Memorabilia and Other Picture Postcards

Let’s wade through the e-mail bag and see what items of interest you fine readers have been sending.



Billie Towzer is always on the look out for Hanna-Barbera games and toys. First we have, from Empire of Tarboro, North Carolina, this Flintstones Dial Telephone. A dial phone really is Stone Age, isn’t it? This is from the ‘60s but I have no idea if it has recorded calls in it or you just pretend you’re talking with Mr. Slate or something.



Linemar made this friction-powered car with Huckleberry Hound. Other Hanna-Barbera characters had their own. This is also from the early ‘60s.



These wiggle blocks are from the folks at Kohner. If you move the TV set, you’ll get a second image, kind of a hand-held version of cycle animation. Kohner came up with even more popular things for kids. They made the game Trouble with the Pop-O-Matic Dice (they were under a plastic dome so you couldn’t lose them). And they licensed the Flintstones characters for push-button puppets, where you pushed a button under a base and the character on top of the base, say Fred Flintstone, would move around.




Rick Greene has sent two covers of Huckleberry Hound colouring books from Whitman. What’s the difference, besides Huck’s colour? Rick says: “The darker cover is actually flocked – an application of short fuzzy blue hair is on it!! It’s one of the coolest coloring book covers I’ve ever seen... or felt!”




Next comes a sad story. A fellow named Vince e-mailed thinking this was Julie Bennett’s blog and writing “I bought a storage locker in Burbank and I believe it has some items like Cindy Bear cells. On the front of the Folder it says to Art Scott From Billy ( Yogi and Cindy Bear ).” It had some other personal items belonging to Miss Bennett. Unfortunately, no one seems to know where she is these days. Vince was nice enough to scan the cels. Of course, Julie played Cindy Bear and began her career at Hanna-Barbera in 1959 on a Quick Draw McGraw episode.






Brian Miller sent along these photos of stuff that’s in his collection. Evidently the H-B marketers felt Little Biddy Buddy the duck was closer to Little Biddy Buddy Rich as he was not a starring character when the other characters on the TV tray were. Here are Brian’s descriptions:

There's an old TV tray with "Your TV Pals" on it, and the various characters... the rubber Yogi sitting on a log was a Western Publishing promotional item of some sort...

The big Yogi head (sorry, not a great picture) is a 3-foot tall or so fiberglass construction, with the same face on the other side. It seems to have been mounted to something at some point. Our best guess is it's something from a Yogi Bear campground, but I haven't found any documentation on it yet.

The Jellystone Park gate is from a set of toys from that new movie (never saw it) but it has a nice vintage cartoon look to it.



Facebook reader Mike Rossi sent me a picture of a Mr. Twiddle he got on e-Bay. It’s a ceramic animator’s maquette model.



Almost two years ago, there was a post about a personal appearance by Yogi Bear at a Sears store. Author Tim Hollis sent me a photo and a note at the time. You see the photo above. His note:

Apparently that was part of some sort of nationwide promotion with Sears, because attached here you will find a poor quality photo of the characters at our local Sears here in Birmingham in December 1962. (Yes, that's our local Bozo the Clown, Ward McIntyre, introducing them.) In case you hadn't seen a photo from these appearances before, I thought you'd be amused at how "unfinished" the costumes look.... it's almost as if Yogi's collar and tie, and Boo Boo's bow tie, got lost by the airline on the way down!



And now, here’s the lovely Tim Hollis modelling the latest Hanna-Barbera-wear. Well, from a few years ago. Tim writes:

The left photo, with Yogi, was Christmas Day 1966; the right photo, with Pebbles, was October 1967. It would appear that both shirts were made by the same company, judging from the lettering style, the collar and the cuffs.

A boy wearing a Pebbles shirt?! Oh, well. Tim, incidentally, is working on his book TOONS IN TOYLAND, a history of merchandising cartoon characters, including the H-B ones. We’re looking forward to it.

My thanks to everyone who contributed to this post and have sent me pictures of merchandise, memorabilia and other picture postcards since the blog started.