THE BIG LITTLE TIMES®

__________________________________________________VOLUME XXX, NUMBER 3 BIG LITTLE BOOK COLLECTOR’S CLUB MAY/JUNE 2011

P.O. BOX 1242 DANVILLE, CALIFORNIA 94526

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The WILL ROGERS LITTLE BIG BOOKSaalfield Publishing Co. (1935)

Back

Cover

Front

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The WILL ROGERS LITTLE BIG BOOK (back cover)Saalfield Publishing Co. (1935)

Frank Chandler is a fictitious character who learned the secrets of the Yogi’s in the Far East. He used his special powers and a crystal ball to thwart the enemies of mankind. He became well-known as Chandu, the Magician.

The popular juvenile radio program Chandu the Magician, began on October 10, 1932 on the West Coast Don Lee Network, radio station KHJ, Los Angeles. It soon expanded to the East on Mutual. The 5-day series of 15-minute episodes was sponsored by White King Soap in the West and by Beech Nut Gum in the East.

The title character was American-born Frank Chandler who learned occult secrets in India. He acquired supernatural skills, including astral projection, teleportation, and the ability to create illusions. Calling himself Chandu, he intended to fight any “evil that threatens mankind.”

The original show was created by Raymond Morgan and Harry Earnshaw. Vera Oldham who worked for them, wrote several hundred episodes in which Chandler’s sister, Dorothy Regent, and her two children, Betty and Bob, try to find Dorothy’s husband, Robert Regent, who disappeared in a shipwreck. Suspecting foul play, Chandler takes the family to Egypt where they encounter dangerous adventures and the evil Roxor. Chandler has a mild romance with Nadji, an Egyptian princess, and he discovers that Roxor had kidnapped and holds Robert prisoner in an attempt to get his plans for a powerful ray gun.

Although the program came to an end in 1936, it was revived for another run beginning June 28, 1948. The original scripts were reworked by Vera Oldham, and the episodes were again sponsored by White King Soap on ABC, Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m. The spooky theme music was provided by organist Juan Rolando under his Hindu pseudonym, Korla Pandit. Then on February 2, 1949, the serialized episodes were dropped, and the program became a 30-minute, self-contained story each week. The last broadcast was heard on September 6, 1950.

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Making discoveries related to a collection are among the most interesting and rewarding aspects to a collector. Finding a rare or hard to get item, picking up a scarce item in great shape for just a

small amount of money are some of the rewards. Last month, April, I was thrilled to discover a BLB variation that I had not known existed!

The item was a Danish translation of Mickey Mouse Sails to Treasure Island. In my own collection, I have a copy of Mikkel Mus, a Danish translation of the first Mickey BLB, and although I speculated there might be other translated BLBs in Danish, I never heard about or saw one.

When Mikkel Mus pa Skattejagt popped up on a Danish website, I was surprised - and, of course, decided to pick it up. Now I believe there might be other BLBs trasnlated in Denmark - perhaps The Blaggard Castle, The Mail Pilot, or The Detective. If anyone knows of other foreign titles, I’d appreciate knowing about them.

Enclosed in this BLT is a post card. I need to know a general count of how many people might attend the BLB Club Meeting on July 16 in California. A reply by the post card would be helpful to me as I plan food and other accomodations for that meeting. Please return the post card whether you will attend or not. Thanks,

LARRY LOWERYEditor

The BIG LITTLE BOOK CLUB BLB PRICE GUIDE

From time to time, price guides for big little books have appeared in the market place.

One of the earliest was a 24-page pamphlet prepared by Dale Manesis. In 1973 Ashton did a nice one (it was the one I used before starting the BLB Club). Another was done by Hal L. Cohen (1974). The Overstreet Comic Book Pice Guide began a listing of BLB prices in 1987. In 1995, L&W Book Sales did one by an unnamed author. Club Member Larry Jacobs (Member #536) did one showing his collection in 1996. Jon Warren did another in 2003. A few of these updated the listings and prices on a regular basis.

