Vintage Easter Stuff & Easter In Berlin (1960)

Since Easter is just two weeks away, let's take a look at some vintage Easter "stuff"!

This vintage item is the "Decoregger Egg Decorating Machine," from the 1970s.  It was purchased at our local "Lucky" Supermarket, for only .99 cents (note the original price tag, which is still attached to the box).  This "machine" was supposed to help you to decorate your hard-boiled eggs with colored markers, instead of dyeing them.

The instructions were on the back of the box.  From what I remember, this thing didn't work quite like I was expecting it to.  I never got anything close to what the egg on the front of the box looked like.

I still have the colored pens, and the envelope they came in.

And here's the actual contraption.

This next item is also from my childhood.  It's a cardboard cutout for a chocolate-covered marshmallow bunny "on-a-stick."  It was sort of like a very large sucker, except it was "soft" because it contained marshmallow inside.  The candy came wrapped in cellophane, with this cutout tied to the outside.  This is also from the 1970s, and was included in my Easter basket one year.

Here's an older version, from the 1960s.  I wasn't born yet, but my older brother got one of these in his Easter basket.  The graphics are a little different, and there is additional writing on the bunny's sign, but I'm guessing that it came from the same manufacturer.  I believe variations of this type of candy "on-a-stick" are still available today, for different holidays.

That same year, my mom and dad took my brother to The Broadway department store (in the Del Amo Shopping Center, in Torrance, CA), for an "Easter portrait."  The photo came in a card-like holder, with these cool graphics on the cover.

And here is the photo.  I especially like that leaping rabbit in the background.  It's reminiscent of a leaping reindeer figure that might be seen at a "Santa Claus" meet & greet.  It looks like Mr. Bunny has a furry mitten on one hand, but is missing the mitten on the other hand.  It also appears that Mr. Bunny had a microphone attached to his chest, so he could talk to his young visitors.  "Okay kid, get down now.....it's time for my cigarette break!" (Spoken in a "Krusty The Clown" voice.)

A few years back, my aunt gave me this vintage plastic "cake topper."  I love how the bunny is just randomly hugging a 1950s-style rocket.  The rocket's shape reminds me of the Moonliner rocket, from Disneyland's 1955 Tomorrowland.

Going back even further in time, here's an Easter card from 1945.  This was given to my mom, by her parents.

However, they actually gave her this card in 1981.  I'm not sure if they had saved this for 36 years and had just not used it, or if they found this vintage card for sale somewhere (ebay didn't exist back then!).

The back of the card shows that it was a "Hallmark Card," and includes the copyright date of 1945.

This Norcross brand card is most likely from the late 1960s, and was given to my dad, by my brother.

 

And this Charm Craft card was given to my brother in the 1960s, by our great-grandmother (the same one who brought her home-cooked fried chicken into Disneyland, during one of my family's visits to the park).

I took piano lessons during my childhood, and my teacher had me learn the song, "Peter Cottontail."  The sheet music has a copyright date of 1950 down in the lower left corner, but Wikipedia states that the song was written in 1949.  The same songwriters, Nelson and Rollins, wrote "Frosty The Snowman" the following year.

Nelson and Rollins also wrote non-Easter-related lyrics to Peter Cottontail, which later appeared on the Disneyland Record, "Peter Cottontail - Plus Other Funny Bunnies and their Friends."

My aunt also gave me this vintage advertising card, or as they seem to be referred to in ebay listings, "trade card."  It's the same size and thickness of a typical postcard.  Huyler's was a candy store chain in New York, which operated from 1874 to 1964.  For a time, it was the largest and most prominent chocolate maker in the United States.  According to Wikipedia, Milton S. Hershey worked for Huyler's from 1883 to 1885, and then went back to his home state of Pennsylvania to start his own company!

Back in 1989, I purchased a few vintage postcards during a trip to Victoria, British Columbia.  And just like the vintage Valentine postcard that I shared back in February of 2022, most of the details on this one are embossed.

The card was postmarked April, 1909.  When I bought this, it was already 80 years old, but now it is 116!  I have to say that it has held up pretty well, even though the back has some light staining.  The sender's message was, "To My Dear Uncle,  It is coming round to our birthday.  I go to school everyday.  I like my teacher.  Love to my uncle John, from your (nephew?) Earl"  (I added the punctuation, because the child didn't use any!)  Earl's uncle, John A. Harper, lived in Waterloo, Ontario.  I've had this card for 35 years, but only after getting it out recently to scan for this post (and doing a little research on those names), have I discovered that Earl was my 10th cousin twice removed, and John was my 9th cousin three times removed!  It really is a small world, after all!

