Vintage CREATURE FEATURES Television Slide (But Where Did it Come From?!)

Look gang, I don’t want this to turn into the “old advertising slide” blog, but I’ve got another, and with the fact that it’s just unrelentingly cool, we’re gonna take another trip to the well. Hey, it’s my blog and I’ll do what I want.

Of course, in recent months we’ve seen an old Batman television slide, and then a theatrical slide for Ken Maynard’s Lucky Larkin. We’re heading back to the television slide side of things now, but with fall coming upon us fast, and with subject matter that fits solidly with the season, the time is right. The time would be righter if I held off until October, but I ain’t wanna.

Dig this: it’s a slide for some iteration of Creature Features! You know, horror and sci-fi movies! Cool winnins! Presumably from somewhere in the 1970s, when I saw this for sale online, along with two other similarly-vintage slides, and for really, really cheap, I just couldn’t hit “purchase, mang” fast enough. When I first went trolling for old TV slides some time back, this was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. I came up empty then, but as the hep cats say, persistence pays off. (Wait, do they say that?) Ironically, I wasn’t even specifically looking for it, I was just killing time on my phone before bed one night; rarely has my goofing off been so fortuitous.

The attractive red-and-blue color scheme, never mind the groovy font (it’s far out, man), points to something that looks definitively 70s to me, but that’s just my gut talking; I suppose it could also hail from the late-60s or even the early-80s. While I wouldn’t rule out the idea of this still slide being used for actual promos, I’m operating under the assumption its purpose was as a commercial-break bumper.

I wish there was some further identifying info contained in the slide; a station ID or a host name or somethin’ would sure be nice. The seller it came from was in the Gilroy, CA area, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the slide itself originally hails from there. And the name Creature Features, that doesn’t help narrow things down at all. That was just a generic, albeit catchy, title used all across the U.S. for decades. Some iterations were horror hosted, some weren’t, but the one thing they (probably) all had in common: stoking the imaginations and fanning the flames of monster fandom for untold numbers of kids. Not that that sort of thing doesn’t happen anymore, it does, but there was just something special about specifically tuning into the same channel each week for new old creepy content. Late Friday or Saturday nights or Saturday afternoons, those were generally the times you could find this stuff. If you’re like me, boy, the kinds of images and memories this slide evokes are just fantastic, even if you really weren’t there to experience them ‘for real’.

But no, I don’t know when or where this originally came from, and for all I know, some company could have printed these slides up and distributed them all across the country; it may not even be unique to one area. ‘Course, I did consider that this may not be related to a horror/sci-fi movie program at all; it seems unlikely, given the ostensible age of the object, but there is the possibility that it could be related to something *shudder* educational. That possibility fills me with a dread far more tangible than any shlocky movie. Well, okay, I’d take a nature documentary over a Paul Naschy flick, but that’s not saying much.

Ignoring that disturbing notion, I like this thing a whole bunch, and I’d sure like to know more about it. Given the age it hails from (read: most likely pre-home video) and the ubiquity of the title, I wouldn’t even know where to start researching – plus, that logo seen in the slide may not have even been in opening titles or print advertising; there’s the possibility it was strictly a bumper, and as such, tracking it down becomes even harder. SO, all that said, if it rings a bell to you, be a buddy and hit up the comments section!

Signed Santa Ghoul Artwork (Christmas 2001)

I told you, I done told you, I was gonna attempt to get one more post up related to Santa Ghoul aka The Ghoul before Christmas 2022 was in the books, and here it is. It’s a Christmas miracle!

Like I mentioned last update, the vintage Santa Ghoul button was and is amazingly cool; that’ll always hold true, of course. BUT, where Santa Ghoul is concerned, perhaps amazingly, it’s not even the coolest. So what is the coolest? What we’re going to look at today, that’s what!

Some backstory: I’ve talked about local horror host legend The Ghoul (played by Ron Sweed) and his late-90s/early-2000s run on WBNX TV-55 before. I won’t go into another mega-detailed account now, so the short of it is this: for the first 2 years (plus a couple months) of that final regular TV run of his, The Ghoul was a Friday night 11:30 PM staple, generally playing the terrible horror & sci-fi movies with goofy sound effects that fans craved. But in late September 2000, the station moved him from that ideal time slot to Sunday night (technically Monday mornings) at 12 AM. This situation was not preferable for obvious reasons. To add further insult to injury, the movie choices were fiddled with; maybe 75% of the time, the film featured was whatever was picked up in a package and on the schedule, regardless of genre and without the sound effects/drops-ins. There were exceptions, but that’s exactly what they were: exceptions. The old way was no longer the order of the day. Needless to say, I was gutted.

Well, just slightly over a year after that, the show was pushed back an hour further, to 1 AM. This didn’t exactly remedy the situation, though the circumstances of who could or couldn’t regularly tune in probably didn’t change much for 99% of the viewing audience. (Rough guesstimate.)

The 1 AM thing did lead to an interesting aspect of that WBNX run though: The Breakfast Club. The movie situation changed little, but by filming on a different set and taking the form of “Cleveland’s earliest morning show” (or something along those lines), The Ghoul would often be joined by crew members during the host segments (you know, a club) at and around a breakfast table, and with parodic looks at traffic, breakfast, etc. It was meant to be like an actual morning chat-type show… but the Ghoul Power way. The experiment sort of faded away and things went back to normal (such as they were) after about 6 months, but like I said, it was an interesting aspect of that WBNX run. And that’s where our subject today originally found itself.

December 3, 2001: despite the changes to our Ghoul Power, The Ghoul still did the Santa Ghoul thing and went all out for the season as best he could. The movie that night? 1986’s The Nutcracker: The Motion Picture, a filmed version of the ballet hosted by Felix Unger Tony Randall. Not exactly prime Ghoul Power fodder, and certainly not my cup of tea, but if nothing else, it was seasonally appropriate. And, the episode gave viewers this moment here…

The Ghoul, sans Santa Ghoul get-up, holding up official, show-sanctioned artwork of him in said Santa Ghoul get-up!

