Slats Marion, baseball's best shortstop

It's summertime.¹ Baseball is still America's true national pastime. I'm going to make Tuesdays "Baseball Day" on Papergreat this summer...

This small clipping was floating around, untagged, in my ephemera collection.² It's definitely from the middle 1940s, as there's a reference to World War II on the back. And I'd also guess that it's from Grit.

Slats Marion's full name was Martin Whiteford Marion. He was best known as Marty Marion, and his two nicknames were Slats³ and The Octopus.

Here's some of the scoop on Slats:

• He played for 11 seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals (1940-1950) and then was the manager of the Cardinals in 1951. He then spent the second half of 1952 and all of 1953 as player/manager for the St. Louis Browns. ⁴
• The Cardinals won the World Series three times (1942, 1944, 1946) during Marion's time with them. This, no doubt, helped to solidify Marion's status as "Baseball's Best Shortstop" in the eyes of the public. And he was considered the shortstop in Cardinals history until Osborne Earl Smith came along in 1982.
• According to BaseballHistorian.com: "As a child, Marty fell into a 20-foot pit and spent better than six months in a body cast, his right leg was severely injured giving him a trick knee which kept him out of World War II and shorted his major league career."
• Marion won the National League MVP award in 1944, when he batted .267 with six home runs, 50 runs scored and 63 RBIs. As you might imagine, it's considered one of the more controversial MVP awards. Among the players Marion beat out were the Chicago Cubs' Bill Nicholson, who led the NL with 33 home runs and 122 RBIs and teammate Stan Musial, who batted .347 and led the National League in hits (197), doubles (51), on-base percentage (.440), slugging percentage (.549) and OPS (.990).
  
  Musial himself was not unhappy about the MVP voting. He stated: “I think this was the greatest tribute to defensive play in the history of the MVP Award.”⁵
  
  BaseballEvolution.com, on the other hand, argues that Marion's 1944 MVP award is the greatest MVP snub of all time: "In short, Marty Marion beat out easily 10 more qualified players on his own team for the NL MVP in 1944. The only explanation I can come up with is that he was incredibly good looking, and all the male baseball writers had been shipped off to World War II, leaving only the women to vote for the MVP that year."⁶

• Finally, here's my favorite piece of Marion-related information. For a season-and-a-half, in 1941 and 1942, his double-play partner was Frank Angelo Joseph Crespi -- better known as Creepy Crespi (right). According to Crespi's Wikipedia page, Creepy had a tremendous run of bad luck after playing his final game with the Cardinals in 1942 at age 24:
  

  Crespi was drafted into the army in early 1943. Though he qualified for a deferment as the sole supporter of his elderly mother, he refused, claiming, "I don't think I'm too good to fight for the things I've always enjoyed."
  
  During an Army baseball game in Kansas, he suffered a compound fracture of his left leg while turning a double play. Soon afterwards, he broke the same leg during a training accident, and later he broke it a third time during an impromptu wheelchair race while in the hospital.
  
  While he was recuperating at the hospital, a nurse accidentally applied 100 times the appropriate quantity of boric acid to his bandages, causing severe burns on Crespi's leg and leaving him with a permanent limp.

  Unable to play baseball any more, Crespi went to to become a budget analyst for McDonnell Douglas. He died of a heart attack in 1990.

Marion, meanwhile, lived a long life and died this past March at age 93.

Footnotes
1. Well, technically not until June 21.
2. I could use an official curator of my archives. Anyone need a free summer internship?
3. He was called "Slats" because of his long and limber frame. He was 6-foot-2, which was tall for a shortstop in that era.
4. In the following season (1954), the St. Louis Browns became the modern-day Baltimore Orioles.
5. Source: "How Marty Marion won MVP by one point" on RetroSimba.
6. There was eventually some irony and balancing-out here. In 1944, less-deserving Cardinals shortstop Marty Marion edged Cubs slugger Bill Nicholson for MVP. In 1987, less-deserving Cubs slugger Andre Dawson edged Cardinals shortstop Ozzie Smith for MVP. And Smith had far greater offensive numbers (.303 average, 104 runs, 43 stolen bases) in 1987 than Marion had in 1944.

