The BIG Big Chuck & Lil’ John Promotional Flying Disc! (Circa-1993)

To make better sense out of this one, you’re gonna have to flash back some six years, gang. Remember when I spotlighted a Big Chuck & Lil’ John mini-flying disc? Of course you don’t! Here, enjoy the link.

Perusing that old update, you’ll see that I had obtained one half of what was ideally, to me anyway, a two-piece promotion. Big Chuck had a big flyin’ disc, Lil’ John had a, erm, lil’ one. I had gotten the lil’ one, but I still needed the big one. Well, a little over six years after that post, the opportunity finally, finally presented itself, and so here we are.

Behold!

Unlike the smaller green disc, the Big Chuck flyer is a full-sized specimen, in attractive and oh-so-early-90s hot pink. I really like the green ‘n pink combo; not only is emblematic, intentionally or otherwise, of the color scheme of 30 (!!!) years ago, but they just seem to ‘go’ together. Just like Big Chuck & Lil’ John! ‘Course, the big pink disc would be much easier to find in the grass than the little green one, but if you’re like me (and I’m sorry if you are), these are keepsakes meant to be cherished, not flung about with reckless abandon. I mean, what if one landed in doody?!

Other than the fact that the main image of this disc is a big ol’ sticker, as opposed to it being printed on the other one (I prefer the latter to the former), I have little else to say about this. I mean, it’s a flying disc (NOT a Frisbee!), it’s pretty self-explanatory! C’mon, you know what it does!

(Side note: the price of this, while not exactly cheap, was still fairly reasonable for a piece of local memorabilia that doesn’t pop up very often. At least not in my experience; I mean, it did take me six years to finally nab it. As such, there was almost no hesitation in my slamming on the “BUY DIS” button when it finally turned up.)

Now, at this very moment, you may be saying to yourself “yo Video Guy, now’s a good time to show both discs together!” Hey, good thinkin’! I agree! That’d be a perfect natural progression to this post! So why am I not doing that right this very instant? Because in the six years that have elapsed since my first venture into this incredibly, incredibly niche territory, that smaller disc got stored away, and while I’ve got a good idea of its general location, the sad fact of the matter is I simply don’t feel like digging through and/or shifting about the other stuff in the vicinity to get to it for a post only eight other people are going to care about. Here, just take this instead…

“Hey Video Guy, that’s just the pic from that first flying disc update!”

Why yes, yes it is! And your point is? Oh okay, fine, sure, a shot of both discs together would be so, so much better, but if nothing else, you’re getting both specimens in a single post, you can see the differences, you can compare and contrast and update your diaries accordingly. So you know what? I say my obligation has been fulfilled; I’ve done my duty. I mean, where else in internet land are you going to get even as much as I’ve given you here today?

“Man, that’s some jive, Video Guy…”

Well… I guess it is kinda jive. Not full jive, perhaps, maybe just half jive, but it could be argued that jive is jive, regardless of portion. So here, let me go you one better…

That, my friends, is Big Chuck & Lil’ John themselves pitching these on their show. Fittingly, Lil’ John is holding the bigger model, Big Chuck the smaller. If nothing else, hopefully that gives you a better idea of the size differences between the two discs.

You may have noticed, both in that earlier post and this one here, that I opted for a “Circa-1993” in the title. That’s because I have no idea when these discs were introduced or for how long they were produced. The screencaps above are from 1993, so needless to say, I know for sure they were around then. Logopedia helps narrow things down a bit; that WJW logo wasn’t used beyond 1994. But, that’s not to say these weren’t still manufactured afterwards – channel 8 went from a CBS affiliate to a Fox one, but it’s not like the call letters changed.

So, how would one go about getting these back in the day? Well, they were giveaways for the studio audience at the show; that’s what you’re seeing above. But that’s not to say you couldn’t get them elsewhere. I’d think it’s a safe guess you could buy these at Big Chuck & Lil’ John personal appearances. Or maybe not; I dunno. Maybe these two discs are the exact ones you’re seeing in the screenshots above, who knows. (I highly, highly doubt that, of course, but it sure would be neato if they were!)

At any rate, it’s nice to finally check this one off the mental want list. I’m a sucker for pretty much any memorabilia pertaining to these guys, but as far the flying discs go, well, like Chuck and John themselves, they just belong together. Maybe if I didn’t have so much junk many fine collectibles laying around, the discs would be stored together right this very moment, as they should be. Perhaps one day I’ll be feeling productive, or at least brave, enough to make that happen…

Vintage WMCC-TV 23 / Marsh Supermarkets Humphrey Flyer (Circa-1987)

Boy, my thrift stores haven’t been very good lately. I mean, they’ve been okay, I almost always find SOMETHING I don’t need to bring home. But by and large, they’ve been underwhelming. On the surface that may not seem too unusual; you’re (probably) not gonna have mega winner mega winner mega winner finds 100% of the time. But, I’ve got a good number of usual haunts, and for really the last two months or so, there’s been precious few “oh man!” scores on my part. I don’t really think it’s an issue of other people getting to the “good stuff” before me, either; I generally keep a sneaky eye out, just to see if I missed a good’un that now regrettably resides in someone else’s cart, but nope, nothing like that. Not that I’ve seen. I just don’t think there’s much “good stuff” currently rolling in around here in general.

