The 2015 United Eastern Swapfest

The 2015 United Eastern Swapfest was held June 3 through June 6 in Hagerstown, Md. It's always one of my favorite conventions and everyone seems to have a good time there. A huge plus is the ultra clean and well run Roy Rogers across the street from the Ramada Plaza hotel. Matchbooks and Roy's roast beef go well together.

Bob the bird lives in the lobby of the Ramada Plaza. Say hi to him!

On to the matchcovers; here's a few I found at UES I thought were interesting.

Doepke / Model Toys was an Ohio company that produced toys manufactured in the USA. Mostly tin and steel toys; there's a good bit of info out there about them.

The Belle Vue French Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge in Santa Monica was featured in episode #224 of Perry Mason The Case of the Blonde Bonanza. 

Hot Dogs

At first I thought this was a much older 900 number phone sex matchbook, but it's not; instead it's an ad for Alemite gear lubricants.

There's a few Boy Scouts of America related matchcovers out there, mostly for events like this one, the National Scout Jamboree from 1977. These jamborees are huge, with thousands of scouts participating.

Camp Rockaway, the day camp for that million dollar boy of yours, and Camp Lawrence, for that daughter you got. What's her name again? It looks like that million dollar boy of yours has jumped off the high dive and into solid cement.

"Howard, the rug's talking to me again."

A really nice design on this flat for Chesapeake Carpet Cleaning.

Get the Chili Bowl habit at California's Chili Bowl restaurant. There's a few people that would say (and I can hear them now) "So what? It's a common cover, I have ten of them. Unstruck" Well, I don't care, I've always liked this cover and only had a bobtailed one, so I'm thrilled to add this struck cover to my collection. Great graphics and bold colors make this one really nice looking.

This very nice, full length, unstruck Evinrude outboard motor cover is really fantastic. This fine young man in white knit pants is lighting up a Pall Mall and taking his trophy wife for a little spin around the lake. I love the design and I think it's really a genius one. I'm sure that every man that lit up a smoke with these specific matchbooks saw himself one day as the guy on this cover.

Probably part of a larger set, but I'm happy just to have the Howard Cosell cover.

Clem Pater was selling a collection of covers which included an entire box of ten strikes. I bought close to 200 really nice ones.

Encore Root Beer Extract and Pilsner Brand Malt Syrup are advertised on this older Lion Match cover.

I never cared much for Jewelites until this year. All of these were found on the freebie tables.

Matchcovers for Campbell and Red Devil fireworks companies.

Bill Calhoun's shirt has something in common with the cover below:

Foys Dri-Fast Enamel Paint. A gorgeous, understated design makes this cover stand out to me.

Leo's for fine clothes, a Richmond tradition. Well, maybe not for some time, but it's a great design and I'm guessing it used to be where Pants Plus is today (see below). 

It's rare that you come across a Bit O Honey cover you haven't seen a thousand times before, but it looks like I did.

Yes I know, it's very cool. A really neat Canadian, Eddy Match cover for Ritz Crackers. 

I love people that tell you covers like this one are in fact very common. A very cool Toblerone cover I was thrilled to find.

Talawanda Springs Mineral Spring Water was bottled in Cincinatti, Ohio. There's not a of of info out there about this company, but I was able to find an image of their closed and abandoned bottling facility, below. Like a lot of cities around the country, Cincinatti had their own brand of local soft drinks and beer.

Talawanda Springs bottling facility.

A nicely designed cover for a really utilitarian product; wire and metal banding or Wissco Wire by Wickwire Spencer. For those that really look at their covers, ductility is a solid material's ability to deform under tensile stress, often characterized by the material's ability to be stretched into a wire.

Who hasn't needed a reconditioned engine or wanted their motor rebuilt? Watson Motor Rebuilders can do this for you.

A great looking cover for the San Francisco Zoo, that must have cost a fortune to print.

This was a pretty cool gimmick, make the matchbook fold to look like the product you're selling, in this case a Sunbeam Shavemaster.

At a few dollars a piece, these gorgeous Lion Match Contours were well worth it.

Thomas Hearns was a huge name in boxing when I was a kid in the 1980's.

My favorite cover I found at UES; Cats Meow cat food and Top Dog dog food.

United Eastern Swapfest 2013

The United Eastern Swapfest or UES was held again in Hagerstown, Md last week and was a huge success. It was nice for everyone to get to see each other and spend some time at the biggest matchcover event on the east coast. I think everyone went home with some nice covers.

I purchased a few larger auction lots for the MARVA club and will have that material out on the tables at our next meeting. I hope you will enjoy it.

Now, on to some of my favorite items found at the convention:

Cary Vantol had several hand made boxes of gorgeous miscellaneous material available for a dime each. Above are two fantastic examples of Cary's ten cent covers.

The Cocoanut Grove cover on the left is somewhat common and I've seen them on the freebie tables at several conventions. However, the Cocoanut Grove cover on the right is from the Boston Cocoanut Grove, site of the deadliest nightclub fire in history, killing 492 people on the evening of November 28, 1942. More info can be found on the club and the deadly fire that occurred there, here: http://www.cocoanutgrovefire.org

A cover for the Cotton Club at their second location, from 1936 to 1940.

"The venue on Lenox Avenue was first opened in 1920 as the Club Deluxe, under the ownership of the former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson. Owney Madden took it over and in 1922 changed its name to the Cotton Club; the club's manager in the early 1920s was Don Healy and the stage manager was Herman Stark. After race riots in Harlem in 1935, the area was considered unsafe for Whites (who formed the Cotton Club's clientele and the club was forced to close (16 February 1936). It reopened in September 1936 downtown on West 48th Street, in premises that had formerly housed the Palais Royal and Connie's Inn (1933-6); the Cotton Club continued to operate at this location until June 1940." 

