Well, I never would have expected it. Not 8 feet above my head anyways. But there they were, hiding in plain sight from me for 45 years just 8 feet above where I've been laying my head every night. Eight.....lousy......stinking.......feet!
OK, it's not a standard gauge blue comet or the 385E and Stephen Girard cars I've always dreamed of owning or even a battery operated set made in Japan. In fact, what I found doesn't even have anything to do with track! But, it's still very cool and was made by one of the big three postwar toy makers!
So, here's the story:
We started having garage sales last summer largely as a way to liquidate items from a family member's estate. In the process, a lot of other family members brought items of their own to sell out of our garage and consequently very little of what was being sold last year came from our cluttered house. This year it's different. We're cleaning up our basement and also the attic.
And that's where Louis Marx and Co. enters the picture. On Friday I had worked my way past the Christmas decorations and the canoe (yes, there's a boat in my attic!) and came to a large box full of board games from the 1950's. Now, I can't tell you how many times I'd seen that simple box that once contained a lampshade delivered from the May Co. and I have no idea how I could never have made the connection before. But more on that later. I dragged the box over near the fold-up stairway and mom helped me transfer the games box by box from the attic. Hmmm.....why are there so many of one type of game??? STILL....no connection in my warped little brain! All the contents of the box now relocated, I rested in a folding chair and started reading the names of the games on the sides of the boxes. Sorry, Concentration, Game of the States....heard of all those.....Park and Shop, Kimbo...can't say I ever heard of those before.....but what's with all these skinny boxes marked "PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES"????
"OH MY *** THAT BOX SAYS LOUIS MARX AND COMPANY!!!!!!" I exclaimed "COULD IT BE?????" I asked as I chucked the other games to the side. "IT IS!!!!" And there they were, 4 boxes of Marx presidential figures in near mint condition. (Maybe they are mint, I really can't tell if they were ever removed from the boxes or not.) All 4 boxes are intact with no splits or tears and all 4 sets contain the little booklet. But where's Lincoln? Back in the attic I go and sure enough, here's set number 3 that fell out of the box some time ago, also in near mint condition.
Without further ado, here's what I found Friday afternoon!
So, what do you think of my discovery? Sure, I'd rather have found toy trains from my father's youth, he was a kid back when Lionel was just starting out in 2 7/8 gauge and was 4 when Standard Gauge came on the scene. But he grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania and the family never had any money with all those kids. In 1953(?) he decided to buy these sets of figures for one dollar each (one has a May Co. price tag on it). Why? Hard to say. But there they lay hidden in a box full of my half-sister's toys from the 1950's just waiting for me to discover them sixty-odd-years later.
Becky
PS: That boat is called a Linkanoe and was made by Ed Link of Link Aviation Devices of Gananoque, Ontario. Link designed and manufactured the famous Link Trainer for the US Navy.
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Penny I sometimes wonder what I lost from my childhood home as my parents moved while I was at sea in the Navy So I didn't get a chance to check the main attic or the uper side attic to be sure and it would be real hard for them to do so. My brothers wern't around either. one on west coast other at sea also. Your lucky still being in your childhood home.
By the way what a fantastic find congratulations
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
I bet all those Presidents (or at least some of them) will make great citizens on your next (current?) Standard Gauge layout.
Myself, I think I would drive my family crazy wanting to play with the board games I played with as a young boy again.
J White
That is a great find. I've never seen the original boxes except in magazine photos (Playsets or Platic Figure & Playset Collector magazines) and when I was a kid, usually saw the figures where a friend had attempted to paint them.
Bob Keller
"IT's GOOD TO BE THE KING",by Mel Brooks
Charter Member- Tardis Train Crew (TTC) - Detroit3railers- Detroit Historical society Glancy Modular trains- Charter member BTTS
Penny, this is fabulous! Thanks for sharing it with us.
Rene Schweitzer
Classic Toy Trains/Garden Railways/Model Railroader
When I was a kid, the family Dentist - Dr Berger - gave one of those to you if you were "brave." You got one even if you cried like a baby, but I had several of those from trips to the Dentist.
Dr Berger had an office on the second floor above a store on State Street and the stores back then had very high ceilings, so climbing the stairs to his office was a treat. You entered a single door at street level and climbed probably 28 or so stairs and the hallway stunk of medicinal substances. He had no nurse, just a waiting room where you heard the drill running on the person before you.
He had two rooms, one where he looked at your teeth and did fillings. If you needed more than that, you went to the next very dark ominous room where he had "the gas" and other goodies. He looked like the Dentist from "Dog Day Afternoon" only a bit shorter.
Sitting in the first room chair - at eight years old you are praying he doesn't move you into the next room. He drilled fillings with no novacane or any other numbing agent.
But I still have that little Harry Truman figure to show for it . . .
Such an interesting find Becky. First I ever heard of or saw them. Thank you for sharing your fabulous lost collection with us.
..........Wayne..........
That is just an incredible find. I like to grab old Marx figures from time to time, when I'm wandering antiques shows and such. They made many great toys.
Holy smoke 'ya done good young lady!
A bit of advice which you probably don't need: Keep the sets intact, don't paint the figures. If you don't have much interest in them put them on Ebay and see if a bidding war erupts.
You just might fund a new project with the proceeds.
Hey! I went to the dentist today and he didn't even give me so much as a Kleenex!
Oh geez Frank53F you discribed the dentist office my parents took me to and left me there alone. What a nightmare experience that was.
Not hijacking the thread but he just scared the #### out of me.
I love Marx always have, sadly the toys are long gone but I have some of their trains. My first electric train was a 999 set
Neat find. I've never heard of these figures before.
Another comment on the Link corporation - in the 50's and 60's, they started building automotive testing equipment. I've spent a little time with Link brake dynamometers years ago.
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