Of course, what I consider to be “good stuff” often differs considerably from what others might care about, which works out for me on a number of levels. Oh, and while on the subject, few things instantly irritate me more than a stranger coming up to me at one of these places while I’m browsing music and asking me “find anything good?” or some variation of that. Listen you busta, there’s no consensus as to what constitutes ‘good’ music (or movies, or television, or any other form of art) because it’s all entirely subjective, and as such my tastes may well vary from yours. Thus, it’s pointless to ask such a question, because I can’t give you a definitive answer one way or the other. Plus, I don’t know you and we’re not going to be friends, so you can just go take a powder until I’m done here.

ANYWAY, I don’t mean to give the impression I haven’t had any genuinely good finds in recent months, because I have. I’ve added plenty of things to my various collections (wow, that sounds weirder than I mean it to), and what may have lacked in “YES!” qualities (though there certainly HAS been a couple of those) has more than been made up for in overall quantity. Of course, this hasn’t really paid off where you’re concerned, dear reader, because you haven’t gotten any blog updates out of it. It’s true; some of what I’ve found isn’t well suited to posts here, and what technically is well suited to an update, I just haven’t felt like writing about, either because the subject matter doesn’t get me sufficiently amped up enough or because I don’t feel like dealing with the inevitable “can I has dis” questions a post would be sure to elicit.

All that said, while it’s too early to say whether the (relative) thriftin’ drought has ended or not, the fact remains that I did get a legitimate respite yesterday, which means you get a legitimate update today. Yep, a neat piece of vintage broadcasting-related material randomly crossed my path, and it was one of those things that I knew immediately was coming home with me. Indeed, I dare say this has the “YES!” qualities I so desire, though others may not get the hype. (Which goes back to what I said a bit ago:  what I consider to be “good stuff,” someone else’s eyes may glaze over at.)

Dig this: It’s an old Humphrey Flyer, that’s to say flying disc (NOT a Frisbee; those are from Wham-O), emblazoned with not only the logo of the now-gone Marsh Supermarket chain, but also, and this is what put things over the top for me, the then-independent WMCC-TV 23. I haven’t gotten to say this in awhile: cool winnins!

Humphrey made a ton of promotional flying discs like this – and they might still, for all I know. (How do I know this is a Humphrey Flyer? because it, uh, says “Humphrey Flyer” on the underside, around the edge, in molded plastic. No, I’m not taking a separate picture of it, you’re just gonna have to trust me here.)

All two of my astute readers (are you one of ’em?) may note that the title of this blog is the *NORTHEAST OHIO* Video Hunter, and as such may exhibit some confusion over both the Marsh Supermarket chain name as well as a television station with the call sign of WMCC. That’s okay though, because before yesterday, I was in the exact same boat.

That’s because neither of those things hail from Northeast Ohio. In fact, this flyin’ disc pretty definitively comes from Indianapolis, Indiana or somewhere relatively close by. Marsh Supermarkets (which gave up the ghost in 2017) were headquartered there and had locations not only in that state, but also in Western Ohio – which ain’t never been mah stompin’ grounds. “So how do YOU know this didn’t come from Western Ohio,” I can just see being smugly sent to my pending comments folder now. Hey, the more innocuous of a statement I make, the more snotty of a reply I receive, or so Facebook has taught me. (I thought my merely hoping the Frasier reboot would somehow air on network TV wouldn’t raise anyone’s dander; I was wrong.)

I know, or at least can confidently conclude, that this thing comes from in or around Indy because, well, that’s where WMCC was based. And while I’d never say some locations in Ohio couldn’t pick the station up, either through overlap, cable coverage or just big ol’ antennas, I’d still find it hard to believe that an indubitably independent Indianapolis, Indiana (alliteration) television station would be pitched outside of its specific market in such a manner. That’s the basis for my deductive reasoning, imaginary smarty pants. (Disregard the preceding sentence if I turn out to be wrong though THANKS.)

WMCC is now WNDY-TV, the MyNetworkTV outlet for the area, but starting in the 1980s and up until 1995, it was the independent WMCC-TV 23. (’95 saw both the change to the call sign and the switch to a WB affiliate; look at that Wiki link if you don’t believe me.) So from what year(s) does this flying disc hail? Obviously it’s from 1995 or before, but there’s some question on my part as to how early it can go. Wikipedia says WMCC was founded in 1984 but didn’t go on the air until 1987, whereas this page at Logopedia shows a logo similar to the one seen on this disc here and gives it the timeline of 1984-1988. Someone’s playing mind games with me, and I don’t know who it is. At any rate, I feel little need to modify the “Circa-1987” of the header above. That’s about as safe as I can play it here.

