Another Sweetniks doll by Lada Draskovic surfaces

Whoa! On the heels of November's post about one of Lada Draskovic's 1960s Sweetniks dolls showing up on eBay, a reader has gotten in touch and shared the story of her Sweetniks doll. It's incredible how many of these are still around and in great condition.

Kita from Texas wrote to share her information and the above photos of her Sweetniks doll, which she has kindly given me permission to share here:

"I was searching to see what I could find out about my beatnik doll. I ran across your blog about these dolls. ... I thought you would like to hear of another 'sighting' of the Beatnik/Sweetnik Doll! ... I wish I could remember where in San Antonio, Texas, my mother bought the doll. I will need to research if there was a Saks there. I thought most likely it was a famous store named Joske’s in downtown San Antonio. I was with her and I remember telling her I really wanted it. Too bad, too, that I don’t know what she paid for it. ...

"I have had her since the early 1960s and bought it new. She was enclosed in a plastic top, but I discarded that when I put it in my china cabinet, years ago. I am the original owner and for some reason I kept her all these years. She is in excellent shape, as you can see from the pictures. I always kept very good care of all my dolls and didn’t actually play with them. I was an outdoorsy kid, which was good luck for my beatnik! ...

"I am considering selling her. But, I would like to get her into the right hands, being that she is so rare. Not a strand of hair is out of place after all these years and lots of moving. ... A museum would suit her fine!"

Kita added later that she contacted Sotheby's for a possible auction consignment, but was told that they had no information on Draskovic's Sweetniks and couldn't help her further. These unique dolls truly remain a mystery! Meanwhile, another reader posetd this intriguing comment: "I have what I’m pretty sure is a Sweetnik doll from the early 60s — Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra." I asked for more details, but haven't heard anything further.

Farewell Titan, aka Titanoboa, aka T-Dog Terwillinger

It's been a sad week. We had to say goodbye to Titan yesterday and helped him cross the rainbow bridge. Fortunately, we were able to do it at home, so he was in his familiar surroundings, around loved ones. He was 8, or maybe 10. We have little idea, really. We adopted him in the summer of 2018, and he was already very fully grown. (His name fit him well.) He had been at several stops before us, but never permanent ones, because he's always been a problematic cat, one way or the other. But we accepted him fully, problems and all.

He started as a TNR'd feral cat and had the tipped ear to prove it, but this was not an outdoor cat with outdoor cat skills. Or indoor skills, really. He drooled and ate and took naps, during which he snored. He peed where he wasn't supposed to. Often. But he was also incredibly friendly and gentle. Visitors loved him, probably because he happily galloped over to them as soon as they came in the door. Eventually, some people just started coming to visit Titan, not necessarily us. 

As we accumulated kittens in the past two years, Titan was our go-to cat for introducing the kittens to the adult cats. He accepted them all, and they used him as a big pillow for their naps. 

Here's the very nice tribute that Ashar wrote on Instagram:

"Titan,

"You were the gentlest giant who thought that he was just a wee tiny baby. You loved getting sink drink which usually involved you getting drenched. You loved to cuddle and sit with us. You made us laugh with your ridiculous laying positions. You chripped when you purred which sounded a lot like a tribble from Star Trek. You loved rolling around outside. You enjoyed food. Most of all you also managed to cheer people up and everyone loved you. You were such a good boy.

"You will forever be remembered in our hearts. We love you Titan."

Above: Titan and Mr. Bill.

Above: Titan the work-from-home pandemic helper cat #1.

Above: Titan the work-from-home pandemic helper cat #2.

Above: Titan meeting Autumn

Above: Titan napping with Bandit

Above: Titan eating from Big Boi's plate this week while Big Boi sits nearby (it's a long story)

Some final outside time this week.

Book cover: "The Chesterfield Gold"

