1938 newspaper recipe for peach-mint jelly

This hails from the May 18, 1938, edition of The Honolulu Advertiser and might just be something you want to seriously consider, for a change.

How much is that haunted doll in the eBay window I have open?

The New York Times recently published an article by Alicia DeSantis with an attention-grabber headline: "The Weird World of ‘Haunted’ eBay: ‘Purchase With Caution’". It's about the odd, to say the least, subculture of those who attempt to boost the value of the everyday items they're peddling on the online auction service by claiming that the item is touched by the supernatural — possessed, cursed, magical, haunted, etc. This hucksterism is nothing new, of course. Since the idea of "magic beans" first sprouted centuries ago, humankind has never been without swindlers and those who are receptive, even enthusiastic, about being swindled.

The Times is not the first to write about supernatural-tinged online auctions. Other pieces of note have been published by Sabrina Maddeaux for Vox; by Reyhan Harmanci for Topic; by Katherine Carlson for The New Yorker; and by Luke Winkie for Vice. But one thing I enjoyed about short Times article was the interview with artist Eric Oglander. He has a fascination with witnessing, and documenting, the everflowing stream of "haunted" objects on eBay. He understands that cyberspace is fleeting, ephemeral. And so he deploys one of the best tools we have for documentation: the screenshot. The Times' DeSantis writes:

"Oglander describes himself as a 'collector of aesthetics,' and his material is the ephemera of the world around us. For him, it is not the item on sale, but rather the listing itself which becomes the object. The listings are 'a way of containing a story and also telling a story,' he said."

Indeed, in a slight twist on Papergreat's mantra, every eBay listing tells a story. And says something about us. So, in that spirit (no pun intended), here's the haunted-item listing I'm adding to the record for posterity.

The full description for Very Expensive Haunted Troll states:

Haunted Troll Doll.. Discontinued collectors item. . Condition is Used. Shipped with USPS First Class Package. This doll is haunted. I got it from an estate sale where some old lady had passed away. The man at the sale was making comments about how she or the house was haunted and he would not buy anything and take it home because he would not want that activity in his house. I felt compelled to buy this doll. within a week of having it, a doll that belonged to my daughter who has passed away started to play its music. Then a couple days later I was in the bathroom after a shower and felt something touch my leg. Next day in my bedroom right after putting on my pajamas I was touched on the opposite leg, but this time it felt like a grab.. Since then I've been in bed and felt like someone sat down on the end of my bed. I have been at my computer and felt something touch my hair and lightly tug at it. That has happen several times. I have seen a shadow figure and my dog has got up and went to growl where the movement happened. Those who want a haunted object, this is it! I was trying to sell this well before Halloween, so no its not for a Halloween hype. This is real. Not a joke. If you collect haunted objects. This doll is for you. It does have a little crack in its tail, but that obviously does to effect the amount of haunt you get from this figure. Once its sold, I wont take it back, I take no responsibility in any form as to what happens when you receive it. FREE SHIPPING ONLY IN THE USA...…. NO EXCEPTIONS...……….

Hurry now. This offer to curse your family for just $400 won't last.

Matchbook: Hartwig's The Gobbler Supper Club & Gobbler Motel

One cold night last winter, I tumbled down the online rabbit hole of supper clubs in Wisconsin. You read that correctly. Supper clubs in Wisconsin, baby! Winter nights don't get funner than that. The kickstarter, to the best of my recollection, was an Atlas Obscura article titled, unsurprisingly, "Inside the ‘Trend-Free’ World of Wisconsin’s Supper Clubs."¹ That piece, by Anne Ewbank, paints an intriguing picture of supper clubs, which operate in their own realm, somewhere between speakeasies and social hubs:

"They’re distinguished by taxidermy, dark wood, and their location: romantically remote, on the borders of lakes or forests. ... While food is always made from scratch and varies slightly from club to club, [Documentary filmmaker and supper club-chronicler Ron] Faiola says the only way to describe the meat-and-seafood heavy meals is 'American cuisine,' and a lot of it. The brandy Old-Fashioned, served sweet, is a mainstay."