Having looked at all these price guides, it was clear to me that all were incomplete (e.g. missing titles and variations neglected) and all contained informational errors. Formatting was terrible - tending to mix titles from different companies. Most provided nothing more than an alphabetical listing of titles. Some listed rare titles but without any explanation or evi-dence for their rarity.

Thanks to the tireless contributions of John Hochstrasser (Member #1294), the most accurate and complete BLB price guide is now available - another product from our Club.

John and I worked together for the better part of a year putting together a complete list of BLBs (Whitman and all the other competing companies) with detailed information for each item in the listing. John for-matted everything on a spreadsheet, and we derived values for the items based upon an average of information provided from some Club Members who informed us about the prices they paid by condition and rarity.

The BLB Club Price Guide we created is available on a CD. It includes all the titles and variations from 1932 to the preent time for the Whitman Publishing Company and its competitors.

An added feature to the guide is a spreadsheet upon which you can list the titles you have with room to add details such as condition, price paid, where purchased. This is a very useful item if your books are ever to be sold.

If you would like this Guide, the cost is $15.00 + $2.00 shipping

Make checks or money orders out to The Big Little Book Club and send to P.O. Box 1242, Danville, CA 94526

THE DANISH BIG LITTLE BOOKS

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WILL ROGERS POSTAGE STAMP

WILL ROGERS AT HIS TYPEWRITER

The WILL ROGERS LITTLE BIG BOOK

byLarry Lowery

William Penn Adair Rogers was born to a prominent Indian Territory family on November 4, 1879. He once said, “My ancestors did not come over on the Mayflower, but they met ‘em at the boat.”

The Indian Territory later became known as the State of Oklahoma. His father, Clem Rogers, was a rancher, cattleman, and banker. His ranch and Will’s birthplace is now a tourist attraction near Oologah, Oklahoma.

In his early years, Will was a cowboy, then later a commedian who travelled vaudeville circuits. Eventually he became a social commentator on radio and an actor in films. To Americans, and to many parts of the world, he was a famous celebrity.

As a cowboy he mastered handling a lariet. He used that skill doing rope tricks in vaudeville and to great success in the Ziegfeld Follies. This, in turn, led to a series of movie contracts. In his career he made 50 silent films and 21 talkies.

In the 1920s he wrote a syndicated newspaper column which converyed his philosophies on politics and everything else - all with a tongue-in-cheek humor. The writing of more than 4,000 opinion articles plus his early work in radio made him highly visible, respected, and popular.

Both the collumns and radio allowed him to give first-hand accounts of his world travels. He publically crusaded for aviation and the Cherokee Indians.

His many short aphorisms, always humorous, were often quoted. Some examples:

“I am not a member of an organized political paarty. I am a Democrat.”

“A difference of opinion is what makes horse racing and missionaries.”

“A fool and his money are soon elected”

WILL ROGERS LITTLE BIG BOOK

Will Rogers married Betty Blake in November 1908. “When I roped her,” he said, “that was the star performance of my life”. They had four children. One son, actor-entertainer Will Jr., played his famous father in the movie “The Story of Will Rogers” in 1952.

During the decades spanning World War I and the Great Depression, Rogers’ down home humor and charm and clear insight into events provided U.S. citizens with viewpoints of both the good and bad events of the times.

He went to Hollywood in 1918 and starred in many features and shorts in the silent cinema. After the advent of sound, he became a major box office attraction. In 1934 he was voted the most popular male actor in Hollywood.

He first appeared on radio in Pittsburgh in 1922 on station KDKA. Because radio was just developing as a new technology, the broadcasts were heard only by people using crystal sets and earphones.

He continued on radio through the 20s, then in the spring of 1930 he contracted with E. R. Squibb and Sons for a weekly Sunday evening broadcast. In 1935 it ranked among the top ten radio programs in the country.