• Title: The Chesterfield Gold
• Author: Roger Pilkington (1915-2003). In 1992, he wrote about crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the Hindenburg.
• Cover design: Barbara Nunan. (I can't find anything about her, which is a bummer.)
• Illustrator: Piet Klaasse (1918-2001)
• Original publication date: 1957
• Publication date of this edition: 1971
• Publisher: Puffin Books (an imprint of Penguin Books, London)
• Editor of Puffin Books: Kaye Webb (1914-1996). She served as the editor of Puffin Books from 1961 to 1979.
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 189
• Back cover price: "25p 5/-" 1971 was the year of Decimal Day in the United Kingdom and Ireland
• Dedication: "To Hugh and all young people who can handle a boat." Pilkington had a son named Hugh Austin Windle Pilkington (1942-1986). 
• First sentence: "Where are we, Daddy?"
• Last sentence: "Only it's rather a different size."
• Random excerpt #1: There's no better place for a good sound sleep than on board a small boat in a harbour, and in the submarine basin at Dover, the Dabchick's crew were asleep as soon as they were in bed.
• Random excerpt #2: All in all, Michael thought that the American was rather nicer than a crook out to be.
• Random excerpt #3: Right beneath the great statue of Liberty with her lamp held high in her hand, the smack clipped round the stone bull-nose of the island, straight in front of the oncoming Marguerite. 
• Rating on Goodreads: 4.67 stars (out of 5)
• Reviews: Alas, there are no reviews of this boating thriller anywhere online. If you've read it or remember it, feel free to comment below and be the first person to review this book in cyberspace! The book is part of what's called Pilkington's Branxome Family series. Kirkus reviewed one of the other books in the series, 1958's The Missing Panel, and I think it kind of has the same seafaring flavor as The Chesterfield Gold, so this is what Kirkus had to say: "One panel of a priceless Antwerp altar piece was missing. Though the thief had confessed his guilt just before his death, there was only an enigmatic riddle to help the Bracome [sic] children discover its whereabouts. Peter, Michael and Jill, traveling with their parents in their little boat ... set out to recover the altar piece. A cave-in in an underground labyrinth nearly ends their search. Some of the plot devices are melodramatic. It's a no-holds-barred derring-do adventure story of three British youngsters on a chase, with some effective cliff-hanging before success." 

Spacing out with Brad Steiger in Switzerland

While researching the post about Brad Steiger's Strangers from the Skies last summer, I came across a Goodreads review for another one Steiger's books that made me laugh.

The reviewer, Documentally, was writing in 2022 about Steiger's Mysteries of Time and Space, which was first published in 1974. He wrote:

"I picked this up off a shelf in a Swiss mountain hut while working as a Pastore in 1999. According to my journal it was 20th of July and I read it in one sitting. The cows were behaving and there was little else to do.

"It sounded like I enjoyed it. I loved Brad's daring predictions from 1974. I especially liked his writings on how important it is to be childlike and not childish. That it's important to realise you can fashion reality.

"I was also pretty stoned on that particular day and this might have assisted in my appreciation of his book. For that reason I have given it 4 stars."

Documentally has a Substack, if you want to check out more of his writing. It's described as "A human authored journal in search of novelty, exploring what we share, how we share, and where we’re going." Sounds like it shares a lot in common with Papergreat, with the big difference being that I rarely leave home anymore. Also, I'm more of a saké guy.

Book cover: "Challenge to Reality"

"Challenge to Reality" feels like an apt phrase as we enter this daunting year.

• Title: Challenge to Reality
• Author: John Macklin. I can't find much biographical information on him, despite his many published works. We do have this information from the front of the book: "For nearly 20 years John Macklin, expert in psychic phenomena and the supernatural, has hunted ghosts. He has crossed three continents chasing stories, spent countless nights in 'haunted' houses, focused his infra-red camera on curious sights, and his microphone on curious sounds. Most of the events have had some rational solution at their roots. But some haven't. ... Nine times out of ten, the 'phenomenon' turns out to be an illusion, delusion, or fraud. For twenty years, it's been Mr. Macklin's job to investigate the tenth. ... These, then, are the stories of the author's experiences, and other stories he has collected over the years."
• Cover designer: Unknown
• Publication date: 1968
• Publisher: Ace Star (H-108)
• Pages: 158
• Format: Paperback
• Cover price: 60 cents
• Some chapter titles: The Mummy in the Clock Case; The Dream House That Percy Built; The Deadly Nightmare of Emily Jones; What Did the Axe-Man See?; The Dinner Guest No One Else Saw; The Ghosts of Ballechin House; The Tomb of Standing Stones; The Witch and the Waif; Riddle of a Hundred Lost Islands; The Riddle of the Musical Plants; Little Girl Lost; The Witch Who Laughs at the Law; and The Ghostly Glow from Waltham Abbey.
• Excerpt #1: "Many stories make us realize just how powerful superstition can be. For instance, many years ago, when a bridge was being built in Germany, influential townspeople would insist that a living child be buried in the foundations. They believed that the foundations would then remain firm. And the younger the person, the longer it would remain so."
• Wait, is that true? Well, it's a long-lived bit of grisly folklore, though it's certainly not limited to Germany. Some believe that there are implied references to child sacrifice in the nursery rhyme "London Bridge Is Falling Down," though there are scores of speculative guesses at the "historical" references in that song, and they should all be taken with a grain of salt (Hey, another superstition!).
• Excerpt #2: "The specter turned, and the terrified woman saw the enormous, longboned hands and the large protruding eyes. The man, who wore a long robe tied around the middle, nodded his head in a very peculiar way towards her husband, then vanished."
• Excerpt #3: "The awe-inspiring specter that suddenly appeared in front of Charles Winston in 1901 was of the type known as a Radiant Boy. They are usually reckoned to warn of impending death."
• Amazon review: In 2011, Bookworm70 wrote, scathingly: "Books of John Macklin are easy to read. They contain events, mysteries and other phenomena considered to be out of this world. However, the problem with his works, they contain a lot of errors and do not agree with historical facts."
• Fanzine mention: In Scottishe #52, a zine published by Ethel Lindsay (1921-1996) in May 1969, Lindsay writes: "This is the eighth in a series by Macklin, so his collections of ghost strories [sic] must be a good seller. Each collection has about forty stories."
• Other books by Macklin: Strange Destinies, The Strange and Uncanny, The Enigma of the Unknown, Dwellers in Darkness, Orbits of the Unknown, Dimensions Beyond the Known, A Look Through Secret Doors and Journey Beyond the Grave.