By that point in the show’s run, the computer-generated cards/bumpers of the past had given way to hand drawn artwork by a different artist. I absolutely love hand drawn things like that. These cards, most or maybe even always used on the show once and once only, exemplify that mindset. From a local standpoint, if you’ve been in a Marc’s and seen the humorous hanging artwork (wait, do they still do those?), or perhaps more appropriately here, remember the hand drawn “tonight’s movie…” artwork Big Chuck & Lil’ John used to use back in the 90s, these Ghoul cards are very much in the same wheelhouse. That’s most definitely a good thing.

But, this post isn’t so much about that era of Ghoul Power or that artwork used in general, but rather, that Santa Ghoul card you’re seeing above specifically. What happened to it? Where’d it go?

Into my collection, that’s where! But not before being signed by all (most?) of the crew, which takes something already awesome and sends it right into the stratosphere, not unlike the results of one of The Ghoul’s boom booms.

(Sorry about the highly professional and totally not done with my cellphone NEOVH watermark at the top, by the way; without going into detail, circumstances have forced it.)

You know, obviously The Ghoul was the, uh, main focus of the show, BUT, the crew behind it all were big, big parts of the proceedings, too. To the point that you sorta knew them more as cast members or something than just crew members. Does that make sense? These weren’t just names in the credits; if you watched the show regularly, you really got to know all these people. I mean, as far as tuning into the show went, that is. And really, that just makes things cooler here.

And even more of a snapshot of the time than it already it is: as of this writing, three of those people are no longer with us: The Ghoul of course, but also Sick Eddie of B-Ware Video fame (I met him there once) and Ed Cole (who I can’t recall ever meeting). Those signatures add a nice, though slightly bittersweet vibe, to what was – I’m guessing – something that hailed from a staff Christmas party.

So where’d I get this dandy item? Simple: I know the original artist, Joe C., who was a cast/crew member on the show. Joe is a phenomenally nice, not to mention incredibly talented, dude, and when he contacted me a few years back asking if I wanted to purchase some original show artwork, the answer was highly in the affirmative.

Indeed, from a realistic and technical standpoint, this is undoubtedly the coolest piece I got from him. BUT, truth be told, I got one other that’s actually my favorite of the two. (I’m gonna keep that one in my back pocket for now, should the need for a post regarding it ever arise.)

That doesn’t change the fact that this is a unique, one of a kind piece of Ghoul memorabilia, one of the very best things in my Ghoul collection, and I couldn’t be prouder of it. Thanks Joe, and thanks for thinking of me!

And so with that, our Christmas post comes to a close. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday – see you in 2023! (2023? Why, I do believe the year will boast the big 10th anniversary of this blog! Will I do anything to commemorate it? Time will tell. For now though, Merry Christmas!)

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.)

Vintage CBS/FOX Video HOW I GOT INTO COLLEGE Promotional Piggy Bank (1989)

Found earlier tonight, only mere hours ago as of this writing, is something so undeniably cool, so definitively hailing from the golden age of VHS (and by extension, the golden age of video rental stores), that I just couldn’t wait to get a post out of it. Also, I haven’t updated since Halloween; something needs to go up just to let y’all know I’m still here.

Dig this: from 1989, it’s a plastic promotional piggy [alliteration] bank commemorating the movie How I Got Into College, particularly (presumably) its initial release on home video. Neato! Found in a $4 bag of (mostly) animal toys, as soon as I spotted this piece residing in its depths, there was no way it wasn’t coming home with me. I wouldn’t have minded had they been asking $4 for this alone, though considering (almost) everything else in the bag was what I considered to be junk, it kinda worked out the same for me anyway.

It’s not a particularly big bank, though I’m not going to go back upstairs just to measure it. Provided you’re an adult, I’d say it’s “handheld.” You can fit several bucks worth of quarters in it easily.

Obviously, the main area of interest in the picture here is the How I Got Into College logo emblazoned on the side of the swine. That, coupled with the Twentieth Century Fox date & copyright notation underneath, says beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is in relation to the 1989 romantic comedy that, apparently, wasn’t much of a box office success. (Or so says that Wikipedia link above.) How did it do on home video? I, uh, have no idea. Certainly there were movies that did poorly in theaters but found popularity on video, but as to whether How I Got Into College was one of those or not, I couldn’t say.

Why a piggy bank? Because you gotta save your money for college HAW HAW HAW! Well, unless there’s a specific tie-in to the film here; I haven’t actually seen it. I’m using deductive reasoning or an educated guess or something like that.

Like any self-respecting piggy bank, there’s a slot along the top to deposit your various coinage. However, the fact that there’s nowhere to easily extricate said coinage (short of smashing it to little itty bitty piggy bits, anyway) points to this being more of a promotional novelty than something someone would seriously use to beat the big city banks at their own game. I like the little hat the pig is wearing.

“Now just a minute, blogger video person; how do ya know it’s for the home video release of the movie? Maybe it’s for the theatrical release!”

This is how:

Emblazoned on the other side of our hapless hog is the old CBS/FOX Video logo. Since CBS/FOX distributed the initial home video release of the movie, I’m just going to go ahead and use that patented deductive reasoning/educated guessing/whatevering again and figure this was put out in conjunction with said home video release. Putting clues like these together is just another reason why I like to fancy myself “Mista Archaeological Man.”

I’m not sure it’ll mean anything to someone who didn’t grow up constantly seeing it, but MAN, that CBS/FOX logo, I always have and always will love it. It’s just such a source of nostalgia and that era in home video. Found on numerous, now-old tapes, both big time titles or otherwise, CBS/FOX releases were truly ubiquitous throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. They put out so many movies, I’d think a store selling or renting videos back then would have had to been trying to not have at least several CBS/FOX offerings on their shelves.