I hope everyone has an egg-cellent Easter!  ;-)

****Update****

Once again, I've decided to share some of my dad's photos, which he took when he was stationed at McNair Barracks, in Berlin.  To see more of his vintage U.S. Army photos, check out my Veteran's Day post from November of 2024.

These pics are all from Easter of 1960, and were taken on the base, inside the All American Service Club (where my mom worked as a recreation director).  The Service Club staff had invited German children from a local orphanage, to come to the base and enjoy some Easter festivities.

I'm guessing that the club's recreation directors got one of the soldiers to dress up as the "Easter Bunny."  They used to "recruit" the soldiers on the base, to participate in the various Club activities and stage shows.

Most of the kids in this pic are holding up their Easter baskets.  The girl in the polka dot dress is also holding onto a plush rabbit.  And a boy to the right of her is holding up a box labeled, "Dominoes."

Many of the soldiers really enjoyed spending time with the children, especially the soldiers with children of their own, who were now thousands of miles away back home in the U.S.  Notice the drink dispenser in the background.  I looked up the translation of what's written on the side.  "Erfrische Dich" means, "Catch Yourself," and "Trink Coca-Cola Immer Eiskalt" means, "Drink Coca-Cola - Always Cold/Icy."  That door on the right led to the Service Club's offices, and also the base's Craft Shop (wood, metal, leather), Music Room, Library, and the Photo Lab, where my dad spent a LOT of his spare time, developing and printing all of the photos that he took.

It looks like these children might have been playing "musical chairs," or as it's called in German, "Reise Nach Jerusalem" (The Journey to Jerusalem).

Based on the reel to reel tape recorder on the table, and what looks like a microphone in front of the little girl, I'm guessing that they were letting the kids record their voices and then letting them hear it played back.  The lady in the uniform (with the "U.S. Army Service Clubs" patch on the shoulder), was Carol Murphy, who's title was "Club Director."

The recreation director leaning over in this photo was Dagmar Kunz, a very good friend of my mom's.  They did some local sightseeing together, whenever their time off from work corresponded with one another.

And the lady in this photo, being "piled on" by kids, was Shirley Robinson, the "Assistant Club Director."  She was another good friend of my mom's.

Here's Shirley, again.  It looks like she is taking candy out of that paper bag, and handing it out to the children.  Dagmar can also be seen in the background (leaning over, again).  To the right of her, is someone dressed as a hobo.  And the two women above Shirley's head are, Carol Murphy (left), and my mom (right).  For some strange reason, this is the only photo that my dad took during this Easter event, in which my mom appears.

This soldier appears with the same little girl, in the next two photos.

From the looks of the flat wooden stick, it appears this child was being fed some ice cream.

At this point, they all went out outside.  The kids are holding eggs, so I'm guessing they were either participating in an Easter egg hunt, or were going to have an Easter egg rolling contest.  Or both!  Of course, the eggs could have been rotten, and the kids might have been plotting to fling them over the fence, at local passersby.

And just as I have shared some portraits of some of the soldiers at McNair Barracks, I'm going to share individual shots of some of the All American Service Club staff (who we saw above).  I'm hoping that some of the families of the many people my dad photographed, will somehow come across the photos I've posted.

These first two pics are of Dagmar Kunz, taken in the office of the All American Service Club.

My mom's desk is in the background of this next shot!

These next two photos are of Shirley Robinson.  As the Assistant Club Director, her desk was actually on the other side of that glass wall, alongside the desk of the Club Director, Carol Murphy.  Shirley is cutting out the pictures from a Trans World Airlines calendar.  We can just make out the words, "Fly The Finest - FLY TWA."

In this shot, Shirley is just outside the perimeter of McNair Barracks.  There was an "Autobus" stop just out of view, which provided convenient transportation for both the soldiers, and the non-enlisted staff.  The Service Club staff all lived off-base, in housing that was paid for by the U.S. Department of the Army.

Last up, we have two photos of the Club Director, Carol Murphy, who we previously only saw from behind.

This photo was taken in the base's Craft Shop, and came from a batch that my dad had labeled, "All American Club Craft Shop - Publicity Photos for Craft Week."

 

50th Anniversary of Walt Disney's The Happiest Millionaire (Mega Post!)

This year marked the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney's, The Happiest Millionaire. The film was the very last live-action film that Walt Disney oversaw production on, before passing away in December of 1966.

The Happiest Millionaire was originally a 1956 Broadway play, starring Walter Pidgeon in the title role.

The play itself, was based on the book, My Philadelphia Father by Cordelia Drexel Biddle (with Kyle Chrichton), which was published in 1955 and told the story of her eccentric millionaire father, Anthony J. Drexel Biddle and his family.