But wait, there's more

A fun bonus: There was an old receipt tucked away inside this paperback book. I can't say for sure that this is the receipt from the book's original purchase, but that's a good bet. Someone paid $1.04 (99 cents, plus 5 cents tax) at the Stanford Sport Shop in Palo Alto, California, on August 29, 1969. According to Palo Alto Weekly, the Stanford Sport Shop rented and sold skis, shoes and sports gear for 53 years, until it closed in 1989. Geoff Millington and his daughter Tracy Millington operated the business. If Challenge to Reality was sold there in 1969, it seems they had a book rack, too. Something to read in front of the fireplace at night after a day on the slopes?

Movie ruminations and my favorite first-time watches of 2023

One of my earliest movie memories — and, yes, I know that Memory can be a Trickster, shuffling real or imagined things all around the brain's chronology for all sorts of reasons — is watching a reel from 1935's The Bride of Frankenstein projected onto the wall of my grandmother's living room at her house in Rose Valley, circa 1974. Fittingly, she also had those Ancient Greek comedy and tragedy masks (Thalia and Melpomene) on the walls of that room. As a preschooler, I found them fascinating and a little scary. That's what I remember, anyway: The projected moving image of a screaming Elsa Lanchester flickering against the wall, partially illuminating those eyeless, mouthless masks.

What a ways we've come in watching movies in the comfort of our homes in the past half-century. Now we can watch Barbie or Oppenheimer at home on our 55-inch high-definition televisions, just months after they were in movie theaters. (And how long will movie theaters last?) 

I didn't watch Barbie or Oppenheimer in 2023. In fact, I didn't watch nearly as many movies, old or new, as I was hoping to last year. My final count for the year was around 70. I could blame the cats, but there's never just one reason. 

Still, I was fortunate to see a lot of great stuff! And, as I did for 2022, I've compiled a list of my 20 favorite "first-time watches" of 2023:

• Black Cat Mansion (1958, Nobuo Nakagawa)
• Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter (1974, Brian Clemens)
• Dead of Night (1945,  Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer)
• Deep Red (1975, Dario Argento)
• The Fifth Horseman Is Fear (1965, Zbyněk Brynych)
• Game Night (2018, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein) 
• Ghostwatch (1992, Lesley Manning)
• The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001, Takashi Miike) 
• The Innocents (1961, Jack Clayton)
• Lonesome (1928, Paul Fejös)
• Marjoe (1972, Howard Smith and Sarah Kernochan)
• Midareru [English: Yearning] (1964, Mikio Naruse)
• No One Will Save You (2023, Brian Duffield)
• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019, Quentin Tarantino)
• Prey (2022, Dan Trachtenberg)
• The Seventh Seal (1957, Ingmar Bergman)
• Synecdoche, New York (2008, Charlie Kaufman)
• Tabi no Omosa [English: Journey Into Solitude] (1972, Kōichi Saitō)
• Where Chimneys Are Seen (1953, Heinosuke Gosho)
• The Wind (1928, Victor Sjöström)

As it was in 2022, it's an eclectic list. Japanese films take up a quarter of the slots. There are some flat-out cinema classics that I didn't get to until I was 52. Better late than never! 