Typically, he would begin a program by saying, “Tonight all I know is this - just what I read in the papers during the day.” He never rehearsed a program. His spontinaiety and style of storytelling was perfect for a Sunday evening audience.

Some radio quotes:

Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don’t have for something they don’t need.

Let advertisers spend the same amount of money improving their product that they do on advertising and they wouldn’t have to advertise it.

America is becoming so educated that ignorance will be a novelty. I will belong to the select few.

Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.

His political commentaries led to his nomination for governorship of Oklahoma, but he declined the offer. However, he did serve as mayor of Beverly Hills, and he played an important role in the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as President in 1932. At one time, Oklahoma leaders asked Rogers to represent the state as one of their two statues in the Capitol in Washington D. C. Rogers agreed on the condition that it would be placed facing the House Chamber so he could “keep an eye on Congress.” Today it is the only statue facing the Chamber entrance.

Some political quotes:

I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing, and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even.

An economist’s guess is liable to be as good as anybody else’s.

Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what’s going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?

Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.

About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.

Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.

It’s easy being a humorist when you’ve got the whole government working for you.

Last year we said, ‘Things can’t go on like this’, and they didn’t, they got worse.

Democrats never agree on anything, that’s why they’re Democrats. If they agreed with each other, they would be Republicans

In print and on the radio, he lobbied to have the first Indian hospital in the country to be built in Oklahoma. After it was built, he sent money to put a radio in the hospital ward. He wanted patients to have access to what he considered to be the most important technology of the day. He wrote to his cousin saying, “. . . get a lot of extra earphones so they (the patients) can be connected at the beds, and send me the extra bill for that. Fix it up so all of them can hear at any time, quietly and not disturb the others.”

On a trip to Europe in the mid-20s, Rogers noted that advances in aviation were far ahead of what was taking place in the United States. His newspaper columns began to promote the advantages of flight and shape public opinion on the subject. While advocating the advantages of flight, he became friends with Charles Lindbergh and Wiley Post, the most famous pilots of the day.

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WILL ROGERS’ FAMILY

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C h a r l e s A u g u s t u s L i n d b e r g h (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974), nicknamed “Lucky Lindy” and “The Lone Eagle”, was an American aviator, author, and explorer. He emerged from virtual obscurity to instantaneous world fame as the result of his Prize-winning solo non-stop flight on May 20–21, 1927, from Long Island to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France, a distance of nearly 3,600 statute miles in the single-seat, single-engine monoplane “Spirit of St. Louis”.

Wiley Hardeman Post (November 22, 1898 – August 15, 1935), an Oklahoman like Rogers, was a famed American aviator, the first pilot to fly solo around the world from Long Island, New York in his Winne Mae. The round trip traveled 15,474 miles in the record time of 8 days and 16 hours.

In 1935, Post became interested in surveying the possibility of a mail-and-passenger air route from the West Coast to Russia. He attached a Lockheed Explorer wing to a Lockheed Orion fuselage and fitted floats for landing on the lakes of Alaska and Siberia. Rogers visited Post often at the airport in Burbank, California while Post was modifying his aircraft. He asked Post if he could fly with him to Alaska so that he could search new material for his newspaper column. When the floats Post had ordered did not arrive in time, he used a set that was designed for a larger type airplane, making the already nose-heavy aircraft still more nose-heavy. After making a test flight in July, Post and Rogers left Seattle in the Lockheed Orion in early August.

Post piloted the aircraft, and Rogers wrote his columns on his typewriter. They made several stops in Alaska. After a stop in Fairbanks, they renewed their journey on August 15 for Point Barrow. A few miles from their destination, they hit bad weather and landed in a lagoon to ask directions. On takeoff, the engine failed, and the aircraft plunged into the lagoon, shearing off the right wing and ending inverted in the shallow water. Both men were killed.