From http://www.pbs.org/jazz/places/spaces_cotton_club.htm

I like dog food covers and was lucky enough to find the Silver King Dog and Cat Food cover on a freebie table. The very interesting Buckeye Dog Food cover was given to me by our own Janet Stout. Thanks, Janet!

Many a man was in the doghouse with his wife after staying out too late here, at The Dog House cocktail lounge. Great graphics and a fantastic cover.

The cover for Grandview Aquarium & Hobby is interesting in that not only is it a hobby shop and aquarium store, but that it's upside down, the info and address is on the back of the folded matchbook. One cool thing about this cover is that the fish on the cover are embossed.

Another one of Cary Vantol's awesome dime covers and one of my favorites. This one is for the GVD Elevator Cars company. They manufactured wooden elevator cars. Neat!

Jade Pagoda oil incense. 

I've seen the Kitty Davis cover on the right before, but this was the first time seeing the one on the left. Kitty Davis has a long and very interesting history in Chicago as well as Florida.

Another nice cover out of Cary Vantol's dime boxes, this one for Lookout Bathing Beach in Long Beach Long Island, NY. I'm not sure if the illustration is a stock design or not, but this is the first cover I've seen with it. Looks like swing dancing to me.

My absolute favorite cover from this year's UES, Monkey Island. No bars, no cages, no danger, just 1000 monkeys running loose...in Hollywood, CA. The scan doesn't do this cover justice as it is much brighter in person. The Miami Rare Bird Farm is in the top ten as well.

The ten cent Pep Boys cover that had people talking. It's one of the longer Lion Match covers, from the 1930's just as a guess. Of note is that it says The Pep Boys instead of just Pep Boys. I have not been able to find any other information about it.

This was an old gag people used to do with Pep Boys matchbooks.

How many times have we all seen the Playland cover on the right? A million times, right? Well take a look at it's gorgeous predecessor on the left. Silver ink and an eye catching palette make this one a winner.

Those that know me know I love product matchcovers, and potato chip covers are quickly becoming one of my favorites. With more collections being thinned down, I'm finding more and more of these gems on the freebie tables.Of interest is that at one point local potato chip manufacturers were as common as local beer and soda makers in this country.

This Lion Match for Albert Pick cover advertising the Rancho Pillow motel in Sandusky, Ohio is just too funny not to share. The guy riding the pillow to la-la land is priceless. Rancho Pillow was also a song by the Andrews Sisters as well as Gene Autry and Harry James. 

Two more covers from Cary Vantol's amazing dime box of misc covers. The Tempter lunch buffet and sandwich shop is pretty interesting with a devil's trident spearing a sandwich. The El Tivoli supper club cover is a little more subtle in their approach.

The Robin Hood Restaurant and Bar in Washington, DC.

Two simple, but nice show lounge covers. A show lounge could have many different types of shows, from dancing girls to vaudeville acts to striptease acts. It's a fun category to collect and they are out there on the freebie tables if you look.

A sign of the times: A now politically incorrect depiction of an African-American woman such as on the back of the Vanity Show Lounge cover was commonplace during this era.

A couple of nice movie theatre covers found in an album I purchased at one of the UES auctions. Of interest is the second cover that mentions Bank Nite:

Bank Night was run as a franchise which was leased to theaters for from $5 to $50 a week, depending on their size. The payment entitled the owner to run an event called Bank Night, and each owner was given a film reel with a Bank Night trailer, as well as a registration book and equipment to draw numbers to pick winners. Anyone could enter their name in a book kept by the theater manager, and on Bank Night, a name would be drawn at random. The person selected must reach the stage within a set amount of time to claim their prize, usually a few minutes (they would not be required to purchase a ticket to enter the theater). While not technically requiring any purchase, and thus circumventing the numerous local lottery laws of the time, Bank Night had the effect of drawing people to theaters, many of whom bought tickets anyway. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_Night

On the left is a 1933 World's Fair cover from Chicago, a little rough, but still nice at 80 years old. On the right is a New York 1939 World's Fair cover, still looking good at 74 years old. The World's Fair covers were purchased as part of an album at one of the UES auctions. See what you missed? As Marc Edelman says, "You won't find these at the Wal-Mart."

Zamboanga, The Showplace Of California. 

An interior shot of the Jungle Room Bar at the Zamboanga. Much more info and photos, menus and pother stuff here: http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=30076&forum=2

The Chuck Wagon drive-in restaurant outside of Wilmington was apparently in the shape of a conestoga or chuck wagon. A pretty neat sight.

Two more nice older covers found at UES.

The 1938 Foundation for Infantile Paralysis cover features a nice winged lady. Anyone know if this is a listed girlie?

The Nikabob restaurant cover has an interesting design.

Paul Streeter's Stratosphere Club in Chicago. There's not much info to be found about his Chicago club. A great cover for what must have been an exciting place to be and be seen.

Another Chicago cover for the Hotel Sherman, but what I find more interesting is the side advertising The Dome theatre and restaurant.

Hamburger covers are fantastic and these two are no exception. Lynwood, California's The Clock Broiler mascot, Chubby The Champ looks like he could easily win in a battle against Barstow, California's Bun Boy. Notice that The Clock Broiler has a copyright date of 1941.However, Bun Boy is on Route 66...

A vintage menu from The Clock Broiler. Not that you need another hobby, but http://www.restaurantwarecollectors.com/forums/showwiki.php?title=Clock+Broiler has some pretty amazing old restaurant material on their website.