To this day, when I spot an old VHS put out by them at a thrift store, I’ll take at least a cursory glance; even if I don’t buy it, I will at least momentarily appreciate the CBS/FOXiness of the tape. And, I’ll go to my grave insisting that the definitive home video releases of Star Wars/The Empire Strikes Back/Return of the Jedi are the VHS’ put out by them, using the poster art for the front covers. You can keep your THXs and your DVDs and your modern enhancements (where applicable); Luke Skywalker raising his lightsaber triumphantly while the visage of Darth Vader looms ominously in the background is where it’s at.

So yes, I do indeed like seeing that logo on the other side of the piggy bank here. (I wonder if these piggy banks were sold as blanks/generics to places for promotional purposes? As in, the same pig design can be found with or without advertising for various releases or establishments? It seems like a natural promo item for banks to hand out. But, that’s just me hypothesizin’ up in here.)

As of this writing, I can’t find any other images of this specific bank online, through auctions or otherwise. As such, I doubt this was something every customer got when they picked up their fresh new VHS copy of How I Got Into College from their preferred video retail establishment upon release. Otherwise, I’d probably be seeing something on it out there, right? Perhaps it was simply to entice retailers to order copies of How I Got Into College for the store, or maybe to act as a temporary tip jar on the counter as patrons (hopefully) purchased a copy of How I Got Into College to call their own? Could this be considered the piggy bank equivalent of one of those screener tapes?

This is all strictly guesswork on my part; I really have no idea. If anyone knows for sure, hey, I have a comment section for a reason.

Like I said before, I haven’t seen How I Got Into College. I guess I had at least heard of it before, but that was pretty much it. Looking online, it has a good cast and is supposedly pretty light. Apparently it isn’t raunchy, which is good, since I’m not a fan of the raunchiness. I guess I’ll keep an eye out for it during my travels – you can be sure that a CBS/FOX copy of the movie that crosses my path will in all likelihood be entering my collection soon after. A candidate for a possible future old VHS review? Could be!

Hey, look at that; some 31 years after it came on the scene, this promotional piggy bank is still doing its job!

Art’s Frank-N-Stein Pizza & Subs in Lewisburg, PA – Vintage Wooden Nickel

Welcome to October 2020!

At the moment, I plan on having several posts throughout the month that will be fitting for the Halloween season. Some knickknacks, some movies, maybe (maybe) even an appropriate video game – provided there’s one I feel like playing and getting fired up enough to exhaustively write about.

Of course, those are my plans now. Naturally I don’t know if real life is going to intervene and heartlessly bellow at me “y’all ain’t postin’ on no stupid blog today!” But for the time being, my *intentions* are good…

Anyway, let’s kick things off with a cool little promotional item I picked up on eBay recently. It’s not from a location local to me, but as a collector of restaurant/food memorabilia, as well as someone who is pretty much always a sucker for old “monster-related stuff,” it’s directly up my alley. Especially since it combines those two elements, which is something capable of turning me into a veritable babbling maniac. (I’ll try not to be here. Not too much, at least.)

Dig this: from Lewisburg, PA, it’s an old promotional wooden nickel for an establishment named Art’s Frank-N-Stein Pizza & Subs. I officially deem it “neato.”

I don’t know how long they were around or from what year(s) this nickel hails, and I haven’t really found much corroborating evidence via online searches (more on all that in a bit), but I’m reasonably confident in stating “it old.”

Well, there’s no area code in the phone number or web address printed here, so at least there’s that. And while there’s no caricature of the Frankenstein monster anywhere on this nickel either, it’s reasonable to assume they had one of some sort in their advertising. I mean, how could they not have?

The idea of using the “Frank-N-Stein” name for restaurants, advertising, beer glasses, etc. is actually a pretty common one. As far as restaurants go, I’m unclear if “Frank-N-Stein” was every actually a chain or just a popular naming convention, but either way, there have been multiple Frank-N-Steins in multiple places over the years. Obviously, it’s a moniker that lends itself particularly well to establishments that specialize in hot dogs (frank) and (n) beer (stein). GET IT???

The omission of that particular aspect from this particular nickel is, believe it or not, something that added, erm, additional endearment to me when I stumbled upon it on eBay. Like I said, I collect old restaurant stuff in general, but I have a particular affinity for pizza places (and burgers/drive-ins and steakhouses, while we’re at it). I focus mostly on local-to-me memorabilia, but joints from all over are fair game, provided they sufficiently pique my interest- which is obviously the case here.

In short, I really like the fact that this wooden nickel specifically advertises pizza, as opposed to hot dogs.

Though, with that name, it’s probably a safe guess that they sold hot dogs and beer at Art’s Frank-N-Stein, too. But then again, maybe not; it’s not like I have any real idea here. At any rate, there’s no doubt it’s a cool name nevertheless.

Wooden nickels weren’t always just promotional pieces; some had a coupon-like aspect that, ostensibly, kept the customer coming back for more. Judging from the back of the coin we’re looking at today, this Art’s piece was one such example.

As you can see, this nickel advertises the offer of collecting 15 total to net yourself a free pizza. Of course, the combined profits from the orders that would get you those 15 wooden nickels in the first place probably more than made up for the eventual free pizza, as you would expect, but it’s a nice gimmick, and hey, if you were gonna eat there anyway…

So how much did this old promo piece set me back?

For something I was immediately enamored by at first sight, I actually didn’t buy it right away. The seller had it listed at $29.99 with free shipping, and while it may very well be worth that, that was a bit more than I was willing to pay. So, I sat on it, though truth be told, I did seriously consider taking advantage of the “make an offer” option and trying for $20.