The 1934 Saalfield Little Big Book chronicles much of Will Rogers’ life. It is filled with still photographs and tells about his early days as a cowboy through his days making movies (with still shots from the films - David Harum, Life Begins At 40, Handy Andy, Lightnin’, The Country Chair-man) to his efforts to raise the public’s interest in aviation. The book is a movie-size book and was published in hard cover (15¢) and soft cover (10¢) versions.

Rogers was killed before the Saalfield book was printed, thus the end of the book includes an added Editor’s tribute to this well-loved celebrity.

Today the Rogers’ family tomb sits at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum nearby Claremore, Oklahoma. His wife Betty is interred beside him. The museum is open to the public.

SOME PAGES FROM THE SAALFIELD LITTLE BIG BOOK

LINDBERGH

THE WINNIE MAE

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WILL ROGERS and WILEY POSTTheir Last Goodbye

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jerome Beatty Jr. is the author of Saalfield’s Life of Will Rogers Little Big Book. Beatty was born in December in 1916 and after a long career as a 20th century American author of children’s literature and feature writer for magazines, passed away in July of 2002. The content of the Saalfield book is written from an biographer’s viewpoint and mixed with several interviews. In the book he writes: “Equipped with only a minor grade-school education, still unable to spell, lacking the ability to turn out a paragraph that would pass the English teachers, he is one of America’s highest paid authors.”

At the end of the book, after an interview with Rogers, Beatty wrote: “He is an old oak, meant to grow in its own way, and any attempt to train it would spoil it. His entire success lies in the fact that he is permitted to be just himself. Mrs. Rogers has helped him keep the heart of a child. He never has become an adult, and in that lies the secret of his charm.”

The Saalfield book was about to go into print at the time Rogers died, so at the end of the book, the publisher added: “In speaking of his plans to fly with Wiley Post, who was going to Alaska and on to Siberia, Will Rogers grinned in the friendly manner that endeared hm to millions and said: “Alaska will be the end of the journey for me.” A few days later he had indeed reached the end of his journey—the news flashed that Wiley Post and Will Rogers had crashed at Point Barrow. This book is a modest tribute to Will Rogers—in death we honor him, as in life we loved and respected him.”

A WHITMAN CATALOGUE ADIn the 1930s and early 1940s, Whitman widely publicized the Mickey Mouse Big Little Books and related items. Below is an example of a black and white ad in a 1935 Whitman catalogue.

On the following pages you will see a nice compilation of Whitman’s BLB ads published in the Mickey Mouse Magazine in the 30s and 40s.

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MICKEY MOUSE MAGAZINE BLB ADS

A “WORK-IN-PROGRESS” COMPILATION REPRESENTING 34 OF 60 ISSUES PUBLISHED BETWEEN SUMMER, 1935 (Vol. 1, No. 1)

AND SEPTEMBER, 1940 (Vol. 5, No. 12).

by

Judd Lawson (Member #1111)

This effort owes thanks to the earnest prodding of Larry Johnston . . . who asked me pretty please to see if I could help him find the one true source of the intriguing Big Little Book ad that he submitted to the Big Little Times last summer…(See the July/August 2010 issue, page 20.) As this request had all the trappings of a quest for the Holy Grail, I got on it right away.

(Are Big Little Times readers aware that Larry Johnston, Member #681, was an Olympic-calibre hammer thrower in his younger, wilder years? Take a gander at his back sometime - on a clear day you can see all the way across it from one side to the other . . . !) Larry J. told me he had come across the Big Little Book ad from a book dealer somewhere in the southland who had photocopied it from what he thought was an early issue of King Comics, a David O. McKay publication. Since David O. McKay Publishing concentrated mostly on King Features characters (Blondie, Flash Gordon, Mandrake, Phantom, Popeye, and the like), it seemed unlikely that a BLB ad would appear in one of their publications. A quick check of the few early King Comics I had in my collection tended to confirmed this. No BLB ads. Only house ads for early Feature Comics issue . . . (Popeye, Blondie, etc.). Big Little Books, on the other hand, were published by Whitman, a subsidiary of Western Publishing. Mickey Mouse Magazine, it so happened, was published by Western, so I checked the M M Magazines I had in my collection and . . . bingo! There was the BLB ad Larry was looking for! And several other BLB ads as well.

