Book cover: "Chendru"

• Title: Chendru
• Subtitle: The Boy and the Tiger
• Author: Astrid Bergman Sucksdorff (1927-2015)
• About the author: She was a Swedish photographer and author of many children's books, of which this was one of her earliest. According to the English translation of her Swedish Wikipedia page: "In 1952, Astrid Bergman received a request from the filmmaker Arne Sucksdorff to become a still photographer for his first feature film project, The Great Adventure. Astrid and Arne shared a strong interest in nature and soon became a couple. In connection with the filming in the forests of Sörmland, Astrid was given responsibility for an injured fox cub and this led to the photo project that resulted in her first photo book for children, Micki the fox cub." Read more about her here.
• English translation by: William Sansom
• Publisher: Harcourt, Brace & World
• Year: 1960 for the English version; first published in 1959
• Pages: 54 (with color photos taking up about 75% of the space)
• Format: Hardcover, library binding
• Dimensions: 8½ inches by 11⅜ inches
• Provenance: West Des Moines Library, then stamped "DISCARD." The name "Scott" is written on the inside front cover.
• First sentence: Far away in the middle of India lies the jungle village of Gahr-Bengal.
• Last sentence: And he dreams only this dream: that when Tambu has grown truly big and strong, then he will ride his tiger into the jungle, far away to the Blue Mountains where once his father found a little cub, and even farther, on to other jungles, other rivers ... riding, riding ... boy and tiger ... riding on forever.
• Random sentence from middle #1: No one is afraid to sleep when there is a tiger in the company.
• Random sentence from middle #2: Tambu keeps on growing ... no more buffaloes' milk for him — now it is meat!
• Rating on Goodreads: 3.62 stars (out of 5)
• Goodreads review excerpt: In March of this year, Paul wrote: "Yet another gem of a book from my childhood. Bought for me when I was just 4 years old, my mother read this to me many, many times. It is the beautifully written, true story of Chendru, a young boy of the Muria people from the Bastar region in the jungles of Eastern India. When he is about 14 years old, his father and grandfather return from a hunting trip with an abandoned tiger cub. Chendru and Tambu (the tiger) immediately become best buds."
• What happened to Chendru? On the blog Face to Face, Upendra Singh wrote this in September 2018: "He was Chendru Mandavi by name. He belonged to 'Muria' tribe and was living in Garh Bengal in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh. He rescued a cub and brought it home and played with the tiger like many of the children do with their toys in modern times." Because of Arne Sucksdorff's documentary film and Astrid Bergman Sucksdorff's book and photographs, Chendru achieved worldwide fame a short time. Singh writes the Chendru "saw 'modern life' in Sweden and dreamt of going out of his village to study. He remained in Europe for several months exploring the modern life there. ... But Chendru’s domestic constraints didn’t permit him to settle down anywhere else than his village." Chendru died in 2013. He lived the final years of his life battling poverty and hunger, according to a newspaper report.

And he dreams only this dream: ... boy and tiger ... riding on forever.

2021 summer shelfie #7

One last bit of silliness...

147 famous automobiles ... and Peter Lorre

This advertisement is featured on the back cover Dell's comic book adaptation of the 1963 Roger Corman movie The Raven, starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Hazel Court, Olive Sturgess and Jack Nicholson. (Yes, that Jack Nicholson.) It's a good comic based on the wonderfully funny movie, which Ashar and I would list as one of our favorites.

But today we're focusing on this advertisement. For JUST $2.49 (about $21 today), kids could send away for what appears to be a nifty garage filled with all sorts of classic vehicles, from the 1918 Baker Electric to the 1934 LaFayette to a 1963 Oldsmobile. The advertisement states:

"KIDS! Here's the greatest assortment of famous cars from Grandpa's days to today! Yes, a model car for each year from 1915 through 1963! And there's 3 each of each model so that you can trade them and save them! ... Made of pure plastic styrene. Fun for you and the whole family."

As you have surely already guessed, not all was as it appeared. Volume 63 of the Federal Trade Commission Decisions tells the story:

In the Matter of

Lucky Products, Inc., Et Al.

CONSENT ORDER, ETC., IN REGARD TO THE ALLEGED VIOLATION OF THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION ACT.

Docket C-608. Complaint, Oct. 16, 1963 — Decision, Oct. 16, 1963

Consent order requiring distributors of toys and related products in Westbury, Long Island, N.Y., to cease misrepresenting their products in advertising in newspapers and magazines by such practices as representing falsely that toy soldiers were 4 inches in length, that they and toy "Knights" were of more than one color and three-dimensional; that cannons and rifles emitted smoke and blasts of fire, etc.; that an 8 inch "Aircraft Carrier" was a foot long; and that "Famous Automobiles" were three-dimensional models of their full-size counterparts.

The complaint describes the images and text of the "147 Famous Automobiles" advertisement by Lucky Products and notes, "The ... statements appear in an advertisement which also includes pictures of nineteen automobiles shown in various positions so that they appear to be three-dimensional and equipped with tires, wheels, chrome, headlights, radiator trim, license plate frames and other sundry features.)"

But the "truth" and "fact" of what kids received in the mail was this: "The '147 Famous Automobiles' are not three-dimensional nor are they models of their full-size counterparts."

The Federal Trade Commission's decision ordered Lucky Products to cease and desist from misrepresenting, via illustration or written description, the toys it was advertising. And, specifically, to cease and desist from using the word "model" in its advertising. 

This was an era, it seems, in which comic book advertisements gave the FTCs investigators plenty of regular work.

Lucky Products, by the way, also produced and sold one of the most famous comic book advertisements of this era: The "footlocker" with "100 toy soldiers." Glenn Waters of the website Hobby Lark wrote an interesting piece about that set in 2019.

And, as promised...

Here's a panel featuring Peter Lorre (as Dr. Adolphus Bedlo) and Boris Karloff (as Dr. Scarabus) from this Dell comic adaptation of The Raven.   

Saturday's postcard: Whole lotta logs

This postcard, featuring an extraordinary pile of logs, was mailed in August 1912 to John Harold Lees of Boone, Iowa. The cursive note is extremely faded, but this is what the magnifying glass and I think it states:

Arrived right-side up in Solon Springs this A.M. Every thing is O.K. Need company though. Come up as soon as you can. The water is fine.

Harry P. Lees

Thanks to having a middle name and a middle initial, I think I can say fairly definitively that John Harold Lees (1890-1967) and Harry Paul Lees (1894-1972) were brothers. 

Harry's son, Harry Paul Lees Jr. (1923-2008) had a pretty wonderful life, according to this lede to his obituary:

Harry P. Lees, Jr started singing his way through life February 13, 1923 in Waleetka, Oklahoma, son of Harry P. Lees, Sr. and Nellie Adamson.

At a young age Harry helped worked in the family store and started singing in the church choir. Harry’s trademark in life became his enthusiastic greeting of a hug and a song. He loved to combine humor and music singing “Said My Pajamas” ……

I climbed up the door, and opened the stairs;

I said my pajamas and put on my pray'rs,

I turned off the bed and crawled into the light

And all because you kissed me (kiss) goodnight.

2021 summer shelfie #6

2021 summer shelfie #5

2021 summer shelfie #4

2021 summer shelfie #3