But supper clubs aren't actually a super-niche topic. A little searching uncovers a good bit of journalism. Readers (and journalists) like food. For example:

• The New York Times (2011): "In Wisconsin, Supper Clubs Open to All" by David McAninch
• Chicago Tribune (2011): "Defining Wisconsin's supper club culture" by Kevin Pang
• Grub Street (2013): "Inside the Timeless World of the Wisconsin Supper Club" by Michael Gebert
• Thrillist (2016): "The Best Supper Clubs in Wisconsin" by Lacey Muszynski
• The Splendid Table (2016): "The history and renaissance of the Wisconsin supper club" by Shauna Sever
• Taste (2018): "Highway Fine Dining in the Upper Midwest" by Natalie Rinn

My contribution to supper clubbin' is the old matchbook cover featured at the top of this post.² It touting a pair of establishments in Johnson Creek, Wisconsin, at the intersection of Wisconsin Highway 26 and Interstate 94. Those establishments are The Gobbler Supper Club and Coffee Shop and the Gobbler Motel. The businesses are additionally branded with the word "Hartwig's" in front of their names. The matchbook doesn't tell us much about the supper club, but there's plenty of information about the Gobbler Motel amenities:

• Heated Indoor Pool and Kiddies Pool
• Color Television
• Saunas - Sunken Baths³
• Water Beds
• Tennis - Shuffleboard
• 50 Acres of Land for Snowmobiling
• Hills for Sledding or Skiing (Bring your own equipment)

That seems like an odd combination of features, no? It's like they were trying to cater to families, seniors and swingers all at once. I bet that made for some interesting conversations at the coffee shop.

Indeed, we are just getting started. Buckle up.

First up: The Hartwig establishments were called "Gobbler" because they were, alas, literally underwritten by a turkey slaughterhouse.

Wikipedia tells us that the supper club and motel were funded by Clarence Hartwig, who had a huge poultry plant nearby; it operated until 1971, when Hartwig decided it would be too costly to bring the plant up to new USDA standards.

The supper club and motel were designed by Helmut Ajango and opened in 1967. From the air, the supper club sort-of looks like a turkey. The restaurant had a rotating circular bar that made one revolution every 80 minutes. The menu featured a lot of turkey dishes. Meanwhile, again per Wikipedia, "the Gobbler Motel had an adventurous, futuristic Googie architecture design that featured 49 rooms with symbol-shaped waterbeds (such as a heart-shape), 8-track players, round sunken bathtubs,and differently colored shag carpet that extended up the walls in each themed room."

Maybe the salmon-colored matchbook is starting to make sense now. The Kiddie Pool, not so much.

Both the supper club and motel closed in 1992, though the restaurant reopened as The Gobbler Theater in 2015. The rotating bar is still intact and, as of this writing, performers set to appear in 2020 include Sara Evans, Ronnie Milsap and Roseanne Barr.⁴ But folks can no longer go across the street to a shag-carpeted room after events. "It's nice and cozy," Connie Brunk told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for a 2017 article, while waiting with her husband to see country singer Kellie Pickler, a former "American Idol" finalist and "Dancing with the Stars" champion, take the stage. "I am very happy that they did this. It's nice that it's still here and still being used. It's alive again."

And so the supper club has been reborn as a theater, even as traditional supper clubs continue to thrive elsewhere in Wisconsin. But the Gobbler Motel was demolished after it closed. Perhaps that's for the better. But some are trying to keep the memories alive. Journalist/humorist James Lileks has a special place in his heart for the Gobbler Motel, dubbing it the grooviest motel in Wisconsin. His website, which I hope persists, documents these special guest rooms, among others: the Passion Pit, Countryside rooms, the Bridal Suite, and Cupid's Hide-A-Way, complete with waterbed. There's much more on Lileks' website about both Gobbler establishments you should check out. Two words: Turkey carpeting.

And with that, it might be best to just bring this post to a close. We've strayed far from the original foodie topic of supper clubs. That's what happens, I reckon, when you head down a rabbit hole.