Rev. Rickard's complimentary copy of "Good-by to G.I."

Tucked inside this copy of 1945's "Good-by to G.I." by Maxwell Droke was the above card, which is addressed to Rev. Harry C. Rickard. It states, in part:

• "We hope that it will prove to be a very helpful book."
• "We very much desire to have the Chaplains see this book and so are sending you this copy which you will please accept with our compliments. If you have any opinions about it, we will be glad to have them."

The book, which sold for $1, is a guide for American soldiers returning home from World War II. Here's an excerpt from the dust jacket:

"Home, Mr. Veteran, is what you have been dreaming of these many months. But somehow home when you get there isn't quite like your dreams. Your new start in civilian life seems almost as bewildering as the first days of military life. You need some basic training again, and here is the guidebook that smooths your way through it."

The book's chapter titles include "How to Get Acquainted with Your Family and Friends," "The ONLY Girl - or How to Awaken from a Dandy Dream Without Losing Love," "The Old Job - or a New Opportunity," "Your Handicap - Face It and Forget It!" and "It's YOUR Country - from Now On."

Author Droke (1896-1957)¹, pictured at left, was a veteran of World War I and the son of a Methodist minister. During World War II, he edited The Messenger, a paper that Protestant churches sent monthly to "nearly a quarter of a million of their members in the armed forces."²

In the chapter "The School Bell and the Cash Register," Droke discusses the G.I. Bill and makes a interesting comparision of the returning veterans of World War I and World War II:

"In one respect at least you men who are coming out of World War II have it all over the group to which I belonged a generation ago. If you can qualify under certain very liberal regulations - and a majority of you can - you may pick up your educational program just about where it was so rudely interrupted, and your Uncle Samuel will pay all expenses, including an allowance for spending money. To be entirely fair in the matter, however, we should point out that this liberal educational provision of the current G.I. Bill of Rights would have been quite impracticable back in 1918-19. It would not have met the situation for two primary reasons: (1) the average soldier was considerably older³, and (2) he lacked the foundational structure to absorb additional education.

"Education was not, I regret to say, too highly regarded by the rank and file of the armed forces in my day."

And who was the Rev. Harry C. Rickard, who received this complimentary copy of "Good-by to G.I."?

For one thing, he was an author, just like Droke. In 1954, he published "Hospital Chaplain (Europe 1944-1947)," which is now a hard-to-find volume.

And the work of Rickard and his wife live on through a bequest to the Virginia United Methodist Foundation that is described in the the September 2007 edition of the foundation's newsletter:

A bequest of $894,000 has been received by the Virginia United Methodist Foundation to assist the work of the Foundation and five other United Methodist causes. The bequest comes from the estate of Mrs. Reba C. Rickard, the wife of a deceased former chaplain and clergy member of the Virginia Conference, the Reverend Harry C. Rickard. ...

“This is a wonderful example of a couple who believed profoundly in the connectional work of the church and left a major portion of their estate to assist these causes,” said Jim Bergdoll, president of the Conference Foundation in announcing this gift. The funds received in the bequest will establish the Harry C. and Reba C. Rickard Endowment Fund in the Virginia United Methodist Foundation.

Chaplain Rickard was a member of the Virginia Conference for 42 years but served in the chaplaincy of the US Army for 20 years. He and Mrs. Rickard retired in Strasburg following his last appointment at Greenville-Mint Spring in the Staunton District. He died in 1999. Mrs. Rickard was in a nursing home in Woodstock at the time of her death in April 2006. She had worked in the area of Christian education and was active in various church work. During retirement, she and Mr. Rickard had been associated with Strasburg United Methodist Church and were supportive of that church through the years.

I think that Droke, the World War I veteran who worked to help World War II veterans, and Rickard, who ministered to soldiers during the 1940s and remained active in ministry for decades afterward, would like that they remain linked in history through this 66-year-old complimentary copy of "Good-by to G.I."

Footnotes
1. Here's a link to the best bibliography I could find of Droke's works.
2. The source for the Droke's biographical information is the dust jacket of "Good-by to G.I."
3. This is Droke's footnote at that spot in the text: "The minimum draft age in World War I was 20; it is now 18."