However, for once my procrastination paid off; unbeknownst to me beforehand, eBay was honoring their long, long time members (of which I’m one) for their 25th anniversary with $25 coupons. You had to buy something for at least $25.01 to take advantage, and while I don’t know how many they wound up sending out or to who, I imagine they could afford it. (My guess? You probably had to have been fairly active over that period of time, which I have been, to warrant such a generous gift. Or maybe not; what do I know?)

Needless to say, upon arrival, that $25 coupon was not long for the world.

After taxes, my total cost for the Art’s Frank-N-Stein wooden nickel? $7.01. That’s certainly a lot better than $30, or even $20. Plus, I would assume eBay reimbursed sellers any differences when buyers used these coupons, and if that was the case, then everyone came out a winner here.

This nickel is a welcome addition to my collection, but I’d still like to know more about the actual Art’s Frank-N-Stein location. When did they start? How long were they around? Was it part of a chain or a standalone? Did they use some kind of Frankenstein caricature in their advertising? Is there info online somewhere that I just didn’t see? Hey, any Lewisburg, PA residents (or former residents), chime in! Please?

While digging around online, I came across this Pennsylvania location with a similar name that closed just last year, but I don’t think there was any relation between the two. Or was there?

The most helpful bit of info I found was this fantastic Universal Monster Army forum thread that not only features a pic of another one of these specific wooden nickels, but also pics of memorabilia from other Frank-N-Stein-named places. A plethora of it, in fact; there are some things seen there that, should I come across them during my travels, why, you just may hear me flipping out from wherever you happen to be.

And with that, the Halloween season has officially begun here at the blog! Stay tuned, there’s more to come! (Well, I hope there’s more to come; just stayed tuned anyway, okay?)

The Sandwich Chef Mug Mystery

[UPDATE: Our good friend Kabir Bhatia, he of WKSU fame and a good egg to boot, has solved the mystery! I’m not going to edit this post beyond adding this update, because hey, I still want y’all to chime in with your recollections. But, you’d still be well-advised to check out the links Kabir has helpfully provided in the comments section! There’s a very interesting history behind Sandwich Chef, which lives on to this day as Wall Street Deli.]

Friends, I begin the new year here with a query. I am stumped, I am intrigued, and I humbly implore you to share whatever knowledge you may have on the subject in the comments. I expect no immediate response, but at least this post will be here when the right person stumbles across it.

As you may or may not recall, I’ve gone to the, as I have just deemed it, “mug well” more than once here. It’s true; I *love* collecting vintage mugs, glassware, that sort of thing. What we’ve seen before (here, here, here and here) has all been associated with broadcasting, and as such falls within whatever rough guidelines I have established for my stupid dumb blog. (Guidelines that are easily broken when I feel like it cause it’s my site and I’ll write what I want when I want.) But the fact of the matter is that my interest in promotional drinkin’ and eatin’ implements goes beyond just the TV and/or radio-related ones. Old business establishments, beer and soda, locally-related stuff in general, or sometimes just something that strikes my fancy (there’s a reason I got supremely stoked over a coffee mug featuring a presumably-1980s-era paint splash design scheme), it’s all fair game. The end result of this mindset? I don’t exactly pick up everything I come across, but nevertheless, I frankly have almost too many mugs/glasses/etc.

Aw, who am I kidding, there can never be too many. And luckily for me, they’re plentiful and usually pretty cheap. Evidently no one else in my general vicinity cares as much as I do about this sort of thing! (Or so I hope!)

Anyway, when it comes to this particular hobby of mine, probably the area that gets me just as fired up as something broadcasting-related are those things related to eating establishments. As in, restaurants. Drive-ins, burger joints, steakhouses, pizza places; the older the better. I flip over this sort of thing, especially when the establishment in question is a piece of Americana no longer in existence, or one that’s still alive but only as an endangered species.

And that brings us to today’s subject. In relation to the end of the preceding paragraph, I can only guess that this one’s the former and not the latter, cause man, I can’t find nothin’ on it out there in internet land.

As you can see, it’s a plastic, almost-certainly vintage, mug for a place called Sandwich Chef. I have no recollection nor knowledge of Sandwich Chef, and the choice in name doesn’t exactly make for a narrow set of search results. There appears to be a place in Little Falls, NY with that name, but apparently they opened in 2012; I don’t think they’re the same, because this mug just screams 1970s-to-early/mid-1980s to me.

The overall design is the same as that McDonald’s/WAKR one I linked to before (here, have it again), and the Sandwich Chef logo features the kind of old school aesthetic that you frankly just don’t see anymore. (The 1972-1978 Burger Chef logo seen here features the same vintage charm, though please don’t take that to imply there was any sort of connection between that chef and this chef. Unless there was? I’d think I’d be coming across some info if that were the case though…)

And look, “Home of the 25 Cent Coffee,” when was the last time you could find a cup o’ joe for that bargain price?! (Unless you still can somewhere; with pop being my nearly-all-day choice of caffeinated beverage, I don’t drink coffee very often.)

Both sides of the mug are essentially the same, the only difference being the reverse has, in place of the 25 cent coffee slogan, a declaration of Maryland Club Coffee, which I take to mean was Sandwich Chef’s coffee provider of choice. (Marvel at the power of my deductive reasoning!) It’s really not a big enough difference to make me go upstairs and take a picture of, but it is an additional piece of info – though I’m still not finding anything helpful online.

As evidenced in that McDonald’s/WAKR mug link (here, have it again), this Sandwich Chef thing most likely came with a lid and surface holder originally, though both are currently MIA. I could easily replace them, though ideally I’d like know what color the originals were before doing so.

So, my questions regarding Sandwich Chef are as follows: where was it located, and for how long? 1970s? 1980s? Was it a chain, or a standalone spot? I’ve searched to no avail, and I’ve asked to no avail. Since this was found locally, it’s a reasonably safe assumption that it was a Northeast Ohio establishment…until I remember that I come across out-of-state stuff pretty frequently. Hey, people move and/or go on vacations all the time, after all! And if it was a chain, I’d like to think I could uncover some recollection somewhere. But as far as all these questions go, so far no soap.