It stood to reason: If Western was going to advertise BLBs anywhere, wouldn’t they choose one of their own publications to run ads for one of their very own products? And what better magazine in their line-up than the only publication they had that targeted the juvenile market? Mickey Mouse Magazine seemed a natural.

Larry Lowery had similarly reasoned this out some forty years earlier, but couldn’t locate any mouse-mags to confirm whether they had BLB ads in them or not. But for this unhappy circumstance, we would have read about the existence of these ads in the Big Little Times long before now. So, fast-forwarding to last summer, Larry J’s finding of this BLB ad photocopy---and his sharing of it with the rest of us---has culminated in the the finding of its source---Mickey Mouse Magazine--- and five other BLB ads besides. This was good news for those of us who wouldn’t mind owning a few of these ads for our own collections. The ads are attractive, in color, and they appear on the inside covers of the magazine…better quality paper than the newsprint the interior of the magazine was printed on.

(A list of the mouse-mags with BLB ads in them appears toward the end of this article.)

To follow-up on these preliminary findings, then, I thought I’d see if I could find some additional mouse-mags locally and get a better idea of how many additional BLB ads might be out there. This led me to that fountain of all information Disney, that reclusive Scrooge McDuck look-alike, and fuss-budget curmudgeon extraordinaire, my homeboy, Dennis J. Jellum. – (Dr., PHD, Field Marshall, President-for-Life, Member #55 Jellum, in case you were wondering.)

Of the 28 mouse-mags Dennis had in his collection, only six were duplicates of the 12 I had in my collection. This brought the total number of different mouse-mags we could check to 34 (of the 60 published altogether). The findings so far are shown on the next page.

Volume 1Number 1

1935

Volume 1Number 9

1936

Volume 1Number 11

1936

Volume 1Number 12

1936

EARLY EXAMPLES OF THE MICKEY MOUSE MAGAZINE

The findings so far:

-- Out of 34 mouse-mags checked so far, 16 BLB ads have been found.

-- Out of the 16 BLB ads found, 6 different ads exist…(the other 10 being repeats of these 6 originals)…(While I was finding this sixth one at Dennis’s, LJ was simultaneously finding the same one at a comic show in his own Yorba Linda neighborhood. (I tell you, Norton, this guy’s got too much time on his hands!) -- A seventh ad was found that showed a “Mickey Mouse Library” of various Mickey Mouse children’s books. Among these books was one Mickey Mouse Big Little Book. So, technically, this would make a seventh different BLB ad found.

-- Another ad worth mentioning showed some of the Disney “black- spined” children’s books (which were published in three separate sets of six…among them the “Walt Disney’s Story of…” series, and two other Disney sets) These three sets attract the interest of some BLB collectors---yours truly for one---and they tend to include them with their BLB collections.

What are the chances of finding additional “new” BLB ads in the 26 mouse-mags left? Not all that good, in my opinion. It seems unlikely when you consider the spread of the 34 mouse-mags we already looked at. The sampling seems to be spread somewhat “evenly” throughout the five-year run. But this is a job for a real odds-maker to say. Six (or seven) BLB ads may be the true extent of all the BLB ads Western ran in the mouse-mags, but only a thorough look at the complete run would lay the matter to rest. So, having come this far, we’ll try for the full run, or at least as much of the run as we can locate.

On the next page is a list of the entire five-year run. The only way to be sure there aren’t any other BLB ads out there is to check all of the remain-ing 26 mouse-mags that haven’t been looked at, right? So, stay tuned, BLB fans. If you have access to anybody who has any of the unchecked Mickey Mouse Magazines below, please pass this information along to me (judd-judd@earthlink.net), Larry J (johnston6100@sbcglobal.net) or Larry L (larry@biglittlebooks.com), and it will appear in an upcoming issue of the Big Little Times.