Papergreat's origin story

So where did the word "Papergreat" come from, anyway?

If you're a fan of the band Genesis, as I am, then you probably caught the reference right away.

Here's the full rundown on "Why is this blog called Papergreat?", complete with footnotes and tangents:

AUGUST 1973: Genesis -- which at that time consisted of lead vocalist Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Steve Hackett, Mike Rutherford¹ and drummer Phil Collins -- records the song "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight," which is to be the first track on the album Selling England by the Pound.

"Dancing with the Moonlight Knight" opens with the following lyrics:

"Can you tell me where my country lies?"
said the unifaun² to his true love's eyes.
"It lies with me!" cried the Queen of Maybe
- for her merchandise, he traded in his prize.

"Paper late!" cried a voice in the crowd.
"Old man dies!" The note he left was signed 'Old Father Thames'
- it seems he's drowned;
selling England by the pound.

And so that was the first use, in lyrics, by Genesis of the phrase "Paper late." It's a phrase that kids selling the evening newspaper on street corners in England used to cry out.

MAY-JUNE 1981: Genesis now consists of just lead vocalist/drummer Collins, Banks and Rutherford. The group records "Paperlate," taking the title from their previous "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight." (The two songs couldn't be more different. "Paperlate" is an upbeat pop song³ with generic lyrics that feature no unifauns, mythological references or deep meaning.) A sampling:

Paperlate
Ooh I'm sorry but there's no one on the line
Paperlate
Oh I'm sorry but rest easy no news is good news

1982: "Paperlate" was released to the world in the following ways:⁴

• As a single in the United States on May 15, 1982, with the B-side of "You Might Recall."
• As one of three songs on the EP album 3X3, which was released on May 21, 1982.⁵ The covers of both the "Paperlate" single (pictured above) and 3X3 album are an homage to The Beatles' 1963 EP Twist and Shout. The other two songs on the EP are "You Might Recall" and "Me and Virgil."⁶
• As one of the songs on the United States version of Three Sides Live, which was released on June 1, 1982. (This is how I first heard "Paperlate," when I bought Three Sides Live on cassette sometime in the period of 1989-1991.) The international version of Three Sides Live, a double album, had three sides of live material from Genesis' 1981 tour. There were two different versions of the fourth side put into release:
• The version that went out to North America and some other parts of the world features the studio songs "Paperlate", "You Might Recall", "Me and Virgil", "Evidence of Autumn" and "Open Door" on the fourth side.
• The UK version featured other live performances from previous tours on the fourth side. So, no "Paperlate."
• "Paperlate" is also available on Genesis Archive #2: 1976–1992, a box set that was released on November 6, 2000.

JANUARY 2010: My first stab at an ephemera blog, Relics, has a short-lived run of 15 entries.

NOVEMBER 25, 2010: Papergreat, an homage to "Paperlate," (and, frankly, a much cooler name than "Relics") has its debut post. Having a unique word as the blog title turned out to be pretty cool. It's sort of the "unifaun" of blog names.

So, here's a video of Genesis performing the catchy "Paperlate," if you've never heard the tune:





Footnotes
1. Rutherford's full name is Michael John Cleote Crawford Rutherford.
2. I used to think Gabriel was saying "uniform," not "unifaun". I was half right. It's kind of a portmanteau. George Starostin, in this insightful analysis of the full lyrics of "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" states:

'Unifaun' is supposed to be a pun, a cross between 'uniform' and 'faun' - the 'faun' brings in the mythological element, while the 'uniform' brings in certain military associations. Patriotic lament over the fate of one's country?

