Crackerjack!
December 6, 2009 10:53 AM   Subscribe

 
Because what kid wouldn't want a negative image of Teddy Roosevelt?
posted by fleetmouse at 11:00 AM on December 6, 2009


Suddenly life seems so simple again. Cool gallery, thanks, grumblebee.
That negative of Teddy likely had instructions on the back for viewing an afterimage. Stare at it for a while, then stare at a white page.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:11 AM on December 6, 2009


fleetmouse - I'm using Greased Lightbox and that is now going to haunt the shit out of me.
posted by griphus at 11:21 AM on December 6, 2009


I wish I hadn't clicked. Now I really want that "4
Drawing Lessons" mini-book. (I love little books.)
posted by wittgenstein at 1:59 PM on December 6, 2009


I'm old enough to remember little tops that spun and plastic magnifying lenses and whistles. My great grandma had a bunch of her grandkids' (my Mom and her siblings) little promo toys and some of those suckers were metal.

These little printed things? Why bother, Cracker Jack? Why bother?
posted by codswallop at 2:00 PM on December 6, 2009 [2 favorites]


All I can remember getting is the magnifying glass. It was not much of a prize, but the others I got must have been even less memorable.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:52 PM on December 6, 2009


Jeez, I thought I'd remembered all kinds of cool Crackerjack prizes from my youth (like, fifty years ago). Turns out a lot of them were crappy pieces of cardboard, just like today. Maybe marginally less crappy, but, still, the good old days never were as good as we remember them. Everything is just super-duper wonderful when you are six.
posted by kozad at 3:28 PM on December 6, 2009


There's an exhibit for the history of Cracker Jack at the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in Columbus, Ohio. I recall they have an impressive collection of prizes.
posted by jaronson at 4:06 PM on December 6, 2009


Rats. I didn't keep the itty-bitty neon-red plastic toy train (steam engine and caboose) that fit on the tiny oval track; but I still have (a version not pictured in the gallery) one of the miniature pinball games.
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 5:10 PM on December 6, 2009


I never got anything better than a temporary tattoo or piece of cardboard in a box of Cracker Jacks, certainly nothing like some of the little plastic toys on that page. I never got a ring, either, but I guess I'm too young for that.

Tiffany's salesman: This, I take it, was not purchased at Tiffany's?
Paul Varjak: No, actually it was purchased concurrent with, uh, well, actually, came inside of... well, a box of Cracker Jack.
Tiffany's salesman: I see... Do they still really have prizes in Cracker Jack boxes?
Paul Varjak: Oh yes.
Tiffany's salesman: That's nice to know... It gives one a feeling of solidarity, almost of continuity with the past, that sort of thing.
posted by Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld at 7:48 PM on December 6, 2009 [1 favorite]


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