MICKEY MOUSE MAGAZINE BLB ADs (Vol. 1, No. 1, Summer 1935 to Vol. 5, No. 12, September 1940):

(BLB = BLB ad. No = no BLB ad. A blank line indicates an issue as yet unchecked. )

Vol./No. Vol./No. Vol./No. Vol./No. Vol./No. 1/1 ____ 2/1 ____ 3/1 “BLB”* 4/1 No 5/1 BLB (2) 1/2 ____ 2/2 ____ 3/2 No 4/2 No 5/2 BLB (2) 1/3 ____ 2/3 ____ 3/3 ____ 4/3 No 5/3 BLB 1/4 ____ 2/4 “BLB”* 3/4 ____ 4/4 No 5/4 ____ 1/5 No 2/5 ____ 3/5 BLB 4/5 No 5/5 No * 1/6 ____ 2/6 ____ 3/6 BLB 4/6 ____ 5/6 ____ 1/7 ____ 2/7 ____ 3/7 BLB 4/7 ____ 5/7 ____ 1/8 No 2/8 ____ 3/8 ____ 4/8 BLB 5/8 No 1/9 ____ 2/9 ____ 3/9 ____ 4/9 No 5/9 No 1/10 ____ 2/10 BLB 3/10 BLB 4/10 No 5/10 No 1/11 ____ 2/11 BLB 3/11 BLB 4/11 BLB 5/11 No 1/12 ____ 2/12 ____ 3/12 No 4/12 BLB 5/12 ____ * The astericks on the chart indicate the following:

-- For Vol.2, No. 4 this is the issue with the “Mickey Mouse Library” ad.

-- For “Vol. 3, No. 1” this is actually Vol. 2, No 13 as printed on the magazine’s cover…(which I believe to be a production error). -- For Vol.5, No. 5 this is the issue with the ad that shows some of the “ black-spined” smaller Disney children’s books that some BLB collectors include in their collections.

Note: The BLB ads listed in this article tended to be repeated in issues subsequent to the issue where a new ad first appeared. This can particularly be demonstrated in Vol. 5/1 where two BLB ads appeared, and then in Vol. 5/2 the same two ads were run again.

A Final Note: For additional information about artists and character appearances in particular issues, see the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, which, in addition to this also lists current prices of Big Little Books and related character emphemera.

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EDITOR’S NOTE

The above Big Little Book ad is from an Argentina Magazine (early 1940s).

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THE BIG LITTLE BOOK CLUB SURVEYPART II

This survey and its analysis was done by Tom Gardner, Member #488. 95 members responded to the survey and not 55 as erroneously stated in Part I.

In what year did you start collecting?

It was surprising that many of our members stated that they started their collection in childhood but learned later that mom threw them away and that about 25 to 30 years from that earlier collection something sparked their interest to start collecting again. This table represents the first time members were introduced to BLB's and/or start their first collection.

1934- XXX 1954- 1974- XX 1994- 35- XXX 55-X 75 95- X 36- XX 56 76- XX 96- XX 37 57 77 97 38 58 78- XXX 98- XXX 39- XX 59 79- X 99 40- XXXXXX 60 80- XXXX 00 41- XXX 61 81 01- X 42- XXXX 62 82- X 02 43- X 63 83- XX 03- X 44- X 64 84 X 04 45- XX 65- XX 85- XXXXX 05 46- XX 66 86 06 47 67 87- X 07 48 - X 68 88- XX 08- X 49 69 89- XX 09 50 70- XXXXXXXX 90- XX 10 51 71 - X 91- XXXXX 11 52- X 72- XX 92- X 53 73- XXX 93

What was the first book that started you collecting?