There is also some discussion of "unifaun" and the song in general on The Straight Dope message board. Member "Johanna" wrote in 2003: "The song 'Dancing with the Moonlit Night' is about the ironic contrast between the romantic glamor of medieval England and the drab commercialism of modern England, both worlds overlaid on one another and interpenetrating in the singer's imagination. The unicorn is a symbol of the English nation — order and rule, while the faun is a symbol of wild nature — randy and untameable. Packed together they make an ironic contrast. The whole song is an exercise in wordplay. The fat old lady dealing out credit cards instead of Tarot cards is like T.S. Eliot's Madame Sesostris from The Waste Land, only satirical."
3. "Paperlate" is one of two Genesis songs that feature the Earth, Wind & Fire horn section. The other is "No Reply at All."
4. Disclaimer: I am not an expert discographer. And I don't play one on TV. This is not intended as the definitive word on the releases of "Paperlate" from the Genesis catalog.
5. 3X3 was one of two EPs released by Genesis. The other was 1977's Spot the Pigeon, a somewhat obscure (in America) release by the band that contains "Match of the Day", "Pigeons" and "Inside and Out."
6. Collins has said that the song "Me and Virgil" is "a dog" and refers to it as one of his worst pieces of writing.

Saturday's postcard: French people in love

OK, I'm still a bit exhausted after writing about 14 pieces of ephemera over the previous six days. So today's entry is going to be short.

I picked up this postcard at the wonderful Central Market here in York, Pennsylvania.¹ (Yes, there are a couple vendors who sell books and ephemera.)

I don't know much about it, other than the fact that it's from France. The postcard in unused.

This is the sum total of what's printed on the back:

• Carte Postale
• Èditions Superluxe-Paris
• Imprimé en France

Was this intended as a romantic or Valentine's Day card? Are these famous French film stars? Or is this just a run-of-the-mill, generic French postcard from sometime in the period of 1930-1950?

Footnotes
1. I am, however, cranky about one thing regard Central Market. They had a free-standing, three-tiered circular shelf labeled "Free Books." A sign encouraged people to leave books and take books. What a great idea for community sharing! There was a nice selection of books on the shelf, too. After seeing this for the first time, I began to gather some of my nicer "give away" used books in a box at home. When it was full, I hauled it over to Central Market ... only to find that the community shelf had been emptied of its books and stowed off in the corner. This made me extremely grumpy.

Plucked from a yard sale, Part 6: Safe journeys, Quizmo and a lion

Today is the end of the journey in documenting 14 items that I picked up for a grand total of $1.25 at a yard sale last weekend. It turned out to be quite a fascinating haul, with far more interesting items than clunkers. The previous entries:

Part 1: Mister Rogers and How to Meet Men
Part 2: Pals Club activity book
Part 3: Painting, baseball and Pac-Man
Part 4: This and that ... and Scott Baio!
Part 5: Is this Dondi the elephant?

Item #12: Teacher's Triptik from 1954

This is a staplebound, 26-page pamphlet published in 1954 by the American Automobile Association for elementary school and junior high teachers.

It was prepared by Luverne Crabtree Walker, the elementary school supervisor for District of Columbia Schools. It offers different levels of tips and guidance for students of different grade levels.

Some excerpts:

• Cover the territory: Get the support of civic groups for the safety of school children. Spread the responsibility for safety over the whole community. Work for better traffic engineering and the safety education of drivers as well as pedestrians.
• A No. 1 necessity is the "triptik"¹ that shows the child's safest route to school. Teachers will want to develop these safest routes just as soon as possible with children. The first day of school is a good time to accent this safety precaution.

• The test of safety education is how children act when they are on their own. Safety education is the "life or death" area of the curriculum. So we cannot take too seriously our responsibility for developing desirable behavior patterns.

The pamphlet encourages traffic safety to be a topic in every school subject.

In language art, students can make a checklist of safety rules. In social studies, they can make a safety map of the neighborhood. In art, they can paint murals on traffic safety. In math, they can interpret safety statistics.

All in all, it's a nice and thorough guide that has plenty of smart ideas that still apply in 2011. (When perhaps we need all the help we can get.)

Item #13: Quizmo: An Educational Lotto

This a fully intact, 62-year-old educational game from Milton Bradley that's in great shape and can easily be used today.

The game is described as follows:

"An educational game played like Lotto² to give practice with addition and subtraction facts in arithmetic. Developed and recommended by prominent educators for grades 2 to 5, this game was created with the purpose of making arithmetic more enjoyable. There are enough cards for the whole class to play at once, or as few as two pupils may play if it is so desired."