Happy early Thanksgiving.

Footnotes
1. I first mentioned that Atlas Obscura piece in this #FridayReads roundup.
2. Also, the matchbook cover is salmon, but I don't think the combination of my scanner and my Pixlr color-correction skills did a very good job of conveying that. "The scanner can't handle salmon," might end up being a chapter title in my autobiography.
3. Not to be confused with sunkenariums.
4. If you had "Roseanne Barr makes first Papergreat appearance in Post #3,012" on your bingo card, you're a winner.

Promotional postcard for arcade game with Bimbo the clown

Hey, it's The Original Bimbo 3 Ring Circus!!

Does anyone remember playing The Original Bimbo 3 Ring Circus??

I don't.

This undated, unused postcard has the following explanatory text on the back:

BIMBO
The Singing and Dancing Clownis a tested located proven moneymaker, suitable for Arcades, Discount Houses, Five and Tens, Department Stores or any other place where children congregate. This sure-fire winner takes floor space of 24 x 27 inches. Bimbo features a solid state tape cartridge player, dust proof plug-in relays. Housed in a top quality laminated cabinet, Bimbo is another product of United Billiards, Inc., 51 Progress St., Union, New Jersey 07083. (201-686-7030)

So, let's turn to the experts. The International Arcade Museum®, which describes itself as "the world's largest educational center focusing on the art, inventions, science, and history of the amusement, coin-operated machine, game, and videogame industries," has an entry for Bimbo, which states that it was released in 1981, five years before Stephen King's It slammed the door on any hope that America would make clowns fun again.

The International Arcade Museum® adds that United Billiards began releasing arcade games in 1975, and its other games included Omicron Cocktail Table, Sportacard, Super UBI Cocktail Table, UBI Cocktail Table, and Daddi-O. (And there's a good chance that's the last Daddi-O reference on Papergreat.)

Another website with some good information about Bimbo is pinrepair.com. The author explains that the 1981 game was actually a remake of a musical 1956 arcade machine called Peppy the Clown. (Check out those pictures. They're great.) Here are some details on Bimbo's "game play" from that site:

"Designed for kids, Bimbo the clown talked and sang, moving his head from side to side, player could press buttons on the front console which controlled Bimbo 3 Ring Circus' arm and leg movement. ... Each game play is approximately one minute long, depending on the length of the original songs. The song titles include 'Yankee Doodle', 'Oh Susannah', 'The Farmer in the Dell', 'East Side, West Side' and other standards, sung in a sing-songy way to appeal to young children."

If you feel the need to have your very own sing-songy The Original Bimbo 3 Ring Circus arcade game, perhaps so you can put it beside your Annabelle doll, you're in luck. There's one on eBay with a Buy It Now price of just $995. Have it delivered just in time for the holidays.

Frontispiece, excerpts and thoughts on 1944's "Plastic Horizons"

This frontispiece of Plastic Horizons (which also serves as the dust jacket cover) is in thematic lockstep with midcentury science-fiction, specifically the optimistic thread that imagined a wonderful future for all, one filled with soaring towers and space-age transportation.

Yet this is a non-fiction book — and a very technical one at times — written by B.H. Weil and Victor J. Anhorn of Gulf Research & Development Company, which began operation in the late 1920s and was tasked with discovering uses for all that black gold that Big Oil was pumping out of the ground.¹ The book was part of the "Science for War and Peace Series,"² which was published by The Jacques Cattell Press right here in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. My used copy of Plastics Horizons once resided in The Tower Room at Dartmouth College Library before being discarded.