This was a good question because I'm sure there had to be one book that started the ball rolling, to bring you to this point, to have a collection and to belong to a club of people that have the same interest. There were 89 responses received toward this question and nearly as many book titles as answered. With that being said, it appears that 20% of those that answered liked mystery / detective BLB's, 21% liked Disney titles, 10% stated Westerns, 5% listed Tarzan and 9% liked Space characters. 8% wrote down they "didn't remember and the remaining listing various titles. It is noted that several of the younger members listed titles from the 2000 Whitman series, which would be expected because those BLB's were of their generation.

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What are the hardest to get titles?

This was a hard question to answer and was probably more relevant to a member with very large collection or completed collections. Members with an average size collection stated that BLB's they don't have are all hard to collect but they also expressed resources can hinder the expansion of a collection. 4% of mentioned titles were that of Premium BLB's, 2% said any soft cover BLB and 2% said Mint to near Mint were the hardest to collect as well as Spanish titles. 19% stated that they didn't really know.

Hardest to Get Titles % of titles mentioned

The Adventures of Dick Tracy #707 10% Laughing Dragon of Oz 7%Mickey Mouse #717 5%Buck Rogers and the City of Floating Globes 4%Big Little Mother Goose (SC) 4%John Carter of Mars 2%Flash Gordon Monsters of Mongo 2%Nancy and Sluggo 2%Mickey Mouse Runs his own Newspaper (300 pg Version) 2%The Big Little Paint Book 2%

The remainder titles were mentioned once:

BambiBuck Rogers in the 25th CenturyBuck Rogers on the Moons of SaturnBuck Rogers printed in yellowCauliflower CatnipCaptain Midnight and the Moon WomanCowboy LingoDick Tracy Detective and Federal AgentDick Tracy Purple CrossDisney Saalfield'sDonald Duck (mis) Adventures #1441Felix the CatGreen HornetJerry Parker police reporterLittle Orphan Annie (SC) oblongLittle Orphan Annie #708Major Hoople and his HorseMickey Mouse Bell Boy DetectiveMickey Mouse the Mail pilotTarzan TwinsTom Mix Flaming Guns

Members Occupations

The occupations of the BLB club members range with 69 being retired with 25 that are still active in a variety of different jobs. These occupations of our membership consist of: a pipefitter, carpenter and grain farmer; (8) school teachers; (9) engineers; (4) professors; (6) CEO - Business Owners; (2) Doctor, Dentist; (3) Banker, Mathematician, Financial Advisor; (2) policeman, fireman; (3) Airline Pilots; (3) Magician, Railroad, and Factory worker; (2) Postal Carriers; (3) Writers; (9) that are in sales; (3) Attorneys; (5) that are in a Managerial position; (3) illustrator, artists; (3) Publisher/Editor, Advetiser, Computer Specialist; (3) IRS Agent, USAF Pilot, Real Estate Broker; (3) Radiologist, Exe. Assistant of Rehab., Bookseller; (3) Psychologists; (3) Certified Public Accountants; (2) Purchasing Managers; (2) School Principal, Athletic Director; and (2) FBI Agents.

States in which Club Members live

AL - 0 MT 2AK - 0 NE 1AZ - 3 NV - 1 AR - 1 NH - 1CA - 16 NJ - 2CO - 0 NM - 0CT - 3 NY - 4DE - 0 NC - 0FL - 5 ND - 0GA - 1 OH - 7HI - 0 OK - 0ID - 0 OR - 2IL - 1 PA - 3IN - 2 RI - 0IA - 1 SC - 1KS - 0 SD - 0KY - 1 TN - 1LA - 0 TX - 10ME - 0 UT - 0MD - 1 VT - 1MA - 2 VI - 1MI - 2 WA - 5MN - 2 WV - 1MS - 0 WI - 5 MO -1 WY - 0

British Columbia - 1Ontario Canada - 2

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The Age of the BLB Club Members

The age of our respondents range from 45 years of age to 86. Those answering show that most of our membership is between 66 and 86 which would make the bulk of those in the years that was when Golden and Silver age books were printed.