Included in the game (see the photo below) are more than 40 double-sided Quizmo cards, calling cards (with one color for addition and another for subtraction), and markers to cover the answer numbers on the cards.

A whole series of Quizmo games are still available today, including an addition and subtraction version that seems nearly identical to this 1949 game.

This version that I picked up at the yard sale would still be great for a classroom or for home-schooling. The outer box is the only thing that shows any wear.

Item #14: "Mr. Yowder and the Lion Roar Capsules"

I picked up "Mr. Yowder and the Lion Roar Capsules" at the yard sale because it was in nice shape and the cover looked interesting. It was written by the late Glen Rounds³ and was published in 1976 by Xerox Education Publications.

While I was writing the first entry in this yard-sale series last Saturday, my son Ashar sat down next to me and started to look through the items I had purchased. He quickly read through the silly Pac-Man book and then turned her attention to "Mr. Yowder and the Lion Roar Capsules" (which I hadn't yet had a chance to leaf through).

It grabbed his attention from the start and he read the whole book (40+ pages), taking a break for dinner and then going right back to the tale afterward. He smiled a lot, laughed a few times and then became focused and solemn in the final pages. "That was a good book," he said as he finished and closed it.

And that, of course, made the 10 minutes spent at the yard sale and the $1.25 spent there more than worth it. It's rare for Ashar to read an entire book from start to finish, in essentially one sitting.⁴

Later, Joan and I checked out this book that had captured his attention. It's a smart tale, sad at times and funny at times. And it has an ending that you might not be prepared for, in terms of its suddenness and violence. But it seemed to make Joan sadder than Ashar, who had no problem with the ending.⁵

So I would have to recommend this book for kids ages 9 to 12. This copy isn't available, though. Ashar said he would like it to go on his bookshelf.

Footnotes
1. "Triptik" later became registered by AAA.
2. By Lotto, they mean Bingo.
3. For more about Rounds, see pages by Children's Literature Network, Pony Mad Booklovers, and Page Books.
4. He tends to be more of a browser, like his father.
5. Joan says the fictional fate of the lion in "Mr. Yowder and the Lion Roar Capsules" was even sadder than the real-life fate of Dondi the elephant in yesterday's post. Both made them misty-eyed, though.

Plucked from a yard sale, Part 5: Is this Dondi the elephant?

We're down to the final four items from the 14 that I acquired for $1.25 at a neighborhood yard sale last weekend. I'll do one today and finish up with the rest tomorrow. The previous entries:

Part 1: Mister Rogers and How to Meet Men
Part 2: Pals Club activity book
Part 3: Painting, baseball and Pac-Man
Part 4: This and that ... and Scott Baio!

Item #11: A photo of a performing elephant

Here's what's written in ink on the back of the above photo:

To Allecia & Andy
God Bless You
Dondi
Prov. 17:17

I fear that Dondi is the young elephant on the left. I say "fear" because a former performance elephant named Dondi died last summer at age 36 at Southwick's Zoo in Mendon, Massachusetts.

I pieced together the story of Dondi's life and death from various newspaper articles and other online sources.¹

