Our roving correspondent, Billie Towzer, has again roved the internet to find pictures of things relating to the earliest H-B cartoons, and among them are a couple of ads for two of the syndicated shows. I don’t know whether Hanna-Barbera paid for these, or whether the stations coughed up the money; there’s no mention of Kellogg’s, so I don't know if it was somehow involved. The Quick Draw ad must have been done by someone at the studio’s publicity department or we would be looking at a very bad tracing or some stock model sheet poses that have been posted here before.
Do they still make colouring books today? I keep thinking that the stuff I had or saw as a five-year-old is too low-tech for kids today. Nonetheless, here’s the cover of an Augie Doggie colouring book from 1963 by Watkins Strathmore.
To show you that almost everything is on the internet, HERE is a link to another Augie book by the same company from a year later. It even has all the pages that you can click on to enlarge.
Who wouldn’t want to have a Huck bowl and Yogi milk mug? Made from genuine plastic. And for only 50 cents! Clip this coupon and send away, kids. Oh, make sure you the box-top from you-know-what-company’s cereal. Yogi looks a little stunned, like the alien-as-Yogi in Space Bear.
You’ll notice the ad refers to Kellogg’s Variety Pack. Seems to me we never bought them that often, probably because there was at least one cereal in them no one ate. Post made the same sort of thing, if I recall. Here are a couple of little boxes from a Variety Pack. Poor Huck gets the obscure cereal. I don’t remember it at all.
Birthday party stuff seems to have been a big seller for Hanna-Barbera. Napkins, plates (which quite justifiably featured the ever-popular Yowp), tableclothes and, as you see below, wrapping paper. Jinksie looks confused that he’s hanging in mid-air. And to think kids ripped this apart to get their present.
My thanks to Billie for finding all this. We’ll have more in future posts.
I've got the milk mug. How sad is that?
ReplyDeleteI don't think I ever got a bowl, but I know I saw one ages ago. Small, cheap-looking and fairly ugly.
ReplyDeleteHuck not only got the “obscure cereal” but he suffered the indignity of being transitioned off the package in favor of the Howard Morris voiced (somewhat like Mushmouse) “Hillbilly Goat”! I think “Huck ‘n’ Hill” even did a commercial or two together in making said transition.
ReplyDeleteAnd that looks like Pete Alvarado on the cover art for the Augie coloring book. He always did the H-B characters well in comic books!
Wow. I do not remember " Sugar Stars " at all. I remember products that would be considered pretty obscure today. Selected markets, maybe? Did have the "Cocoa Krispies" cereal with Ol Snaggle Puss many times. I too, didn't have to be told when " The Huckberry Hound Show " ran. I caught it at 5pm on our ABC affiliate as part of the " Bungles The Clown " show on WVEC-TV. Thanks a million for the memories.
ReplyDeleteI remember "Sugar Stars" vividly. It was the only cereal that I ate when I was a kid. When I visited my grandparents, they would have the variety pack from Kelloggs and I would put the "Sugar Stars" box with Huck's face on it right in front of me at every meal, even Thanksgiving dinner. I would eventually eat the cereal (which was delicious) but I liked looking at Huck's face. To this day I still remember what it tasted like. I wish I could describe it but I can't. The cereal was shaped like stars.
ReplyDeleteNot soon after the switch to the goat on the cereal's cover, the sales plummeted and Kelloggs stopped making it. It lasted maybe a year but then it was discontinued. Yogi Bear was on OK. Quick Draw was on Sugar Smacks and Snagglepuss was on Cocoa Krispies. I still have my Huckleberry Hound spoon from when I was a kid. I did have the cereal bowl shown above but it eventually broke.