45 - X46 - X4748 - X X49 - X50 - X51 - X5253545556 - X X5758 - X X X X5960 - X6162 - X X6364 - X X X65

66 - X X67 - X X X68 - X X69 - X X70 - X X X X X X71 - X X X X72 - X X X X73 - X X X74 - X X X X X X75 - X X X X X X X X76 - X X X77 - X78 - X X X X X79 - X X X80 - X X X X X81 - X X X82 - X X83 - X X X X X84 - X X X85 - X 86 - X

LETTERSI have enjoyed the Big Little Times and your books about BLBs. I know that all your members will miss your efforts and involvement with this part of our history. It was an age that we shalll never experience again. Thank you for your efforts and do enjoy whatever your future endeavors may be.

BOB SIEDLEMember #1265

Thanks for all of the many fond memories of years gone by (the 1930s).

JIM GRIFFITHMember #661

I certainly have enjoyed being a member of the Big Litle Book Club all these years . . . and I have also enjoyed the articles in the Big Little Times. My very best to you.

GENE KREYMember #493

How do you keep coming up with new information for every issue of the BLT? 30 years of issues is a wonderful storehouse of facts about BLBs that should somehow be stored in libraries for future study and research and for any newcomers who want to know more about the books and the era of our society when they were published. Those little books were wonderful and they still are - even when I get one second-hand.

BEVERLY NEWSOMEMember #222

I get a lot of information from members in our Club who are still active in collecting BLBs. I get several emails and phone calls each week asking if what someone found is a new item or a variation of some kind. When it is a “fresh” item, I write it up in the BLT. I also get assistance from people who write articles for the newsletter - like the Our Gang BLBs in the last issue and the Club Questionnaire in this issue. Like you, I’ve been amazed at the amount of information that keeps showing up on a fairly regular basis - like the Danish BLB mentioned in this isssue and the second Rex Beach Jaragu adventure in the January/February issue that continued the story in the Jaragu BLB. I can never give enough thanks to all those who make contributions to our BLB knowledge.

LARRY LOWERYEditor

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BIG LITTLE BOOKS FOR SALE

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GUIDELINES FOR PLACING ADVERTISEMENTS IN

THE BIG LITTLE TIMES©

Communication concerning the buying, selling, seeking, and trading of BLBs will be improved if all advertisers do the following:

1. Grade BLBs according to the criteria in the Collector’s Guide to Big Little Books and Similar Books or on the Club’s website: biglittlebooks.com2. Use standard symbols for grading: M (mint); NM (near mint); F (fine); VG (very good); G (good); FAIR (fair); P (poor).3. Provide other helpful information such as: “spine missing,” “ink marks on the cover,” “softcover version.”4. Use the Collector ’s Numbers from the Collector’ Guide to Big Little Books and Similar Books in place of or along with the Publisher’s Numbers. The Collector’s Numbers help in identifying variations. The copyright date of the book can be an optional addition.

Copy for advertising must be received by the 15th of the month prior to the month of publication.

The BIG LITTLE TIMES© is published 6 times per year on a bimonthly subscription basis by the Educational Research and Applications LLC. It is one of several publications published for The Big Little Book Club by the ERA, LLC.

The publication is devoted to people who research, collect, or are just enthusiastic about Big Little Books© and similar books.

Contents ©ERA, LLC 2011, all rights reserved

Subscription rates: 4 remaining issues in 2011 . . . . $12.00 . . . . Single Issues . . . . $4.00 CANADA . . . . $16.00 . . . . Single Issues . . . . $5.00

Advertising Rates for Members . . . Up to 50 words . . . $3.00; Full page . . . $25.00Advertising Rates for Non-members . . . Up to 50 words . . . $4.00; Full page . . . $$40.00

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