• Dondi, an Asian elephant, was rescued from a lumber camp in Thailand in April 1975 by Phil and Francine Schacht. She became a member of the family and was the "flower girl" at the Schachts' son's wedding.
• She appeared on several TV shows over the years and performed at many fairs, circuses and theme parks across the country. Among her frequent stops were the Guilford Fair in Connecticut and Flea World in Sanford, Florida.²
• Her tricks included using a brush to make paintings, pitching a baseball, praying on her knees, and imitating a bumblebee, a lion and a chicken.³
• Dondi had been at Southwick's Zoo for about four years when she died in late July 2010. More than 60 people attended her memorial service and she was buried under a tree at the zoo.⁴
• Her death spurred questions. In Defense of Animals filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, urging an investigation into Dondi's death. "Dondi’s unexpected death raises a red flag because at age 36 she should have been in the prime of life," the organization stated on its blog.
• Catherine Doyle, the elephant campaign director for IDA, added the following, in a story published in The Milford Daily News: "The general idea is that elephants have a natural lifespan of 60 to 70 years. You'd expect elephants who are kept in captivity to be provided daily care and veterinary care (and) would actually live closer to that lifespan versus an elephant in the wild who's exposed to poaching, droughts and famine. ... Elephants [in zoos] are typically kept in inadequate conditions, like small pens, and made to stand on hard surfaces that damage knees and joints. They (can) suffer from arthritis and chronic foot infections. ... When you have arthritis and foot disease, that's the number one killer of elephants in zoos."
• A Southwick's Zoo spokesperson said Dondi had a tooth infection a week before her death, and Francine Schacht said Dondi had lost her molars, making it difficult for her to eat.
• Later, Southwick's Zoo officials said the necropsy report showed that Dondi suffered severe lung damage from chronic fibrosis and pneumonia, likely caused by tuberculosis.⁵ "(But) I don't know if we will ever have a definitive cause," said zoo veterinarian Peter Brewer. Dondi likely was exposed to tuberculosis in Thailand and carried it for all those years, undetected, Brewer added.

Here's one final interesting item I found relating to Dondi: Part of this October 3, 2007, blog entry on Brooklyn Vegan (scroll past the lady in her underwear) describes a visit by Dondi to New York City. There's a photo of Dondi, less than three years before her death, balancing on a small stool. Her painting easel can be seen in the background. The comments section of the blog entry turned into an interesting and spirited discussion regarding the treatment of animals that spend their lives as show performers. Deep within the comments, there's also a link to a photo of the sign about Dondi that the Schacht family posted at the NYC performance.

On deck from the yard-sale haul: Quizmo, a Teacher's Triptik and a sad book that my daughter couldn't stop reading.

Footnotes
1. Primary sources:

• "Dondi, remembered by friends" by Shoreline Times, August 5, 2010
• "Elephant's death to be investigated at Southwick's Zoo" by The Milford Daily News, August 3, 2010
• "Another Unexplained Elephant Death: Dondi Dies at the Southwick’s Zoo (Mass.)" by IDA (In Defense of Animals) Blog, July 30, 2010
• "TB may have been factor in Dondi the elephant's death" by Orlando Sentinel, November 24, 2010

2. I could not determine if Dondi ever appeared at the York Fair. Does anyone know if this was the case?
3. Another detail from the Shoreline Times article: "Harvey Smith, who heads the Guilford Fair’s entertainment committee and is its past president, recalls how visitors would stay after the fair closed to feed Dondi a piece of fruit. 'People could see Dondi for a dollar. Dondi would reach out with her trunk and take the dollar and put it in Phil’s pocket and the kid would feed her an apple. It was the sweetest thing. The way she was so gentle taking it out of the hand of a kid.'"
4. There's also a memorial page on Facebook for Dondi.
5. Here are two good sites on the topic of elephants and tuberculosis: Factsheet from Global Action Network and FAQ from Elephant Care International.

Plucked from a yard sale, Part 4: This and that ... and Scott Baio!

Previously on "Plucked from a yard sale"...

Part 1: Mister Rogers and How to Meet Men
Part 2: Pals Club activity book
Part 3: Painting, baseball and Pac-Man

Today, as I continue describing the yard-sale haul of 14 items for $1.25, we will discover that not every item acquired is a home run, but it's all worth it when you can snag some vintage Scott Baio ephemera.¹

Item #7: Famous Brand Triple Print Color Film

In addition to a children's educational game that I'll write about later this week, one of the first things that caught my eye at the yard sale was a torn and worn old box of camera film, with the film still inside.

It's a 12-exposure roll of Famous Brand Triple Print Color Film in a box stamped July 1973.² To get the film developed, you mailed it to a lab in Philadelphia along with $4.45.³

The "triple prints" that you would receive back included:

• 1 set of "beautiful color enlargements"
• 2 sets of "brilliant color wallet size photos"
• plus a new cartridge of 126 color film

On a photo.net forum, Mike Gammill wrote this about Triple Print in 2010:

I remember seeing Triple Print film ads during the 60's and early 70's. For a small price they would send you a roll, but the fine print read that only they could develop it. This may have meant only Triple Print could provide prints that way or that the film was not compatible with the then current C-22 process. Since one of the sizes it was offered in was 126 it is likely ASA 64 or 80. I once read somewhere that it was processed like the Agfacolor print film (non-C-22) of that day and may even have been made by Agfa, but I have nothing to back that up. FWIW I used some of this film in 1971 or so in my Instamatic 124 and found it to have rather lackluster color.

