Cappstone

Last Hallowe'en season I posted some scans of some Li'l Abner related Bazooka ads that I would, frankly, probably kill for if they came up for auction. Al Capp did some ad illustration work for Topps in the late 40's and again in the 50's and while Li'l Abner is easily identifiable as his, not all of his work featured Dogpatch's finest.

Check out this 1948 Sunday Newspaper comics section with a killer Tatoo ad:

The main character at left is, to my eye, clearly drawn by Capp. The other illustrations are not by the same hand though.  This ad could easily have been adapted for subway and buses and I suspect that's what Capp was employed, i,.e. to quickly have his character grab your attention.  While his Li'l Abner themed ad work for Bazooka would have required a licensing fee, the youth above would have been a commissioned job.

We know it's the 1948 Tatoo issue because of the spot display shown at bottom right. I believe this was the only Topps novelty product sold this way (this was their first novelty) as they flipped to a box for their next release, Hocus Focus ( which is commonly known as Magic Photo to avoid confusion with the similar 1955 issue):

The colored bubble gum of Tatoo was also carried through to Magic Photo, as the ad copy shows.

The Tatoo spot display is rare.  I have one and have never seen another. Tatoo was quickly reissued in a slightly different size and multiple configurations in 1949 so I don't think a ton of product came out in '48.

The canister follow the "circus" theme Topps used in some of its 1948-49 ad campaigns and product designs:

Here's that sideshow strongman, check out those muscles LOL:

The bottom of the display shows how paper was "pulped" (we call it recycled now).  You can see two letters "sa" peeking through:

Topps had the goods when it came to artists thanks to their "inside out" art agency Solomon & Gelman.  A staggering amount of talent did work for them over the years but Al Capp looks like he was the first big name to do so.

Boo!!!!!

Well kids, I didn't think I would be able to pull off a Hallowe'en themed post this year but a fortuitous eBay listing (and win!) has come to the rescue. And it features something I never really knew existed.

Topps began Hallowe'en themed sales programs very early in the classic Bazooka era (1947 until 1982, when Bazooka Joe and the Gang got a makeover) and as we have seen, issued a product called Trick or Treat Gum around 1950.  I've seen only a few of their Hallowe'en brochures over the years but a couple feature somewhat klunky "loot bags" that I always assumed were just appropriately themed bags of bubblegum tabs that could be dumped into an existing retail display.  It never occurred to me that these bags, generally filled with 100 or so pieces of Bazooka, were meant to be purchased whole with the contents being handed out by mom while junior grabbed the bag while trick or treating.

This is a prime example of such an offering:

Looks like a paper mask came along for the ride!  The bag itself is the size of a large lunch bag, so I doubt the average kid back in the day would want to deal with something so small. The dating is a little tricky but not too daunting. 

This is a better look at the bag detail:

Prior to the middle of 1958 that upper left corner of the wrapper said "The Atom" before it was changed to "Topps". So it's from 1958 or later.  How much later is a little hard to say without a brochure from the right year but if you look at the graphics there is no little symbol showing Bazooka as a registered trademark after the "a" on the front but it's there on the bottom-whether it means anything having it and not having it on the same item I can't quite say right now and they may have just mixed and matched for years. They were also using full color graphics on the loot bags by 1965, so it's no later than 1964.

The bottom of the bag also has a couple of clues:

"Young America's Favorite" was in use still in 1963 (and possibly '64 but I can't find wrapper scans from that year), tho' I can't quite figure when they stopped using the Parents Magazine seal.  So no help really from the bottom, at least without further research. 

So right now I have a possible range from 1958-64. I'll have to keep digging.

There was no help from the inside by the way:

Oh yeah, I found this next one in some weird Pinterest eBay aggregation.  I think it's from 1949 as Al Capp was doing work for them at the time, or so I believe.  Plus, the Twin Chews (penny tabs) had only debuted that year and the Circus-like lettering at the top fits that year as well:

That is one outstanding piece of Topps history, I'd love to find one of the point of sale posters someday!