Walt Disney aquired the rights to the story in the early sixties, but he wasn't planning to make it a musical until the huge box office success of Mary Poppins in 1964. The Sherman Brothers, fresh off of their double Academy Award win with Mary Poppins (for Best Score and Best Song), were brought in again, to compose the music for The Happiest Millionaire.

I'm going to attempt to give a condensed synopsis of the movie. For anyone that wants to skip my synopsis, you can scroll down to the image of the white plastic "Happiest Millionaire" VHS case from Walt Disney Home Video and the other film-related merchandise.

Okay, here we go. Picture it....Philadelphia, 1916! "Elegant" millionaire, Anthony J. Drexel Biddle (Fred Mac Murray) and his wife (Greer Garson) live in a large Philadelphia mansion with their "elegant" family and a handful of servants.

John Lawless (Tommy Steele), an Irish immigrant who is "one day off-the-boat," comes dancing down the street and singing about a potential job that is "nearly" his, with said "elegant millionaire and his elegant family." He tells us that we might call that luck and we might call it fortune, but he calls it, "Fortuosity."

"Fortuosity," is his byword. It also happens to be his "never feel alone" word, and his "twinkle in the eye" word.

Among the Biddle family members are tomboyish daughter, Cordelia/"Cordy" (Lesley Ann Warren). While growing up, Cordy was taught how to box by her father, who happens to run a boxing school at home under the name, "Biddle Bible Class."

Cordy has two brothers, Livingston (former Mouseketeer, Paul Peterson on the left) and Tony (Eddie Hodges on the right). They are always scaring away Cordy's potential suitors, by warning them that if they get too amorous with her, she'll give them "a jab, a right hook, or an uppercut!" Of course they do this through song ("Watch Your Footwork").

This leads Cordy to question her femininity. While looking into her bedroom mirror, she asks herself if she's "Valentine Candy" or boxing gloves.

John Lawless ends up getting hired as the butler and that's cause for a song and dance number with Mr. Biddle, Cordy and one of their servants, Mrs. Worth (Hermione Baddeley).

Yes, Hermione Baddeley....the Banks' maid in Mary Poppins and Bea Arthur's maid in Maude.

At the suggestion of Cordy's aunt Mary (Gladys Cooper), Cordy chooses to leave home and go off to a boarding school for girls.

While away at school, Cordy's roommate, Rosemary (Joyce Bullifant) teaches her how to "vamp it up" and land herself a man. Through a song called "Bye-Yum Pum Pum," she tells her that it's necessary for her to "slink across the floor as if it's a dreadful bore!" She also adds that she must be "oh-so mysterioso," because "the men in college always acknowledge, a woman who dances in a trance." This song might just be my favorite in the category of "little-known Sherman Brothers songs."

Cordy and Rosemary attend a society party, where Cordy figures she will be able to use her newly acquired man-luring techniques. Rosemary is the blond doing the tango on the far right.

Cordy is off in another room practicing her vamping, when Angier "Angie" Duke (John Davidson) sees her and tells her that she isn't like the other girls and that he likes that.

They end up waltzing while singing, "Are We Dancing?" Personally, I think this scene is a little reminiscent of the one from Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1965 TV Special, "Cinderella," in which Lesley Ann Warren dances with Stuart Damon while singing "Ten Minutes Ago." But that's not a bad thing!

Cordy and Angie fall in love during a montage of scenes showing them going on dates, which mostly seem to involve driving all around the countryside in his car.

Angie's passion turns out to be automobiles, and his dream is to move to Detroit and "invent new motors and design new rotors," as he declares in the song, "Detroit."

Meanwhile back in the Biddle household....did I mention that Mr. Biddle raises alligators? That's just one of the things that makes him an eccentric millionaire. Well, a window is left open in the conservatory where the alligators are kept, and being wintertime in Philadelphia, the alligators freeze! John Lawless helps Mr. Biddle thaw out his "babies" by the fireplace, and then has to wrangle them back into their holding pools in the conservatory.

Okay, here is where the movie (and probably this post) starts to feel a little long. And since I'm short on images for this last part of the film anyway, I'll speed it up a little.

Cordy comes back home with Angie and they announce their engagement to the family. Mr. Biddle isn't too happy about it at first, but Angie eventually wins him over. Cordy meets Angie's snooty-patootie mother, Mrs. Duke (Geraldine Page). There ends up being some conflicts and misunderstandings among the families and Cordy ends up calling off the wedding. The primary problem being, that Angie gives up on his own personal dream of going to Detroit and decides to enter into the family's tobacco business, because that's what his mother expects him to do.