Whether these mysteries are eventually solved or not though, this is still a really neat find. Indeed, these are the kind of promotional items that tend to get me really fired up, because it’s stuff you just don’t see very often – if at all. I just wish that, you know, I knew more about it! If you do, hey, hit up the comments! Please!

WEWS TV-5’s The Morning Exchange – Vintage Coffee Mug

Yeah yeah, I know, I took nearly all of August off. A combination of being busy, lack of ‘writable’ material and absence of drive kept me from duly updating my arbitrary blog. Those last two reasons are related; technically, I’ve always got lots of stuff I could write about, but the fire man, the fire has to be there. It’s like how a car don’t go without no gas or some stupid analogy like that. And when I go out thrifting, I very nearly always come home with what I consider some good winnins, but it’s the cool winnins that give me the fire. And it’s those very cool winnins that have been more-or-less MIA in recent weeks. This, my friends, was not an ideal situation for your Northeast Ohio Video Hunter, but it’s not like I had much say in the matter.

‘Course, it’s times like that when I can just sit back and let my old material do the work for me. I mean, when I wrote about that sentient alarm clock over a year ago (!), I held no illusions about it being a particularly popular post; I just got jazzed enough over the device that I wanted to introduce it to a potential audience. It’d be there for the right people when they come looking. And for quite awhile, that’s pretty much where things sat, until in recent months when its popularity relatively exploded, with enough page views and comments to put a figurative smile on mah face.

ANYWAY, this find from just last night is, rest assured, just the sort of thing that can get my creative juices flowin’ and another new update on the dinner table. Dig this: it’s a vintage coffee mug promoting WEWS TV-5 of Cleveland’s long, long running and incredibly influential daily talk show, The Morning Exchange. Cool winnins.

I take solace in the fact that (apparently) most people don’t find the same things that I do interesting, because this is the sort of thing that I would (and did) snap up with extreme fervor; there was absolutely no question it was coming home with me from first glimpse. And yet, when I came upon it, it sat nearly alone in a big tub, seemingly unwanted by those who knew no better. But I knew. I knew.

Now to be honest, I’ve got lots of glassware and mugs and what have you that I could write about, and sometimes I did consider doing so during what turned out to be my unintentional hiatus. I decided against it though; it just felt too soon after the last time I looked at old Northeast Ohio television-related coffee mugs. Heck, in the time since, I picked up yet another new-to-me WVIZ java accessory, but I just didn’t want to go back to that well. Not yet, anyway. I don’t want to become known as “The Mug Man,” man.

This Morning Exchange thing is different though. Not only because it’s promoting an absolutely legendary piece of Cleveland television history (it was so popular locally, it inspired ABC to create the national Good Morning America!), but also because it was hosted for nearly all of its 27 year (!!) run by local icon Fred Griffith, who sadly passed away recently. No joke, Griffith was a certified local legend, and from what I’ve heard, a genuine good egg to boot.

Here’s the thing with this mug: as you can see in the above pic, the logo is quite wide, and as such, getting the whole thing in one definitive shot just isn’t going to happen, unless y’all wanna provide me with one of them Matrix cameras or something. Wait, I don’t think that would work here, either.

So anyway, to better educate and inform and annoy the masses, I’m gonna have to provide some additional pictures. As such, here’s the left side of the mug, showcasing the, uh, left side of the Morning Exchange logo. Also visible: the ever-handy, erm, handle that allows one to make use of the mug without scalding their delicate lil’ hands.

Look, I don’t really know what you want me to say about it, okay? It’s one side of a coffee mug. And since I just used up whatever I could think to say about it here, I’m already questioning what I’m going to write about the other half. Nothing can ever be easy in my world.

So yeah, here’s the right side. The rest of the logo, close-up of the channel 5 logo, big swoopy thing comin’ off the “g” in “Exchange,” you can see it all here. The white lettering over burgundy is an attractive, appropriately morning-ish look. I dig it!

(Yeah, now I’m spent.)

It’s funny; I didn’t (and don’t) ever really watch any morning shows, mainly because I’m rarely up in time, and even though I have little direct history with The Morning Exchange, because it was such an ever-present part of the Northeast Ohio television landscape for such a long time, I remain fond of it. My grandmother used to watch it, my mom says she used to watch it, so there’s some pleasant memories there. But really, it’s more about what this mug represents that enamors me so. What’s that? One of the giants of Northeast Ohio television, that’s what!

All that said, I have no idea how old this mug is; there’s no date anywhere on it. I’m considering it late-80s or early-90s, but I could be dead wrong on that. The channel 5 logo was updated around 1995, so methinks it’s prior to then. The Morning Exchange ran from 1972 to 1999, so even at the latest it’s around 20 years old as of this writing. I really don’t think it’s even that relatively-recent, though. I do think it’s somewhat newer than this example, but how, when and where it relates to these examples, I do not know. I’m going with a mental “circa-1990” descriptive term, though I’m not confident in it enough to add it to the title of this update. (While on the subject, I couldn’t find a sequence of wording for the title that I was totally happy with, so if it reads awkwardly, that’s why.)

How would one go about getting one of these back in the day? My brother suggested it was a souvenir of actual guests on the program. If that’s the case, MAN is that cool. I’m not prepared to go quite that far though, not just yet. I’m thinking this was a promotional item anyone could have gotten, but that begs the question: where? There (probably) wasn’t any internet yet, at least not in any form approaching how we now know it. So, personal appearances by the hosts? Industry swag? A mail order item? Was there something akin to what WJW TV-8 later had, their very own store? (It was in Summit Mall.)

These are questions I know not the answer to. Maybe it was a guest-used/show-used item. That’d be, as the hip individuals say, pretty baller.