I imagine this was originally given away at Marsh Supermarkets (“gee, what a guess!”), but as to whether it was a freebie because WMCC had just gone on the air, the Marsh location was a new one, or some other factor, I couldn’t say.

Another, far less pressing, question: how did this flying disc ultimately end up in my neck of the woods here in Northeast Ohio? Hey, people move, people go on vacation, people send gifts. Plus, Indianapolis isn’t that far away from here. I’ve been there and back all in the space of several hours, with plenty of time to chill afterwards upon returning home. Out-of-state stuff shows up with some frequency, and while I generally prefer things that were/are local to me, I won’t ever turn down a piece of local television memorabilia like this, no matter where it’s from. Besides, even if it isn’t from Northeast Ohio, I tend to have a particular affinity for the Midwest as a whole.

And really, from Indiana or Ohio or elsewhere, this is the kind of thing I love to add to my collection. That red-on-white color scheme, those logos and fonts, they just totally recall a bygone era in TV and promo memorabilia and what have you. The fact Marsh Supermarkets are no longer around and WMCC is, uh, no longer WMCC only fuels that feeling. This thing is just plain cool to look at. As per the disc face, Marsh’s slogan back then was “We Value You.” Well old WMCC/Marsh/Humphrey Flyer thing, I value YOU. So much so that that the idea of going outside and throwing this disc around as originally intended is pretty much unthinkable. This ain’t no plaything, not anymore; this is a treasured keepsake, man!

(Coming to that conclusion, is that a good enough way to end this update? Here, take a FINI for good measure.)

Big Chuck & Lil’ John Promotional Flying Disc (Circa-1993)

Look chief, when I said back in February that I wanted to spotlight more Cleveland television memorabilia, I wasn’t lying. I certainly like seeing original broadcasts, or obtaining promotional photos, or finding vintage print ads, but here’s my hidden secret: one of my great passions in this hobby is collecting the, as I have deemed it, “solid memorabilia.” That is, mugs and glassware, pins, shirts, hats, or anything randomly emblazoned with the names/stations/logos of Northeast Ohio broadcasting. For whatever reason, I place these types of items in a different mental category than I do paper ware and video tape. So there.

Today’s subject fits my weird “solid memorabilia” ideal and new decree that I spotlight such on my stupid dumb blog to a tee, because this, this is legit. Dig this: it’s a vintage (from somewhere in the early-1990s) promotional flying disc for WJW TV-8’s The Big Chuck & Lil’ John Show. Yep, the iconic late night horror hosts/comedy duo of everlasting Northeast Ohio fame had their own promotional toy. Neato! As you can see, it features their classic caricatures and the old school WJW logo, all printed on a flashy green disc. Rest assured, this is exactly the kind of memorabilia I’m always on the lookout for!

I’m not totally positive on when it’s from, mainly because I don’t know how long they were pitching these. They were definitely pushing them in 1993, and thus that’s the “circa” date I’m going with, but I’m unaware of when they were first produced for sure, nor do I know when they stopped making them. So yeah, circa-1993.

I’m also not completely sure as to how the common dude-on-da-street could obtain these. I’d imagine they were sold regularly, probably at personal appearances and maybe at stores around town, but don’t quote me on any of that; it’s merely a guess on my part. I do know that they were given out as prizes for correct trivia answers on their show. That is, to studio audience members lucky enough to be called on and lucky enough to have a satisfactory answer to a given question, not to mention lucky enough to be in attendance at a show taping in the first place. If these flying discs were uniquely given out as show prizes, well, that’s just plain cool, and not something easily obtainable, either then or now, I’d assume.

Also, it’s important to note that it’s not a “Frisbee,” but a “flying disc.” Y’see, “Frisbee” is a Wham-O product and a trademarked name, but like “Band-Aid,” it’s often used to describe all similar products. But no, this is technically speaking a “flying disc.”

There were actually two of these discs out at the same time: a large (standard-size) disc, pink in color, and a smaller green one. The smaller variant is what you’re seeing above; I haven’t picked up the big one yet, mainly because I’m at the mercy of what comes up for sale and enters my line of vision. Plus, you know, there’s that whole scraping-together-enough-money thing, too.

The reason for the two different sizes? Well, obviously the big one signified Big Chuck, and the small one signified Lil’ John! That’s actually a pretty great gimmick, one that fits the duo perfectly.

So, not a long post, but then, there’s only so much I can say about a 25 (?) year old flying disc. Oh, and happy St. Patrick’s Day, by the way; the disc is green, so it works here, right?