Angie goes to a bar to drink and decides that he is going to (among other things) just run off and join the Foreign Legion. John Lawless, who was sent to follow him and look after him, starts a fight at the bar to keep Angie from running out and doing anything rash.

Angie ends up getting arrested. The families come to bail him out and that is when he stands up to his mother and tells her that he is going to follow his own dreams after all. He picks up Cordy and throws her over his shoulder and they run off to elope.

And they all lived happily ever after!

The movie was originally 164 minutes in length, for it's initial premiere in New York City. For it's Los Angeles premiere, the film was edited down to 144 minutes. The studio ended up shortening it even further (by another 26 minutes) for it's general release. The movie was not a financial success and unlike many of Disney's earlier films, it was never re-released in movie theaters. I saw The Happiest Millionaire for the very first time, after it was released on Walt Disney Home Video in 1983 (the 144 minute version).

I always say that it's an odd little movie (okay, not so little) but I completely fell in love with it and it's soundtrack (with the exception of the two songs Fred MacMurray sings by himself). After watching it that first time, it didn't take me very long to find a used copy of the soundtrack on vinyl.

I recently did a search on ebay, to see what other merchandise might have been available at the time the film was released. I found a small selection of items, including this comic book.

A book of paper dolls also turned up in my search.

Joyce Bulifant's character (Rosemary) was represented on the back cover.

And here's a strange movie tie-in, a book of The Happiest Millionaire "play money."

A coloring book and children's records were also available back in 1967. I wonder if any of these items were sold at Disneyland?

A songbook was published, containing all of the Sherman Brothers music from the film.

Individual sheet music was also available.

In 2002, the soundtrack was remastered and re-released on CD, and included two bonus tracks. One of these is, "It Won't Be Long 'til Christmas," which is a song that was cut for the shorter versions of the film. The other is a demo track (sung by Richard Sherman), for a song that never made it past the pre-production stages.

And in 2004, Disney released the original "Roadshow Edition" (the long version) of the film on DVD.

We will wrap up this post with a few "sort-of-related" tidbits here:

The same year that The Happiest Millionaire premiered, Club 33 opened at Disneyland. Located in New Orleans Square, the private club is decorated with many historic and antique pieces. A phone booth was specially built for the club, using the leaded glass panels from the phone booth featured in the film. The original prop can be seen on the far right of the photo below.

Here's a picture showing the Club 33 phone booth, back in 2010.

Lesley Ann Warren visited Disneyland in 2012 and was photographed with Mickey in front of the film-inspired piece. (Photo from the Disney Parks Blog.)

Also on display in Club 33 are Bill Thomas' costume sketches for The Happiest Millionaire. Mr. Thomas was nominated for an Academy Award for his costume design (the film's only nomination), but lost to John Truscott for his costume designs for the film, Camelot.

Lesley Ann Warren and John Davidson were paired up once again, in the 1968 Walt Disney film, The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band. (That film will have to be the subject of a future post......maybe.)

In 1974, The Happiest Millionaire song, "Fortuosity" was sung by Ruth Buzzi and Sandy Duncan during the TV special, Sandy In Disneyland. The interesting thing here is, that they sing the song while traipsing through a Doombuggy-less Haunted Mansion. I remember seeing this as a kid and thinking, I want to do that!



That same 1974 TV special also happens to include John Davidson, singing with Sandy Duncan while strolling down Main Street. Right after that, he sings The Carpenters song, "Top Of The World" while riding on the Main Street Fire Engine. I've included the link to the special in it's entirety, just in case anyone is interested. (John Davidson's appearance begins at the 24:23 mark.)



Fast-forwarding six years to 1980....John Davidson was on hand at Walt Disney World, to unveil the Magic Kingdom's newest attraction, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

This year, Disney actually came out with a 50th anniversary pin for The Happiest Millionaire. The pin was available exclusively to Disney cast members.

The pin's design was taken from the cover of this 1967 long-playing children's record.

A very happy 50th anniversary to Walt Disney's The Happiest Millionaire!

**BONUS!** Major Pepperidge of Gorillas Don't Blog, has generously offered to share some Happiest Millionaire-related items from his collection. Thank you, Major!

This first item is a special 1967 Disneyland Grad Nite flyer.

It offers Grad Nite attendees the chance to buy discounted tickets for The Happiest Millionaire, which was playing at The Pantages Theater in Hollywood.

This second item is an ad from the back cover of a "Two Wonderful Ways To Enjoy Disneyland" flyer.

Now I'm wondering if over they years, tickets for other Disney films were available at Disneyland's Main Gate?