Regardless of its origin, the very fact that this coffee mug promotes a veritable Cleveland institution such as The Morning Exchange is more than enough. The fact it’s a coffee mug (cause coffee/morning, dig?) just makes it all the more appropriate. The era and images and feelings it invokes is indelibly Northeast Ohio. A bygone era in our broadcasting history. The sad fact of the matter is stuff like this doesn’t turn up all that often, but when it does, it’s cause for celebration and weird, amateurish touchdown dances. I didn’t, but I could have.

There’s your precious update. Maybe I’ll get another one up within the next several decades, we’ll see.

The Pizza Shop of Canton, Ohio – Vintage Promotional Playing Cards

“Oooh where has yoy been East Video Dood???”

Here’s the deal: I had something ordered on eBay that I felt stood a very good chance of being worthy (ha!) of being spotlighted on my silly blog. I was excited for it, it held promise, so of course the seller never sent it. Days went by without any update to the order after my lightnin’ quick payment, I (politely) opened my yap, the item was then marked as shipped – but without a tracking number – days later. Then, weeks went by without said item arriving, so I (politely) opened my yap again. A week went by before I received a response promising it was going out ASAP, I gave the benefit of the doubt and waited some more, nothing happened again. So I finally filed a complaint and got a refund.

Any semi-reasonable buyer would have filed said complaint and gotten said refund looong before I actually did, but with a generous window of time to act, only being out 12 bucks, and really wanting what I ordered, I played extraordinarily patient but was not rewarded. Not only did I not get what I hoped to write about (and I’m not saying what it was cause I don’t need all y’all battlin’ me if another one pops up), but weeks and weeks went by without a proper update here in the interim. I’m not saying that was the only reason you didn’t get an update during that time period, but it’s the factor I’m laying all the blame on.

So, instead you get to read about pizza-related playing cards. A fair trade-off? Without knowing what I was hoping to detail instead, you’ll just never know, will you??? (Unless I can obtain said item in the future; then I’ll spill the beans.)

No, this update has nothing to do with video, broadcasting, electronics, or any of the other normative suspects on this site, but it does have to do with Northeast Ohio and advertising, so I’m saying it fits. And even if it doesn’t, it’s my blog and I’ll do what I want.

Behold! It’s The Pizza Shop of Canton, Ohio, immortalized in playing card form! Actually, nothing here specifies if it was Ohio’s Canton, and Wikipedia sez there are lots and lots of places in this world with that moniker, but since I found these in Canton, Ohio, methinks it’s a safe guess that that’s where these originally hail from. Quite a leap, huh?!

Found with a two-compartment, ridge-sided plastic holder that appears to have originally had a lid at some point (there were none to be found in the vicinity, and I looked), many of these cards were all over the place when I came across them at a thrift store several months ago. They appeared to have been part of some card collector’s collection (that’s alliteration, as well as slightly redundant); other cards of the playing variety were strewn about as well. The Domino’s Pizza cards went back because they didn’t feature The Noid, but I’m a sucker for vintage local restaurant memorabilia, especially when said restaurant apparently doesn’t exist anymore, so there was no way these weren’t coming home with me – once I gathered them all back up, anyway.

I say the place apparently doesn’t exist anymore because I  can find no information on it whatsoever. Granted, typing “The Pizza Shop” and “Canton” into a search engine doesn’t exactly make for a narrow set of results, but nevertheless, I could find no info on this place at all. Is it still around? Did it evolve/merge into another place? Do you remember it? PLEASE, share any info you have in the comments! This is an interactive site, y’see!

The image you’re seeing on the left above is found across the back of each and every card in the set, presenting what I surmise were the actual logos of the restaurant proper: the name (which is sort of a must-have in cases such as these) and a little chef giving the “okay sign” and wearing a kickin’ bow tie (though aren’t most bow ties pretty kickin’ anyway?). There’s also the tagline proclaiming the place to be “Canton’s Original,” though original what isn’t specified. Was it Canton’s original pizza place, the original location of what was a local chain, or…?

(Also, if the plastic holder these are in did originally feature a lid, I wonder if any kind of graphics/info pertaining to The Pizza Shop was printed on it as well? If indeed the holder is even original to these cards in the first place, that is.)

Otherwise, and as demonstrated with the card on the right above, well, it’s just a normal set of playing cards. Brown & Bigelow playing cards to be exact, as per the company info printed right there for all to see. Brown & Bigelow of St. Paul, MN is evidently no longer around; this site says they existed from the 1920s to the 1980s. I have no hard data regarding what possible date(s) these could possibly hail from, but even if they’re from the extreme of the 1980s, that still counts as vintage so stop finding fault with my post title.

Actually, the font of “Canton’s Original” strikes me as being 1960s-ish. I have absolutely nothing to support that other than a gut-feeling, but I get that impression nevertheless. Again, if you can confirm or know otherwise, drop some knowledge in the comments!

Like I said, many of these cards were all over the place when I stumbled upon them, which meant I had to duly collect them all back up for collecting-purposes. It appears I got them all; I counted 53 cards here. That is, it’s a normal 52-card French-style deck, with one Joker. I searched pretty diligently, so if there were any more Jokers, I know not where they got to. I really do think I’ve got the whole set here.

Given my lack of success in figuring out when or how long this restaurant existed, the chances of my figuring out when and/or how exactly these cards were originally obtained seems doubtful as well. Free with a pizza, perhaps? Nevertheless, the deck is a cool little piece of Northeast Ohio eatery memorabilia, one that appears (to me) to hail from a truly bygone era. I don’t normally collect playing cards, but these were just too neat – and ostensibly obscure –  to pass up.

I wasn’t kidding before; if you have any info on this place, please share in the comments!

WVIZ TV-25 Auction Mug Round-Up (1983-1990)

It’s doubtful that any of my four faithful (?) readers remember the update, but this past August I shared the cool vintage Cleveland WVIZ TV-25 drinkin’ mug. It was neato, I was happy, I got a post out of it, and life went on.

