Store Displays

Gibraltar Paper was a company that produced many of the incredible cardboard store displays of the 1950's and 60's. Kool AId, Jello and Nabisco were just a few of the companys they worked with. These images all come from a catlog of things they produced. The first two photos are of their displays at trade shows.

Zolar of Hercules

Zolar was one of Los Angeles' many local TV show hosts. This amazing poster turned up at the flea market on Sunday and was promptly purchased. For more info on him and other LA tv hosts like Engineer BIll and Sheriff John go to the Local Legends site.

Fruit Stripe Commercial

The guys over at Bedazzled have just loaded up a great 1960's Fruit Strip Gum commercial. Click on the image to get directly to it and while there check out their other great offerings!

Misfit Toy

While getting some dolls ready to take with me for my talk on Saturday, I found this little Mr Toast suffered a mishap at the factory, he was made with 2 left feet! It is kind of ironic with my being in the show "From the Island of Misfit Toys." Well the talk is on Saturday at 1PM at the Ben Maltz Gallery, I will be there with my misfit Mr Toast.

Bell Brand Potato Chips

Bell Brand chips were a southern California brand. This group of photos includes some from the 50's and 60's. Nice grocery store display set ups, promo photos and behind the scenes distribution pics.

Sugar Crisp Variations

Kellogg's Sugar Crisp?!?!? The box on the right is from Venezuela where I guess Kellogg's distributed Sugar Crisp in 1966. The image on the left is some preliminary art that was mocked up and eventully done in guache for the actual boxes which are shown below. All the boxes are 1 ounce snack packs. I love trying to collect all the weird little variants that were put out in the marketplace.

Gordon Parks dies

He was 93. He was the first black photographer to work for LIFE magazine and was also the director of Shaft. He was also a writer and composer.

Self Destructive

More Mr Toast

Our first photo is from Jess Hutch. Jess is a softie creator extraodinaire and great taker of photos. Her site can be found here and her blog here. Her Robot design is a true work of art.

Mr Toast got a trip to the car show to see the Munstermobile with the Burkett girls.

Contest winner Debra Potipcop is having a fun time teaching Mr Toast to ride with her dog Sparky. They seem to be getting on famously.

Lastly Thomas Gill contiues to update the ongoing adventures of his Mr Toast on his blog Tom's Mr Toast Photos.

Ton O Gum & Candy Graphics

A couple years ago I collected together all of our gum and candy items and digitally shot them. Here are a few of my favorites including an incredible Fruit Stripe ad with one of my favorite graphics of all time.

Kid with Pretzel

Upcoming Events

I have a few things coming up in the next two weeks. First up is a pair of talks at the Ben Maltz Gallery in conjunction with the show I am in "From the Island of Misfit Toys.

Saturday March 11th at 1 PM
Thursday March 16th at Noon

I will have comics, dolls and buttons for sale and free posters for everybody. The talk will be about 30 minutes and be about the history of Mr Toast and the Imaginary World - click here for more info and here for directions.

And then starting Friday March 17th until Sunday March 19th, I will be set up at the Wizard World LA comic book convention. I will have comics, dolls, t shirts, posters, buttons, etc for sale and will be happy to do pencil sketches. Go to the WIZARD WORLD SITE to get directions, show hours and parking info. The show is at the LA Convention Center near downtown & the Staples Center.

Hopefully I will see a few blog readers at these events, it would be fun to meet you.