In 1944, The New York Times reviewed Plastic Horizons and declared in the headline that it was a "Balanced Survey of the Plastic Age."³ Here are some excerpts from Weil's and Anhorn's book:

• "In recent years ... this hazy concept of the role of research and innovation in industry began to change. We could hardly help noticing the new world which was forming around us. The clothes we wore, the dentures we placed in our mouths, the cars we drove — all these and countless other things began to intrigue our fancy and stimulate our imagination. When war came again, we were already awake to the fact that science could give us nylon hose and shatterproof windshields along with high-octane fuels and potent medicines, so we were not taken unawares by radar, rocket bombs, and Norden bombsights, even though we generally lacked the training to understand them. It is not strange, therefore, that in recent years we have become increasingly aware of a new group of substances which industry is using in increasing quantities to shape our surroundings. Lovely in form and appearance, or sturdy and serviceable, as the case may be, these substances — plastics — created by our scientists from nature's raw materials, are among the most important triumphs in the field of creative chemistry."

• "It is little wonder that the popular press has adopted plastics for its very own and has proceeded to sketch a picture of the future in terms of plastic furniture, garments, dwellings, automobiles, trains, and airplanes. Plastic manufacturers share the amusement of producers of steel, aluminum, and other construction materials at some of these flights of fancy, but all of industry is now agreed that plastics have come of age and will certainly find far greater use in the future than they have in the past."
• "Plastic closures on containers for food, drugs, cosmetics, and chemicals have proved attractive, sanitary, and long-wearing. Transparent plastic packages were used before the war to enhance the appearance of flowers, silverware, cigars, candies, linens, and other goods; transparent wrapping such as cellophane will continue in heavy demand."
• "There may be no Plastics Age, but that should discourage no one; applications will multiply with the years. ... Justifiable optimism is the order of the day, and the return of peace will enable the plastics industry to fulfill its promise of things to come."

In an article for Grist earlier this year ("How the U.S. got addicted to plastics"), David A. Taylor states his belief that "Plastic Horizons undersold its subject. Its closing chapter hardly seems to anticipate the ubiquity of plastics we see today, along with its formidable waste problem."

It's easy to agree with Taylor. Plastics are affecting everything. Just this morning, I was reading an essay by author Tom Cox, who was primarily commenting on seals in the United Kingdom but went off on this tangent:

"Horribly, several seals have recently been seriously injured by plastic objects at Horsey. ... In eras to come, the rise of plastic will surely be remembered as humanity’s most baffling collective delusion. How did we ever not all realise our use of it would kill the world? All those years, all those people, trusting that bins were some magical portal to a universe where man-made crap vanished. Once you’re tuned into the problem, you find yourself looking at everything around you differently: Remembrance Day Poppies, clothing tags, crisp packets, the cellophane on paper bread bags that lets you see the bread, cat food pouches. It’s all been said a lot recently: for change to really happen, it needs to come from corporations, from those in power, not just from the consumer habits of individuals. But that’s no reason not to change your consumer habits as an individual."

That's just an excerpt. I recommend reading Cox's entire piece.

Footnotes
1. In April 1985, The New York Times reported that "The Gulf Oil Corporation ... was donating its nearby research and development center, valued at more than $100 million, to the University of Pittsburgh." The Harmarville, Pennsylvania, facility had once employed 2,000 people but that number had dwindled to 800, the Times reported.
2. Other books in the series included 1943's Food Enough by John Donald Black¹ and 1944's Peace, Plenty and Petroleum by Benjamin Talbott Brooks.
3. The New York Times review was penned by Waldemar Kaempffert (1877-1956), a science writer who was also a member of the American Society for Psychical Research and a vigorous defender of the theory that Martians had created a series of canals on their planet.

Secondary footnote
1. Speaking of food enough, I'm finishing up End Times: A Brief Guide to the End of the World: Asteroids, Super Volcanoes, Rogue Robots, and More by Bryan Walsh, and he is detailing how we could feed Earth's remaining population in the event of an apocalyptic event (supervolcano, asteroid, nuclear war) that blotted out the sun for many years. The cheery answer: mushrooms, rats and bugs.

From the readers: Golden days of autumn edition

This first Saturday of November is a good day for sharing the latest roundup of comments, queries and zingers from the great readers of Papergreat.

First up is an emailed question from Jim in Salem, Oregon, regarding the 2012 post "Straight Arrow Injun-uity card from Nabisco Shredded Wheat." Jim writes: "Can you tell me the dimensions of the Straight Arrow Nabisco cards? I’m an old guy. I remember listening to Straight Arrow on the radio and reading the cards with my cereal."