But little did I realize at the time that my journey with local-PBS-affiliate-emblazoned beverage containers wasn’t over; oh no, it was just beginning. In recent weeks, there’s been a veritable cornucopia of WVIZ mugs, hailing from their annual fundraising auctions. All but one of them were found at the exact same time; I’ll be presenting six of them in this update, which means that it’s safe to say five probably came from the same person originally. That, or it was the most incredible coincidence ever.

I’m guessing these were gifts for pledging a donation to WVIZ during that fundraising time? Or an added bonus if you won an auction? Perhaps even swag given out to people manning the phones? Specifics, anyone?

Anyway, come one, come all, come and enjoy my puke-green carpet and mug pictures this close to being inadequate!

1983

This earliest mug sets the template for the design used for the next few years. That’s not to say this was the first to use the same general look, but it’s the earliest that I currently have.

As you can see, it was for WVIZ’s May 7-15, 1983 8-day auction. The pertinent info is on one side, and the other side, obviously, features what I assume was their mascot of the era, a zebra. (Get it? It’s a WVIZebra!). Since the tagline is “THE GREATEST SHOW ON AIR,” the zebra is always airborne in some fashion; this template is used for not only this mug (duh!), but for all the mugs up through 1986; might’ve been around even longer, I dunno.

Anyway, here our zebra mascot is flying in a small airplane, because, uh, air. Of all the mugs in this ‘series’ this might be my favorite, simply because it’s the only one to present the 25 logo in some way. Look close; it’s stamped on the tail of the plane! (That is the tail, right? Look, it’s on the back of the craft, okay?)

1984

Here’s the 1984 edition. As you can see, it’s overall pretty similar-looking, and honestly would be easy for the untrained eye to overlook as a mere duplicate. But it’s not.

Held in May once again, 1984’s auction was also held over 8 days, but this time from the 5th to the 13th. On the other side, with the same slogan, our zebra friend evidently no longer needs an aircraft; he’s sprouted wings with which to soar through the clouds!

Look close, because this was something I totally missed until grabbing pics to put this article together: the zebra’s stripes spell out WVIZ! Nice touch!

1985

Evidently the auction was always held over 8 days in May, because for 1985 it ran from May 4th through the 12th. This brings up a question: does WVIZ (or any PBS affiliate) even still do auctions? Obviously they still run pledge drives where you can get tote bags or what have you, but I personally don’t recall the auctions. Obviously they existed at one point, and it’s not like I would have been paying attention to that sort of thing by the time I was old enough to watch PBS (Sesame Street and such was more my speed at the time), but still, yeah, I don’t remember these exact events. Maybe they still do ’em, I don’t know. Nevertheless, the only thing coming to mind here is that one episode of Cheers where no one wants Sam Malone’s jersey.

Uh oh, our zebra pal is still airborne in this one, but not necessarily in a good way! Dig it: he no longer has a plane, nor does he feature wings. Rather, he’s floating down to earth via parachute! Was there an equipment malfunction somewhere?!

You can just barely make out the W and the Z on his body, the rest being covered by the parachute’s harness; again, nice touch!

1986

Last of the “zebra mugs,” or at least my “zebra mugs.” You know, was the zebra their ongoing mascot in general during this era, or was he just something devised for the auction promotions? I certainly don’t remember him, but again, by the time I was old enough to pay any sort of attention to PBS, he may very well (and appears to have been) long gone.

1986 had the auction running May 3-11, and except for the differing date, yeah, there’s only so much I can think to say about it, except this was the first auction I was technically alive for. Not cognizant of, but alive for.

I might have to rectify that “favorite” statement I bandied about with the 1983 entry, because besides me officially being around for (well, during) the event, this variation features – in my opinion – the coolest “zebra action sequence” of them all: he’s flying! As in, like Superman! Dude’s even got a cape! As a lifelong Supes fan, that’s awesome, even if the relation is only of the most minimal variety. Man, you don’t even need the 25 logo stamped somewhere when you’ve got your mascot doing things like that!

Also: evidently those “WVIZ stripes” don’t extend to the opposite side of the zebra’s torso.

1987 & 1988

Sorry gang, I don’t have mugs for the 1987 and 1988 auctions, if there even were mugs for the 1987 and 1988 auctions. Maybe the original owner didn’t participate those years, or maybe someone inexplicably purchased those two but none of the others, or maybe they don’t even exist. At any rate, I don’t have ’em.

1989

’87 and ’88 may be missing from my collection (for now?), and the zebra apparently went MIA somewhere in the interim, but man, the 1989 edition was a home run, too! The one side merely states “WVIZ Auction ’89,” as you can plainly see here (no mention of the exact dates, but I’ll go out on a limb and say it was probably held in May again).

The other side though, hoo boy does it feature a cool gimmick! BP was apparently a sponsor of some sort, and that plays into the new (?) slogan: “Public Television – A Natural Resource.” Just like gas! Or something along those lines.

To go along with this, the illustration of a TV is used, with the BP logo ‘playing’ on its screen. What’s with the somewhat ‘muted’ coloring of the screen, you ask? That part of the mug is covered with some sort of material that changes colors when a hot beverage is housed within! That’s cool! This site has a page for this mug, and which showcases the hip color-changin’ abilities it holds.

I’m not sure if I like this one more than the 1983 or 1986 editions, but I still really, really like it, and it’s easily the most “technically advanced” mug in the line. Or at least in my WVIZ mug collection as it currently stands, anyway.

(For the record, this was the one mug that was found independently, weeks after the others. Maybe it originally hailed from the same person and just didn’t get put out with the rest at the same time, or maybe it originally came from another auction participant; gotta figure there were more than a few, you know?)

1990

Last one, found at the same time as all the zebra mugs. The image is the same on both sides, and hence, only one picture is needed. (Right?) Unlike the other ones seen in this article, which are all of the ceramic-variety, this one is plastic.