I have no idea whether this roll of film was ever used, or if the film is still viable. I could find out, but it would cost a pretty penny. Several companies offer to develop (or try to develop) old types of film. The Rocky Mountain Film Laboratory, for example, will process rolls of Triple Print for $42.50.

Item #8: "Attacking Zone Defenses in Basketball"

I'll admit it. This is the one item I bought because I was looking to "flip" it as part of our online bookstore. I have a fairly good eye for used books and figured that "Attacking Zone Defenses in Basketball" might be enough of a niche subject for the book to have a good market.

I whiffed.

On Amazon.com, there are three copies of this 1977 hardcover available for one penny (plus shipping).

How can you make money selling books for a penny on Amazon? You can't. But some fools think that you can. If you're really interested, this Amazon.com seller forum discusses the economics of selling books for a penny.

Personally, it's not usually worth my time to sell anything for less than $4.

Oh well. At least I'm all set if I want to take my career in a Norman Dale direction.

Item #9: "Care of the Eyes"

This is a 12-page pamphlet published by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. I can't find any definite source regarding the date of publication, but evidence points to the 1920s or 1930s.

Sections in the pamphlet include:

• The Eyes as Part of the Body
• How We See
• The Eyes at Work
• The Eyes in Infancy and Childhood
• Warnings of Eye Trouble
• The Correction of Eye Defects
• The Hygiene of Wearing Glasses
• Communicable Eye Diseases

I found a nearly identical copy of this pamphlet available on the BrothertownBooks shop on Etsy.com. They claim the pamphlet is from 1920, but don't give a source.

Their description of the artwork on the front and back covers is both poetic and informative. Here's an excerpt:

On the cover is a little boy standing on a bluff overlooking the ocean -- he is peering through a telescope at a distant sailing ship. His pet dog sits at his feet. Across a small inlet can be seen a lighthouse. Just below the bluff on which the boy stands can be seen the roof of a house, thus we know he is not far from home.⁴ ...
In the center of the rear cover is a line drawing in blue of the New York Metropolitan Life Insurance Building at 1 Madison Ave., which was built in 1909. It was then one of the tallest buildings in New York and was designed by architect Napoleon LeBrun. At the top of the structure in the picture are the words, "The light that never fails".

Item #10: SuperMag issue with Scott Baio

This magazine was in the box of stuff being given away for free! Can you believe it?!?⁵

It's a 1978 issue of SuperMag, a magazine for kids that was similar to the more-popular Dynamite.⁶

In addition to the cover story on the Baio, it includes stories on Fleetwood Mac, the tiny Key Deer, the historical and fictional versions of Dracula, and street games.

But the main attraction is Baio, who was already playing the popular supporting role of Chachi Arcola on "Happy Days."

According to SuperMag, Baio was hoping for even bigger things with a new starring role in "Who's Watching the Kids." But that show (does anyone even remember it?) bowed out after just 11 episodes.

And so Baio would have to wait until "Charles in Charge" to have his greatest career success.

The SuperMag article must have been disappointingly short for 1970s teenage girls who were hoping to learn more about the dreamboat from Brooklyn. It's only 10 sentences long. But the magazine doesn't scrimp on photos. There are five full-color pictures of Baio, including the centerfold poster (shown below), which is the perfect size for hanging up inside a school locker.⁷

On deck from the yard-sale haul: A photo of an elephant and a 1950s guide to school traffic safety.

