Sign Painting and Neon Sign Matchcovers

Purchased in a lot from Cary Vantol, I was thrilled to find these nine sign painting and neon sign design matchcovers. As a graphic designer I have been interested in sign painting and neon signs for quite some time.

First up is a very nice cover from General Displays Studios. They were the designers and makers of window backgrounds (picture the glass of a Chevrolet dealership around the Fourth of July), industrial exhibits, booths, floats and silk screens. 

Signs, Roy & Virg Harris, the second cover from the right is very interesting as they advertise sho-card lettering (think old county fair or carnival posters).

Finding matchcovers for neon sign companies was something I didn't think would happen, but I have found a few. I've always been fascinated by neon signs and the beauty of the bunch is definitely the one for Pacific Neon Sign Co. in blue and yellow. It's interesting that these companies that essentially sold design for a living didn't have more creative matchcovers.

I assume this cover for the Pacific Outdoor Advertising Co. is a division of the Pacific Neon Sign Co., but nonetheless it is an interesting cover for a company that did large scale outdoor signage and billboards.

Comic Book Matchcovers

I was lucky enough to find both of these covers on a grab table at Keystone on Friday morning. 

Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle were both comic books by Paul Terry, whose company Terry-Toons also made cartoons. This cover must date between 1942 and 1952 as "Terry-Toons" comics were only produced by that name during that time. Later versions made in the 1960's were known as the "New Terry-Toons".

The second cover is for Archie comics and as it says on the matchcover, everybody loves Archie.

These covers for various Harvey Comics titles were also from the same grab table at Keystone last week. I had two of these in my collection and was surprised to find three new ones to add to them.The funny thing about these covers is that no matter how many times I run into the two most common covers (Babe Ruth Sports and First Love) I have never once seen either in decent or unstruck condition. I imagine these types of magazine and comic book matchbooks must have been given away at newstands.

From left to right: 

Black Cat

Babe Ruth Sports and Sad Sack

Joe Palooka, Little Max and Humphrey

First Love, First Romance and Love Problems & Advice

Fun Parade and Buddies

Rev. Christopher Sullivan. O.M.C. and the Trailer Chapel

I purchased this late 1930's Merchants Industries cover from Marc Eddleman at Keystone last week and he noted how neat it was to find a matchcover for a camper. I put it in my stack and went on searching through his dealer table. It's not til a few days ago I notice that this cover doesn't advertise a camper dealer or a brand of campers; instead it's a cover for Rev. Christopher Sullivan, O.M.C.'s trailer chapel. Part of the Franciscan Missionary Crusade to China, Rev. Sullivan traveled over 12,000 miles across China with it. I was able to dig up a little bit of history regarding Rev. Sullivan and his trailer chapel:

From The Guardian, December 4, 1937:

From the Post-Crescent, June 24, 1938: 

The Rev. Christopher Sullivan. O.M.C., Franciscan missionary to China, who is pastor, physician, mechanic and electrician for the trailer chapel, appears at the left, while Father Meagher is shown at the right. The trailer opens at the side to reveal the fully equipped altar while the steps which are let down from the side of the trailer form the altar steps. 

From The Guardian, March 7, 1941:

Trailers

A few more covers I purchased at the Keystone-Lehigh Swapfest last week. These all have trailers in common. The first two are botgh covers for dealers selling pop-up campers. I love the design of the early ones as seen in the silouette of the first one. The third one on the right is interesting in that company sold cushions and mattresses for campers.

I've never heard of Campostella trailers and there's nothing to be found about them on a quick scan through the internet, but these  trailers look pretty nice. The cover bills them as "house trailers" and I take that to mean they were more like mobile homes than camping trailors. Interesting nonetheless.

Typewriters on Matchcovers

Two interesting typewriter covers I found at the Keystone-Lehigh Swapfest last week. You can tell that the one on the left advertising Royal typewriters is much older, but they both appear to be from an era before electric typewriters were made.

Calculators

A couple of interesting calculator matchcovers I acquired at the Keystone-Lehigh Swapfest last week. It's pretty amazing how far technology has evolved after looking at these.

Religious Matchcovers

Occasionally I find matchcovers regarding religion. They're very interesting and you don't see too many of them.

Strike at the Seat of Trouble on eBay

We've all seen the famous Hitler spot striker matchcover where you can strike at the seat of trouble by striking a match on the seat of Hitler's pants, but this lot of them, including the original box came up on eBay recently. There's ten full books, features I might add, and the seller is asking $1500 for. That's $150 a piece by my math. According to the box itself, it was shipped with only ten full books (10 match packs, 150 laughs).

The two things I find interesting in this auction is 1) The box they were shipped in is included, which I have never seen and 2) These matchbooks were features, each match bearing the image of a bomb.

I have this cover in my WW II patriotics collection, but never realized that it was a feature.

Train Lines

A few more interesting covers I purchased at the RMS convention this year, this time with a focus on trains.These were not dime covers, but I believe I got a pretty fair price from Clem Pater on a large group I purchased from him.Thanks Clem!

Up first is an older, unstruck cover for the GM&N line train "The Rebel"

I didn't realize when I bought these that the cover for the Seaboard Railway featured a patriotic theme on one side. I wasn't paying attention when I bought them so just last night I noticed that the Iron Horse has grown arms and is giving Hitler, Hirohito, and Mussolini the old one, two punch. Great stuff.

Detail of the Seaboard Railway patriotic cover.

The Southern Belle, the "Sweetheart of American Trains" 

Detail from the Southern Belle.

A beautiful, unstruck cover for the Southern Pacific Lines, advertising their meal services.