No real slogan, but this one does play up the fact the station was celebrating its 25th anniversary. Since WVIZ went on the air in 1965, that naturally points to this being from, uh, 1990.

Though you know, without the information stamped all over it, I really have no idea if this is technically an auction mug or something merely created to commemorate the event in general. I mean, considering the others it was found with, it’s a safe guess, and that’s the scenario I’m sticking with, but it has to be pointed out that the mug doesn’t actually state such facts. I dig the red color-scheme, which stands in stark contrast to every other example seen in this update.

***

So there you have it, six different auction mugs from Cleveland’s PBS destination, WVIZ TV-25. Given the “public participation” aspect of the channel, it stands to reason that memorabilia from it is a bit more plentiful than from a network (or even independent) station, but nevertheless, TV-related things like this don’t show up every day, so I couldn’t be happier to have them in my ever-growing mass of stuff (i.e., collection).

Vintage KSTP-TV 5 DIALING FOR DOLLARS Promotional Token

Do you remember back in June when I showcased a vintage Dialing For Dollars keychain from the Duluth and Superior areas of Minnesota? Of course you don’t.

Anyway, we’re taking another trip back to “The Gopher State” (unknown to me beforehand, but that’s apparently one of its nicknames; Wikipedia sez so) for this update, because I’ve obtained another vintage piece of Dialing For Dollars memorabilia from Minnesota, this time from the Minneapolis/St. Paul market. KSTP-TV 5 had their own version of the franchise, and I’ve got the promotional token to prove it.

Like the above-linked keychain, this was an eBay find. (What, you think I’m likely to come across stuff like this locally?) Unlike the above-linked keychain, this was an auction, rather than a buy it now. This meant I had to bide my time and hope no competitors had their eyes on the same prize. I waited, they didn’t, and so here we are. I’m the champ?

Here’s the ‘face’ of the token, presenting what I presume was “the count and amount” system that viewers needed to know in order to win the big, big bucks. (In other words, when  the host came a-callin’, y’all best know it was “15 DOWN” or “1 UP” or however they went about playing the game.) I’m a little confused as to why it’s labeled “LETTER GAME,” when it seems to me that numbers are much more the focal point here, but then, I wasn’t there and I wasn’t watching, so I’ll just guess that whoever struck the coin knew better than I.

One thing about Dialing For Dollars in general that I talked about in the earlier article: because it was such a 1960s & 1970s phenomenon, much of it aired in the pre-home video-era (in a widely commercial sense anyway), and as such, learning about the finer details of some iterations can be difficult. For example, the host(s) and/or exact format for a particular market isn’t always immediately certain. At least not from what I can discern through online research; respective television historians from wherever probably know all this stuff automatically, but for those of us ‘on the outside’ and learning about things waaaay after the fact and waaaay outside of the original area, well, sometimes it can be tough.

Also, some local versions of the franchise were movie showcases, with a daily flick interrupted by the, say it with me, dialing for dollars segments during the breaks. But for other versions, it was all dialin’ for dinero, all the time. (As in, that was the whole show.)

My issue here: I couldn’t figure out which ‘type’ KSTP’s version was. I don’t know how long it ran, I don’t know who hosted it, and I don’t know how it was exactly played. I’d certainly prefer that it was of the movie-hosted variety, but either way, it represents a live, call-in aspect of television history that just can’t happen anymore. (At least not on a regular basis.)

Never mind, I found some solid info: this site has an advertisement for the show. KSTP’s Dialing For Dollars was evidently not a movie showcase, but rather a standalone program, albeit one with interviews, cooking segments, and other things you’d expect of a typical daytime program. Interestingly, the ad makes a loud and specific declaration that this wasn’t just a woman’s show, despite the fairer sex making up 63% of its audience (which makes sense; more women stayed at home back then, after all).

The host, or hostess rather, was Jane Johnston, who sadly passed away in 2007.

Here’s the back of the coin, with more pertinent identification information. After all, what good is an advertising token if you don’t let the people know where they can tune in? You’ve got the station call sign, the viewing area the station served, and who the owner was. And look, color television! I love that they call specific attention to the fact it was a color station; it’s just so evocative of that era of television broadcasting.

While I don’t have an exact date for this coin, I do, hopefully, have a time frame: according to Logopedia, the style of logo seen on this token was only in usage from 1968 to 1969.

HOWEVER, that above-linked advertisement claims to be from 1966, and the logo seen in it is identical to the one here, so I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine. Johnston’s obit says she came to KSTP in 1963 and hosted the show in the 1960s and 1970s, so…? Did she immediately start this show in ’63, or did it take a few years? It had apparently been on the air for some time before that ad came about.

Another question remains: how would someone go about obtaining one of these back in the day? Was it a prize for contestants? Something given away during personal appearances by Johnston? A promotional item passed out during industry events? Unfortunately, these are things I just don’t know. (Also, I wonder what that “8101” stamped into the back designates? Does it refer to the number of coins struck? Are there possibly 8,100 more of these out there?!)

At any rate, I love pieces of promotional material like this, because there’s only so much pertaining to the source material (seemingly) still floating around nowadays. I mean, maybe KSTP has footage of the actual show in their archives, and if it ran into the 1970s, it did crossover into the commercial home video-era (technically 1972 with Cartrivision, but more likely 1975/1976 with Betamax if it made it to the middle of the decade), but in regards to what can fall into my paws, I imagine I’m limited to the smaller accoutrements such at this. Maybe some press photos, potentially some appropriately-branded mugs or glasses, probably print ads from old TV listings (TV Guide or otherwise), but realistically I can’t think of a whole lot else.

That’s okay though, because even on its own, this token is suitably neat; I wouldn’t wait for an auction to end for anything less! As it stands, it now proudly resides right by the Duluth/Superior keychain I linked to at the start of this update. They belong together because they is cousins.