I couldn't immediately put my hands on this card that I wrote about seven years ago. It's possible that I no longer have it; because hoarding is bad. But I found a dandy Collectors Weekly article that answers the question. Here's the relevant excerpt:

"The Straight Arrow cards ... replaced the plain cardboard inserts that separated the 12 biscuits into 4 layers of 3 biscuits in the boxes of shredded wheat starting in 1949. The cards measure 4" wide by around 7 1/4" tall. One thing I found while checking information online is that Book #1 and Book #2 were done with the blue ink and Books #3 and #4 done in green ink."

Guide to American summer camps from 102 years ago: In another email, Larry Bacon writes: "While searching for Kill Kare Kamp, I found your page. Kill Kare Camp for Girls was in operation 75 to 100 years ago on Russ Point (Flying Pond), Mt. Vernon, Maine. The actual main house still stands but there are no outbuildings of note. I once saw a brochure for the place, but it disappeared when an elderly neighbor lady died and her kids didn't save much. There was another Kill Kare Kamp on the Maine coast, but that's not the same. I will try to locate some other dealers in ephemera in hopes of finding one, and I have another interest that might appear in your information. Do you have anything to offer for Klir Alfred Beck? He, too, had a camp colony on Flying Pond, but was in Vienna, Maine. It was called The Gnomes Camps. Mr. Beck was an accomplished artist and architect who worked for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Game and Maine Development Commission. He designed the State of Maine exhibits for the annual Sportsmen's Shows, including the one for the 1936 World's Fair. Any info you can provide would be of interest to me. Thank you in advance for any leads you might share."

Thanks for writing, Larry. This one isn't in my wheelhouse of expertise, but I'm sharing this in hopes that another reader might be able to provide some information about Klir Alfred Beck and The Gnomes Camps.

Cheerful Card Company can help you earn extra money for the holidays: klspeer1 wrote: "I sold Cheerful Greeting cards in the 1960s. I was 10 years old when I started and made a nice amount of money for a kid my age. I went door to door, mostly on my block, and many neighbors ordered cards. I enjoyed it. I selected the Cheerful Card Company because I earned cash instead of prizes. I'm so glad I had that experience. Today, direct marketing businesses focus on recruiting more than selling. I never had to recruit to make money back then."

The final two pieces of ephemera from that May yard sale! Regarding the problematic peeing postcard pictured here, Tom from Garage Sale Finds writes: "Given the positioning of the baby, one can assume this is a girl and not a boy. Am I overthinking this?"

Mystery real photo postcard: Girl in the yard with pillow: Tom writes: "With that staining, it almost looks like one of those lenticular Halloween pictures that changes the face to a skeleton when turned at an angle. Don't you wish someone would have taken the time to write a name on the back? Would have been so helpful."

YES! I fully agree, Tom. Add identifications and years to the backs of your snapshots and postcards, people! It will make for fewer mysteries in the future, but, on the other hand, future historians can have more fun looking us up on Find A Grave, Newspapers.com, etc.

Fight over Paul Crockett's legacy, and a long footnote on Charlie O. Howard: Doug from New Mexico wrote: "An interesting read, especially the footnoted material. ([Charles] Manson is not high on my interest list.) I hadn't known about Mr. Howard, maybe because atrocity stories are so common. My brother and I share interests in religion and language history, which leads me to this anecdote. We both own several dictionaries, old and current. He found 'homosexual' in both, with the same basic definition*. 'Homophobia' doesn't appear in mainstream references until maybe the Seventies or Eighties. Then, it's defined as 'an irrational fear of homosexuals.' Emphasis added. We agree, on the grounds that we're more afraid of wars, diseases, criminals and the like than, say, the possibility of Mr. Buttigieg breaking into my house with a knife in his teeth. Myself, I would hire an outed person (is that PC?) to fix my car or serve as a crossing guard at an elementary school. His orientation not relevant to either task. As to 'Mr. [Herman C. 'Buddy'] Frankland and his kind', I have some knowledge of the Bible myself. My brother and I are Jehovah's Witnesses, so we're as 'fanatical' as anyone, to our opponents — who include Mr. Frankland BTW. He, Charlie's murderers and others have decided to take matters into their own hands, 'on a mission from God'. That is not the task of a Christian. If it were then they should also be attacking drunkards, fornicators (straight or gay), the envious, revilers and others, listed in no particular order at 1 Cor 6:9,10. They do not, because those people are not soft targets. Whether you agree with my views or not, you can see where they come from, with research in your own Bible, at jw.org. You can start with [this link], where the first two [paragraphs] alone have some surprises. Or search 'homosexuality' at the same site. More surprises.