Another nice GM&O cover advertising the streamlined Rebel train and the Rebel Route.

Hollywood's Mocambo Night Club

The Mocambo night club in Hollywood was a white's only club that sat on Sunset Boulevard and was as famous for it's clientele as it was for what went on inside. Errol Flynn famously punched Hollywood gossip reporter Jimmie Fidler after Fidler's wife stabbed Flynn with a fork. 

As I said it was a white's only club- that is until in the 1950's when Marilyn Monroe stepped in. In return for allowing Ella Fitzgerald to perform there, Monroe promised the club manager she'd sit front row every night for the first week. And she did. Read about it here: http://www.kplu.org/post/how-marilyn-monroe-changed-ella-fitzgeralds-life 

You just can't make this stuff up.

Here's a 1940's Lion Match cover from the Mocambo club. It was in a box of free stuff I donate to the club. I noticed the writing on the back and although a lot of covers were dated by collectors and souvenir hunters alike, but this seemed strange. There's a date and three different peoples handwriting on it. No, wait...those are autographs.

A little research goes a long way and after about 15 minutes of scouring google, I find out who the autographs belong to.

The top one is Bob Fesler, a future Seattle Rainer's pitching phenomenon whose warm up pitches were described as "rifle bullets" by The Times newspaper. He would have been 17 or possibly 18 at the time, according to the date on the cover, but he, along with his father were sports stars and very well known.

"Fesler became known as the ‘King of the Softball Pitchers,’” Duncan wrote. “Although the moniker wasn’t terribly creative, Fesler was something special. He not only had the fastest fastball, but he had six varieties of curve ball. He made opposing batters in his leagues look foolish at the plate."

For more info on Bob Fesler: http://sportspressnw.com/2129696/2012/wayback-machine-the-bob-fesler-experiment

The other autograph belongs to a then 25 year old Hollywood starlet named Geneva Gray. Gray has performed in movies such as "Gun Talk", released in 1947, in which she portrayed June Forbes, "Angels' Alley" (1948), and "Joe Palooka in Fighting Mad" (1948).

More, but not much, on Geneva Gray here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0336647/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

I like to think that Bob Fesler walked into the Mocambo with the very attractive Geneva Gray on his arm, someone saw them and had them autograph this matchbook, but it most likely didn't happen that way. 

One more thing: Why are the autographs so small and written across the short end and not lengthwise? My guess is that there were still matches in it when it was signed.

July 15, 1947 was a Tuesday and almost exactly 66 years ago today.

Military Covers

Military covers are some collectors specialties, so I won't pretend to know more than I do about them. I'm a casual collector of them and these few are interesting.

Even SNAFU knows VD can be prevented.SNAFU was a character created by Warner Bros. Leon Schlesinger's animation studio for a series of black and white "instructional" cartoon shorts during World War II. Not many people know this, but Walt Disney almost got the bid to create SNAFU for the US Military, but was underbid by Schlesinger's animation studio.

For a personal remembrance of these SNAFU VD covers, head over to: http://www.89infdivww2.org/memories/stearnssouvenirs2.htm

SEABEES cover from the Naval Construction Center located at Camp Endicott in Davisville, RI.

An unstruck U.S. Marines cover.

Department Stores

Someone once commented that they thought I had one of the nicest collection of chain department store matchcovers they'd seen. Before Wal-Mart drove out all the smaller department and discount stores, there were more stores than you could visit in a day in a given major metropolitan area. I liked going to them as a kid and enjoyed the fact that each was different in terms of design and layout. 

Heck's, Ames, Jamesway, Zayre, Kmart, Murphy's, Wards, Sears, Bradlees, Harts, Hills, Rinks and the list goes on. I collect only the ones I remember and leave the other ones out there for like minded collectors.

An older Montgomery Ward matchcover. I have quite a few in my collection, each one a different color scheme.

An earlier Sears matchcover that is particular to the Buffalo, New York store. I have not seen many of these, but I imagine they were stock designs and stores could have their city's name imprinted into the "XXXXXXX'S COMPLETE DEPARTMENT STORE" area.

An early 1960's Sears cover. I particularly like the design and colors of this one. Of interest is that SATISFACTION GUARANTEED OR YOUR MONEY BACK is visually larger than the actual Sears logo (which has changed since the previous cover, above).

Chevrolet's of the Late 1950's

One of the most iconic cars of the 1950's, the 1957 Chevrolet. Believe it or not, the 1957 Chevy came in 19 different varieties. Check it out, here: http://www.classicdreammachines.ca/1957-chevy-model-production.html

The next year's model of Chevy had a drastic change in aesthetics: The 1958 Chevrolet.

This cover from Willow Springs, Missouri advertises the general line of Chevrolet trucks for 1961.

Radio Station Matchcovers

WILM 145 AM broadcasting from Wilmington, Delaware.

Dubuque's Favorite Station, WKBB 1490 AM broadcasting from Dubuque, Iowa. 

WMFJ 1450 AM broadcasting from Daytona Beach, Florida. What a great older, 7-11 cover, too.

WMGM 1050 AM broadcasting from New York City with Ted Brown and that crazy Redhead.

 WMTR 1250 AM broadcasting from Morristown, New Jersey.

WPEN 950 AM broadcasting from Philadelphia, PA. Fantastic graphics on this one.

WPEN 950 AM broadcasting again from Philadelphia, PA.

WITH 1230 AM and 104.3 FM broadcasting (possibly) from Massachusetts.

WGBS 71 AM broadcasting from sunny Miami, Florida. There is no 71 on the AM dial, but radio stations began dropping the zero after some time, my guess being when the design of radios changed. Interesting there's also an ad for vending machines on this cover.