There are a lot of horror films here. Ashar and I watch a lot of horror films, and I'm glad some of them made it into my Top 20. Others had no shot (Sorry, Scary Movie 4. Actually, I'm not sorry. I'd like that 90 minutes back.). Other stuff was just perfectly fun, like Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973), Spooks Run Wild (1941), Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010) and even the baffling Uncle Was a Vampire (1959), in which Christopher Lee's sense of having fun was contagious enough for all of us. 

Here are Ashar's thoughts on horror films from an Oct. 31, 2023, post he made on Instagram:

"Halloween is my fav time of year. I love the atmosphere of Halloween where things get spooky and you can see people who go all out into decorating their houses and you can go to haunted attractions and watch scary movies.

"Personally I tend to celebrate Halloween all year every year. I will watch horror movies even when it isn’t Halloween because I’m a big horror fan. I truly enjoy horror movies. I love the feeling of uneasiness and dread and anxiety and the way they can get your heart racing and just keep you on edge. Something about that is really unsettling but at the same time appealing. It’s hard to explain but if you are a horror fan you probably understand.

"Horror as a topic is vast but it’s really interesting to think about. It’s interesting to try and understand or learn about what makes horror so great and see how it has involved over the years. It raises interesting questions and points you may not have thought about before. It can make you feel uneasy and make you check every dark corner in your house at night because you just have this feeling that something could be watching you.

"This Halloween I just decided to watch a ton of horror movies and I kicked that off with watching The Amityville Horror (2005) starring @vancityreynolds last night into this morning and let me tell you that movie is really good and Ryan is an incredible actor. He does a fantastic job playing George Lutz.

"I didn’t really have a costume planned this year but I realised that I could dress up as Ryan’s portrayal of George Lutz like he is in the first picture. It’s not exactly the same but it’s my take on it and I honestly couldn’t be happier since I got to incorporate my hero into my fav time of year.

"Stay Spooky and have a Happy Halloween"

My movie goals for 2024 are to watch more movies; watch horror movies with Ashar (and also introduce him to great stuff from other genres); get to more of the classics I've never seen; chill out with some Shaw Brothers flicks; make it through more of the Varda and Bergman sets; rewatch my favorite Ozus; find some super-bizarre stuff; finally catch Barbie and Oppenheimer (but especially The Holdovers); have a Vincent Price marathon; watch more old documentaries and .... well, I could just keep going and going. Happy film-watching in 2024!

Lillian Gish in The Wind.

From the readers: Sasquatches, Yetis, Star Trek and more

Happy New Year! Papergreat has made it to 2024! It's a good day for a roundup of reader comments from the fourth quarter of 2023. Thanks for all of your feedback!

Examining "The Abominable Snowman" from all sides in 1977: Tom from Garage Sale Finds writes: "As a kid, I devoured any books on Bigfoot/ASM. I'd check them out from our library and order them from Scholastic. I somehow missed this book. The book whose cover traumatized me was Strange Abominable Snowmen by Warren Smith (pictured at right)." 

I wasn't familiar with that Warren Smith book. In fact, I wasn't familiar with Warren Smith at all, which is kind of bonkers. His list of books is quite the amazing rabbit hole of cryptozoology and the paranormal titles from the heyday of the 1960s and 1970s. Just some of his titles: Strange Women of the Occult, Strange Powers of the Mind, Strange Hexes, Myth and Mystery of Atlantis, The Hidden Secrets of the Hollow Earth, Secrets of the Loch Ness Monster, UFO Trek and Let's Face Facts About Flying Saucers. I'll be keeping an eye out for some of these!

Lamenting what we'll never know about Phyllis J. Stalnaker Harris: Unfortunately, I had to shut down commenting on this post, because some commenters were getting nasty toward each other and some were being disrespectful of Phyllis' memory. That's not in the spirit of this blog at all. Most of the old comments are still up. One of the final (anonymous) comments was: "You have no right to surmise what her life was like. Unfortunately, the authorities gave her a label and they didn’t even really know anything about her. ... She may have been a nice person and was at the wrong place at the wrong time."

New edition of Ruth Manning-Sanders' "A Book of Witches":  Anonymous asks: "Does it have all of the great original illustrations? I've seen reviews of some of the other reprints of Ruth Manning-Sanders that have omitted the illustrations, and the illustrations are so amazing!"