* He and I use the homo = same derivation; the Greek, not the Latin. Male or female."

Thank you for reading Papergreat and sharing these extensive thoughts, Doug, along with your own footnote! I have included your hyperlinks for those who want to read more. I am certainly hopeful that we are moving toward a time when there is less widespread support for intolerant views like those of the Rev. Frankland, though I know there is much work still to be done.

New Deal with an old ephemera vibe: Writing again, Doug notes: "Americans don't know nearly enough about their own history. Here in rural New Mexico are many examples of Depression-era works, many in use still. These folks were good workers. One school, built later, is using its WPA building as storage. Still weather tight."

Book cover: "Ghosts Around the House": Tom writes: "I was ravenous for books like this when I was a kid and will still pick them up gladly whenever I come across one. Before the days of paranormal shows on every other channel, books like this were your only outlet for the strange and unknown."

Absolutely, Tom. We had Hans Holzer and other paranormal paperbacks around the house when I was growing up in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and I found them much more fascinating than the James Michener or James Clavell novels.

Potential Lost Corner: Poignant tale by Jo Hogan: Joan writes: "This made me cry (surprise?) Thank you so much for sharing."

1941 advertisement for the Modern Talking Picture Service: Jackie Jessee Christianson writes: "I worked for MTPS in NYC from 1962 to 1969. My first job. It was a family."

Spooky Tuck & Sons Hallowe'en postcard mailed in 1910: Tom writes: "It's probably a play on the legend that if a girl looks in a mirror on midnight at Halloween, she'll see her future husband. This girl was in for a surprise because she's apparently marrying a Jack O' Lantern. I did a post on postcards featuring this legend."

You're 100% correct, Tom, and that's a great post on your blog. I think there's also a pun somewhere in here about someone being gourd-eous.

Papergreat's origin story: Responding to a 2011 post, Claudette Dorsey writes: "Thank you. I love everything about this post! I slipped off listening to 'Dancing with the Moonlit Knight' to search the meaning of 'paper late'. Found this post and Papergreat, with an origin story! Side-slipped to the Paperlate video (which I had never connected to Genesis' Selling England by the Pound album), several happy memories of attending UCLA when Paperlate was released, and finally dived into the jaw-dropping song analysis (George Starostin) of 'Dancing with the Moonlit Knight'. (Green Shield Stamps. Who knew?) Ha! This is how Papergreat is supposed to work, yes? Thank you, Mr. Ottopa."

1. I'm thrilled that posts from years and years ago are still delighting readers.
2. I would like for everyone to call me "Mr. Ottopa" moving forward.

Papergreat's 3,000th post, with a special celebrity guest: Wendyvee of Roadside Wonders writes: "Congratulations! The Internet is perhaps far, far more ephemeral than paper; but keep up the the 0's and 1's nonetheless."

Vintage spooky, sugary candy: And, to end on a sweet note, Tom writes: "I loved all of those sweet tart/toy configurations. They came in miniature coffins, sarcophagi, trash cans, lockers and fire plugs. In fact, I have one of the fire plugs sitting on a shelf in front of me now."

Stairway painting #LifeGoals

Some fun with "Daddy-Long-Legs"

When I saw this cover of Jean Webster's 1912 classic Daddy-Long-Legs, I couldn't help but have a little fun with photoshopping.