Sunday, December 03, 2023
Wish You Were Here, from Alphonse and Gaston
Hey, that's not a postcard! We give a sideways skooch to Wish You Were Here this Sunday to bring you another form of mail communication, an envelope. This envelope from the collection of Mark Johnson was produced as a marketing gimmick specifically for wholesalers/distributors to shill their wares to retailers. To get those marks to pay attention they use (aka steal) the well-known Fred Opper characters Alphonse and Gaston to add eye appeal. Mark says this envelope was used by the William Cluff Company of San Francisco, a grocery wholesaler. The addressee, Winship-McQuarrie, was a wholesaler of produce based in Seattle.
Labels: Wish You Were Here
Comments:
Hello Allan-
It never intrigued me enough to research what those companies were, but I think it shows these were main street small businesses, or they'd have the company printed on the cover. (That's the philatelic term for envelope, for you civilians)
I have seen other, non-authorized blanks with comic characters. Wish I had it, but there's one of Marriner's "Sambo" for a Dunning message, where he cheerfully yells out; " Kindly Make A Noise Lak' a Cheque!"
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It never intrigued me enough to research what those companies were, but I think it shows these were main street small businesses, or they'd have the company printed on the cover. (That's the philatelic term for envelope, for you civilians)
I have seen other, non-authorized blanks with comic characters. Wish I had it, but there's one of Marriner's "Sambo" for a Dunning message, where he cheerfully yells out; " Kindly Make A Noise Lak' a Cheque!"
# posted by 
: 12/04/2023 6:53 PM
: 12/04/2023 6:53 PM 
