Almost everything of note that I bought at this year’s San Diego Con used to belong to Pete Burness, apparently. Besides the Scrappy art, I picked up a promotional booklet for The Bullwinkle Show–Sing Along With Bullwinkle Meets Santa Claus:
For me at least, the whole Jay Ward sensibility has a profoundly Cold War-era feel to it, so I was tickled to see this art, with Bullwinkle, Boris, and Dudley on a sleigh ride along with JFK, Jackie, Bobby (I think), Castro (in back, to the left of Bullwinkle), and Jay Ward (Right?). I’m not sure who the dapper guy in the middle with the moustache is, though. And I feel I should be able to identify who drew this, but I can’t.
Inside are a bunch of satiric Christmas carols that don’t mention any Jay Ward characters, but do make reference to Caroline and other Kennedy kin, the Peace Corps, Green Stamps, the New York Mets, Nielsen ratings, the Beverly Hillbillies, Dean Rusk, and other hot topics of the early 60s.(From the references to Christmas, JFK, and the Hillbillies, I deduce that the booklet dates from 1962–unless, and this is sadly possible–it was published for Christmas 1963 and released before November 22nd.)
Here’s one page from the interior, with a song by Bill Scott (most of the ones in the book are by Allan Burns, and all of them are sort of faux-Tom Lehrer):
I bought one other Ward-related item–yep, also from the Burness archive–and I’ll try to remember to post it, too.
Maybe it’s Ponsonby Britt!
(Yeah, that other guy’s Bobby.)
Hi, I purchased a “Sing Along With Bullwinkle Meets Santa Claus” identical to yours at a tag sale today. Any idea who the guy in the black hat with the M is, or is that who you think is Jay Ward? Anyway, the inside cover of my book hs written at the top,”Actual Autographed Copy For Your Very Own” and is signed “Merry Christmas, T. Mort Sr.”, though I am not really sure that it is Mort, the M and the t are there, but the other letters may not be o and r. Also, what I believe may be a Sr. is underneath the other writing and also looks like it could be an Ae or some other letters. Any ideas??? Thanks and have a nice day!
Sue
Answering for Harry, who’s out on the road (which seems like a silly place to be), that’s the one he suspects of being Jay Ward. He’s in line with other JW caricatures. The “M” probably stands for Moosylvania. If you could scan or photograph the autograph, it could help — or maybe it’s in all the copies and Harry already has access to it. The guy with fair hair and moustache is a mystery. I’ve been looking at pictures of Bill Scott and Allan Burns, and it doesn’t really look much like either of them.