Footnotes
1. Willie Aames not included. See store for details.
2. July 1973 was a sad month in ephemera history. In the 1973 National Archives fire, approximately 16-18 million official military personnel records were lost.
3. What cost $4.45 in 1973 would cost $21.59 in 2010, according to The Inflation Calculator.
4. Hmmm. I'm not sure we can just assume that's his house.
5. "Yes, I can believe it," many of you are saying.
6. I got a lot of issues of Dynamite through the Scholastic Book Club when I was in grade school.
7. Want the groovy Scott Baio poster? I'll send it to the first person who to e-mail me at sportseditorotto@gmail.com. This is your chance to be the coolest kid on the block this summer!

Plucked from a yard sale, Part 3: Painting, baseball and Pac-Man

This week I'm writing about the 14 ephemeral items I bought for $1.25 at a neighborhood yard sale...

Item #4: "Paint Without Paints: Our Many Friends"

The activity booklet was published in 1960 by Platt & Munk.¹ The "magic" of painting without paints requires only water and a paint brush. (I'm sure you've all done one of these at some point, right?) "Invisible color" was patented by E.E. Brogle and Company sometime in the 1930s.

An interesting thing about this Platt & Munk book is that it's more than just a painting book. Each picture of boys and girls from around the world is accompanied by a page describing those children's lives and cultures. And so it's fairly educational, with descriptions of:

• Katryn and Jan of Holland, who live in a tiny village by the "Zuyder Zee"
• Tanya of Poland, who raises geese (pictured above)
• Ah Ling and Mo-Lee of China, who go buy a kite
• Ali Basm of Arabia and his camel, who live in the desert
• Rudi and Veronica of Switzerland, who live in a chalet at the foot of the Alps
• Christina of Norway, who eats "very plain food"² and is never scolded
• Golden Eagle of the Wyandot tribe³
• Pancho of Mexico, who speaks Indian, Spanish and English and plays guitar

Item #5: "Hurry Home"

"Hurry Home," a 32-page paperback, was published in 1976 by Xerox Education Publications. It's the tale of Tommy Graham, a young baseball player whose father is too sick to attend Tommy's championship baseball game at the park. Tommy crosses home plate with the game-winning run, keeps running and hurries home to see his father.

The most interesting thing about "Hurry Home" is the author, Donald Honig. He's a baseball historian and author who has written dozens of books about the national pastime.

Honig's works include "Baseball When the Grass Was Real: Baseball from the Twenties to the Forties, Told by the Men Who Played It," "Baseball between the Lines: Baseball in the Forties and Fifties, As Told by the Men Who Played It ," "The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time" (co-written with Lawrence Ritter), and team histories of the Boston Red Sox, Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies.

Item #6: "Pac-Man and the Ghost Diggers"

Pac-Man Fever included more than just arcade games, a hit song, and an animated series. It also spawned this 1983 paperback by John Albano⁴, which was part of the "A Golden Look-Look Book" series.

The plot of "Pac-Man and the Ghost Diggers" involves Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Sue⁵ attempting to dig a tunnel so that they can steal power pellets from the cellar of the Pac-Man family. There are several mazes that Pac-Man, Baby Pac-Man, the ghosts and the reader have to navigate. In the end, the ghosts -- who don't exactly have the tunnel-digging skills of Hilts, Velinski and Sedgwick -- miss the cellar entirely and end up all wet.

If you prefer your Pac-Man literature to be a bit more intellectual, my wife suggests that you check out this December 2010 article by Chad Birch titled "Understanding Pac-Man Ghost Behavior."

On deck from the yard-sale haul: There's more to come this week, including a poster of the totally dreamy Scott Baio.

Footnotes
1. When my wife first saw this, she thought the book's title was "Paint Without Pants." But that would be a much different kind of book. Which would be featured on a much different kind of blog.
2. Christina's diet is described as buttermilk, black bread and cheese.
3. Here's the book's sanitized history of Native Americans: "Hundreds of years ago, the Indians lived this way all over the United States. Then the white men came and settled here, driving the Indians West, North and South. Now the white men and Indians are friends. Indians now live in houses and buy their food from stores. The children go to school where they learn to read and write."
4. Albano, who died in 2005, was perhaps best known as the co-creator of Jonah Hex. He also wrote for Archie Comics, one of my wife's personal favorites.
5. Sue replaced Clyde as the fourth ghost in Ms. Pac-Man, if you're keeping score at home.