New year, new purpose

I will try to revive my moribund blog by focusing on mementos and artifacts (ads and photos) of movies, books, songs and albums that have been important to me, with a few brief words on why. I have been posting movie ads from newspapers in a Facebook group, which gave me the idea for doing the same here, with added personal commentary. Most of the ads will be from papers in Tucson AZ or Columbus OH, where I spent by formative years, though I will also posts ads and other artifacts from other sources. Some are from microfilm, so pardon the iffy quality.

I begin with Walt Disney's BABES IN TOYLAND (1961), the first movie I remember seeing in a theater. This ad is for its original run (Dec. '61) in a downtown theater in Columbus, Ohio, though I remember my dad taking me to see it at a drive-in, so it probably would have been a 2nd or 3rd run sometime in spring or summer of '62 when I would have been 5 years old. I have fond memories of it, but when I rewatched it a few years ago, it felt pretty bland. I think I had a little crush on Annette, whom I would have known from the Mickey Mouse Club, and I knew Ray Bolger was the Scarecrow from Oz. Had I seen this as an adolescent, I probably would have been more taken with Tommy Sands...