Yes indeed! The 2020 reprint edition of A Book of Witches by MAB Media features the original Robin Jacques illustrations. Follow MAB Media on Facebook for more info on upcoming reprints.

Unfortunate apparel of 1980: The official Star Trek duty jacket: EJD1984 writes: "I had the T-shirt!! Have spent years trying to find a picture of it to prove I'm not going senile. I believe I picked it up at a 1980 Star Trek convention when I was 15 years old. Thank You SO MUCH for posting this!" 

The elementary school in the City Behind the Fence: Carolyn writes: "I went to Cedar Hill for a brief time in 1972 when we lived in Oak Ridge. We were only there for three months, but I have such great memories of that place!"

The Lost Corners of Paul Crockett: Those who have been following this post and the tale surrounding the Manson Family may be interested in a new video link that was shared in the comments. 

Someone asked "Any links to these comments that Paul Watkins allegedly made about Paul Crockett?" In response, Anonymous posted a link to a YouTube video titled "Paul Watkins Manson Family Self Recorded Conversation 1988 to a Fan."  

Update on an amazing house in Coudersport, Pennsylvania: Anonymous writes: "When I worked for Farm Credit, one of our branches was in Coudersport. I can't believe I didn't spot this."

Take a ride with Edwards Motor Transit Co.: Butch Joyner writes: "My dad drove for Edwards for over 40 years. It was a family business, we were all close. I remember vividly Bill, Bob and Wes. I have some lasting stories of this 4-year-old boy and my dealings with Wes. Hope this finds you well, Wesley! To the good times!" 

Postcard for Haag's Hotel in Shartlesville, Pennsylvania:  Anonymous writes: "In 2007 I took my daughter to Roadside America, which she totally enjoyed. We then had lunch at Haags Hotel, which was very historical and we both enjoyed. Sad to hear it closed."

Indeed, neither the hotel nor Roadside America is in business anymore. Very sad.

Receipt and more tucked away inside 1967 sci-fi paperback: Anonymous writes: "Ross Music was at Eastland and Northland malls and closed both stores in the mid-1980s, as the owner was retiring. I worked at the Eastland location and have very fond memories of the owner Irving, and Melissa Press Downey, the manager, and my co-worker Jimmy Grindstaff."

Coupons from the E.H. Koester Bakery Co.: This early Papergreat post drew a lot of great comments and memories a decade ago. A new one from Anonymous: "My father's first job was at E.H. Koester Bakery Co. I have his pay stubs from 1949."

Board for Parker Brothers' 1936 version of the game Finance: Anonymous asks: "What is the value of this game?" 

Looking through eBay, there are many listings for pieces and/or replacement boards for Finance. All of those are relatively inexpensive. As far as the complete (or near-complete) game, I see some listings for 1950s editions of the game that are as low $25 to $30 (price plus shipping). Some near-complete versions of the 1936 edition (including the box) are as low as $34. So it's definitely attainable for collectors.

"I'm Going to Build a Supermarket One of These Days"

I love this little children's book!

• Title: I'm Going to Build a Supermarket One of These Days
• Authors: Helen Baten and Barbara von Molnar, adapted by Bill Martin Jr. (1916-2004).
• Illustrator: William Papas (1927-2000). Credited in the book solely as "Papas." He was previously mentioned in this 2016 post about Damian and the Dragon.
• Publisher: Holt, Rinehart and Winston
• Year: 1970
• Pages: 32
• Format: Hardcover
• Plot: The short book is basically a Dr. Seuss-like fantasy about what a grocery store would be like if it were run by children. Papas' pictures are a delight. The store would be called "Land of Milk & Honey." Everything would be free, and only children would be permitted inside. (There's an illustration in which adults are protesting outside, one with a sign stating "We Want Equal Rights.") The fantasy supermarket is filled with roller-skaters, elephants, kangaroos and a merry-go-round. There are impromptu baseball games and all sorts of treats, like cotton candy, ice cream and coconut cakes. Kids who don't want to shop can watch movies underneath the checkout counters. (Why checkout counters are needed when everything is free is not explained.) 
• Reviews: There's almost nothing online about this book from a half-century ago, so I'm glad this post is serving in a small way to preserve it. There is one nice review on Goodreads, in which Sharla states, "This is one of my all-time favorite books from when I was young." She further notes that there were two audio cassette versions, one that was a straight readthrough and one that's a musical sing-a-long version! 

Here are some more of Papas' wonderful illustrations...