning on attending the Paper Fair this weekend in SF…let me know.  I would love to meet up and say “Hello!”.

Until next time…

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Kaiser Aluminum and a Look into the Future

Posted on July 28, 2013 by Todd

I was entering all of the “Participants” into the checklist database today and came across this NT1100 card from Kaiser Aluminum.  This is a really easy card to overlook, given how common it is.  But while entering the card text into the database, I could not help but think how “forward looking” this really was for 1955.  The card says the following:

NT1100In Tomorrowland – see the Bright Star in the World of Metals – Kaiser Aluminum. There’s a talking knight and a spectacular spaceman to delight the children. A walk through the the telescope will take you into an aluminum world of the past, present and future. TOMORROWLAND, DISNEYLAND

This may seem like slick marketing language (and it is…actually), but in terms of the telescope at the park and what ultimately did end up happening in the future, this language wasn’t that far off base.  This card and the language on it were published before there were any spacecraft in orbit around the Earth.  Today, there are thousands…not only around the Earth, but around other planets in our solar system as well.  Many…if not most… of those spacecraft are using aluminum.

cassiniThis picture at left was taken by the Cassini orbiter sometime in the last week or so.  It is orbiting Saturn.  What makes this image special is the tiny blue dot in the lower right of the image.  That’s Earth.  Fifty-eight years ago a picture like this would have been totally inconceivable…but, not today.  And materials like aluminum played a role in making that happen.

The Kaiser Aluminum exhibit may have partially been about Walt running short of cash and needing corporate partners at the park.  But still, it expressed the original vision of the park, and Tomorrowland specifically.  It was meant to be a place for amusement to be sure…but also a place to dream about what could be, and how to innovate in order to get there.

Until next time…

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Airport Disneyland and DCA Postcards

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Todd

Airport_CardsEvery time I go to Southern California, I always pass by a postcard rack at the John Wayne Airport with a number of Disney related postcards on it.  I have walked by that rack at least twenty times and asked my self, “Do those cards really count?”  I ask myself this question because the cards are mostly of Disney characters at the beach or some other Southern California landmark.  On this last trip though, I finally broke down and bought a couple of cards, because while they were not necessarily “official” park cards…they did show images of Disneyland and California Adventure.

First up is this card with Tinkerbell over the Castle.  It’s got a bunch on glittery stuff on it which gives it a little punch…but instead of saying “Disneyland” or something more related to the park, it says “California”.  Interestingly, the castle appears to be in its winter decorations as snow is clearly visible on its towers.  The back of the card does actually have a large “Disney Fairies” logo.

Airport_Cards_0001The second card features California adventure and says “Anaheim, California” on the front.  It doesn’t have any Disney logo on the back…but the view of California Screamin’ taken at night is nicely done.

So…whether these “belong” in a Disney parks postcard collection is up for debate I suppose.  After all, the cards in the Nickel Tour were all supposedly purchased at the park itself.  But why argue?  The pictures are nice and the cards are high quality…and they were only $0.89 each!!

Checklist Update

I am past 1500 records in the checklist database now and up to NT1082 (Country Bear Jamboree).  I’ll be working on getting more scans in once I get the text from all the cards in.  Stay tuned!

Until next time…

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Checklist Update and the Adventureland Booklet NT1046

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Todd

NT1046_Back_0001NT1046_Back

Hello everyone!  I wanted to write a quick post to give you an update on the checklist and note a curiosity I recently found while entering cards into the database.

The checklist is coming along nicely, although I think I may miss my end July deadline for having all of the NT cards entered into the tool.  I will try, but I am afraid my day job is going to threaten that goal.  On the bright side, I am up to NT1046 in the checklist and there are nearly 1500 records in the database.

Regarding NT1046, this is the Adventureland eight postcard booklet (shown here).  Something I had never really noticed here was the order that the cards are bound into the booklet.  In this case, the card on the front, “Adventureland Entrance” is NT 1046F (0111-0570F).  You would think it should be card “A”, but it isn’t.  In looking at my other booklets, the front card is the “A” card on a couple of them, but it’s mostly random with cards “D”, “E” and “F” being in front on the others.  The card on the back of this folder is card “H” (as you might expect).  I would be curious to know if you all see the same thing in your booklets.

Be aware that sometimes you see people selling cards from these booklets as if they were originally stand alone cards.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, sometimes the prices can be sort of high for these cards…but, from a collectibility standpoint, it is WAY better to have the cards in a complete booklet.

One quick note before I sign off…I will be attending the D23 expo in Anaheim on Friday, August 9th for the day.  I am mostly interested in checking out the collector area and maybe catching a couple presentations if the lines allow.  If any of you are going to be there, it would be great to meet and say “Hi!”

I hope you all are enjoying your summer and doing something more than sitting indoors with a computer and reading blogs like this one!

Until next time…

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Live post – From Downtown Disney

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Todd

20130717-112717.jpgWhen I go to Southern California, I usually have no time to run over to the park. But today, things went the opposite way and I have a fair bit of time to burn and am sitting in the lobby of the Grand Californian writing this post…on my iPhone!

Heading over to WonderGround this morning, I found a few new interesting cards I wanted to share. There was a lot there today, but I thought this Tink card (“Tink” by Liana Hee) was pretty cool. I have always had a bit of a soft spot for this character.

Otherwise…this Oswald card (“Multitasking” by
Kristin Tercek) caught my eye. In 2006 Disney, at long 20130717-112742.jpglast, got the rights to Oswald back…thus all the merchandise in the stores now with Oswald theming. Talk about “full circle”!

Until next time…

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A few interesting eBay results

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Todd

I had every intention yesterday of writing a “Bastille Day” post, but didn’t quite get there due to other demands, so a belated “Vive la France!” all the same.  I spent a year living in Paris about 15 years ago and absolutely loved it. (This was just before I got into Disneyland postcards, so alas, I did not put together a collection of Disneyland Paris cards).  But, if you have any questions about the origins of Tintin, I can answer those based on my experience there!

 NT 1119AIf you read this blog regularly, you know that I like to point out remarkable eBay sales of Disney postcards when they arise.  This past week there were a few sales worth mentioning.  You may have read my post on the NT1119 card a little while back.  Yesterday, a copy of NT1119A sold for $92.  There were four bidders bidding nine times total when it was all finished.  On the strength of that, I changed the price category of this card to “R” in the price guide.  Why not “VR”?  Well…I’d like to see another one go for above the $75 threshold before doing that.  On a side note…the same seller offered a copy of NT1119, and it sold for $33.

DLT B737_PinkAnother interesting recent result has to do with a pair of Japan Airlines cards that celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Disneyland Tokyo Resort.  There are yellow and pink variants of this card…with the pink variant generally getting more than the yellow.  One of the pink cards (shown here) closed on eBay yesterday for $14.  The yellow one usually goes for below $5.  Oh…and keep in mind that there is also another card that features a Boeing 777.  This card shown here is a Boeing 737-800

Checklist Update:

Keep your eye out on the checklist…I am closing in on 1400 records entered and am almost up to NT1000!  If no one else uses it…I certainly do!  It’s rather useful when trying to find a card based on what you know about it (“So, what’s the NT number of that Goofy card again?”).  I hope you find it useful too.

Until next time…

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