United Eastern Swapfest 2019

This years United Eastern Swapfest was fun as always and I managed to bring home some great stuff to add to my collection. A fine time was spent with lots of match covers and plenty of old friends.

I've never seen this bizarre Lucky Lager beaver mascot before and can't find anything online about him. Maybe it's because his acorns are dragging around like bowling balls.

I love these matchbook gags like this. Found as it was on the freebie table, but going in my matchbook art collection.

Lots of butts.

Denis bought this fantastic lil Petro matchbox.

A gorgeous Diamond Quality in one of the albums up for auction.

A gorgeous Federal cover in one of the albums up for auction.

A fantastic Dine & Dance stock image from an older Bell Machine Co. match cover I got.

RAAAMMMMBOOO, the Force of Real Estate.

These group snapshots are always so fun. Great friends, Me, Randy, Rich, Denise, and Bill.

One of my favorite categories is military insignias. 

I really wanted this Public Ledger newspaper cover, but the album sold for a high price at the auction.

You're not gonna find these at the Wal Mart...

I kept this cover for Sugar N Spice because I'm pretty sure those drawings are from the Schlesigner or Fleischer studios, who made the early cartoons.

Denise McKinney and I ready to get serious in the auction.

Over the last few years Bill Calhoun  had put these giant glass pigs full of covers in the auction and even though I wanted one, could never afford the prices they were fetching. This year I got one for $10.

Me, Denise, and Pizza Charlie at Waffle House.

Volkswagen Matchbook Covers

A few of the many Volkswagen matchbook covers I found at the 79th RMS convention in Cleveland.

A fantastic early Volkswagen Jetta matchbook cover from South Africa.

Now go to your Volkswagen van and get your shinebox...A traveling shoeshine parlor in a Volkswagen bus . 

The 79th RMS Convention Continued

Here are some of my favorite cool, ridiculous, and just plain weird matchcovers I found at the 79th RMS Convention:

Who knows what this fictitious Delta Queen sternwheeler has to do with frankfurters, but it's a fantastic and quirky design.

I love the instantly recognizable Brillo soap pads logo on this South African matchcover.

Richard Greene came across these Spitfire Wheels matchcovers. Very cool.

The Royal Order of Jesters was once called the Wheeling Court 13 and is a recreation, sports, or social club based in Triadelphia, WV that was founded in 1941. I'm sure the reasoning behind choosing this atomic farting pinhead primate as the face of their club has been lost to history.

The 79th RMS Convention

The 79th RMS Convention was held in Strongsville, Ohio this year, right outside Cleveland. As is usual, I found lots of great stuff for my collection. Let's start with...

Bimbo's 365 Club is alive and well in San Francisco as a music venue. They still have the original sign, too. 

I don't know who the girls are, we'll call them the Sheraton sisters, but the photographer was Murray Korman, (March 16, 1902 – August 10, 1961) was an American publicity photographer. He made his reputation in New York City as a "Hollywood style high key high gloss glamour"[1] photographer whose clients ranged from showgirls to famous entertainers to members of "cafe society". Unlike other major theatrical portraitists of the time, he created his images in the camera, rather than manipulating them later at the printing stage.[1] During the height of his fame, he was considered "the expert on beauty in his time".

Miriam Battista at approximately age 20, photographed by Murray Korman.

One of my favorite covers, this 606 Club cleverly uses just three colors to create a fantastic design.

The 77th Annual RMS Convention: More Bears

Here's some great bear covers I found at this years 77th Annual RMS Convention in Hagerstown, MD. 

This Polar Paris polar bear cover from The Southern Coal Co. has very little information available online, but it's a great cover nonetheless.

Pola-Wite is still in business - they sell teeth whitening products. This great United Eng. cover had a nice polar bear logo on it.

Grizzly Brake Lining had an amazing (and angry) bear advertising their products.

It bears repeating that it wasn't just Joe Camel peddling his vices to youngsters out there, in the 1950's and 60's you had this very Disneyesque Hamm's Beer bear dancing in the land of sky blue waters advertising beer on TV. As far as cartoon bears go though, I think he's pretty cool; right up there with the dumb Disney bear that picks up trash, the Looney Tunes Junior Bear, and the Icee bear.

An older, Hamm's cover with a more blue beer bear. It's beyond me why a beer or liquor company never made a pink elephant mascot.

Rooty, the Great Root Bear was a Canadian A&W Root Beer stand invention that found his way across the border in the mid 1970's. Some incarnations are closer in appearance to the above mentioned Looney Tunes Junior Bear. As most of us have forgotten or never cared, there later was a Burger Bear Family.

Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park wasn't just a fictitious playground in cartoon-land where raiding picnic baskets was a normal pastime, this is a real place - I'm serious. I was always confused by highway signs advertising this as a kid, but they are real campground / resort areas located across the country. 

Before Hanna-Barbera made him a star, Yogi Bear was a simple New Zealand TV and HiFi repairbear, or so this Allenco matchbook from Auckland, New Zealand would like us to think.