Paul Bunyan Center - Brainerd, Minnesota

MINNESOTA'S ANIMATED PAUL BUNYAN
Located at Brainerd, Minn., Paul is 36 feet tall and weighs 5,000 lbs. He talks, tells stories and sings lumberjack style. His size 44 cap shades his 16" moveable eyes. His broad shoulders and 18 ft. arms are protected by a size 73 shirt, which consists of 60 yards of wool-plaid material. Paul wears a size 80 boot boot with soles 5 feet long.

BABE THE BLUE OX
Constructed in Kansas City, Mo. by Joe T. Bowen. Shipped in one piece by railroad flatcar over five railroads. Wight 3600 pounds, height 15 feet, length 23 feet, width between horn tips 10 feet.


The Paul Bunyan Center stood on Excelsior Lane in Brainerd, Minnesota from 1953-2003. The park closed due to the high cost of upkeep. Luckily, the items were saved and shipped to a  new area on the outskirts of Brainerd called This Old Farm/Paul Bunyan Land. Even the footprints of the Paul Statue were saved in the Kohl's parking lot that now stands at the original site. Special thanks to Electrospark for the wonderful photos from a family's trip to Paul Bunyan Center in 1956.

Talking Paul Bunyan Statue

Dedicated to the Kids of Vacation Land

Sport, the Reversible Dog

Paul's Squirrel Henry

The Shrine of Paul

Boat Ride

Free Ride on Fire Truck

Paul Bunyan's Fire Department

10 TV Guide Covers From the 1950s

These particular TV Guides are from the New England area and are all from my collection.

Grace Kelly - April 14-20, 1956

Dobie Gillis Cast - December 5-11, 1959

Groucho Marx - March 19-25, 1954

Groucho Marx - August 27-September 2, 1955

Frank Sinatra - April 14-20, 1954

Howdy Doody & Bob Smith - June 25-July 1, 1954

Fred Astaire and Barrie Chase - October 11-17, 1958

Jay North as Dennis The Menace - October 24-30, 1959

Edie Adams and Janet Blair - August 23-29, 1958

Janis Paige - January 28-February 3, 1956

Car Talk in a Woman's Language

Ladies, are you confused by how your car works? Are you tired of your husband snapping at you because dinner isn't ready and you want to run him over with car but the damn thing won't start? I have a got some good news for you! Car Talk in A Woman's Language will tell you "the inside story about your car and its engine - written by women expressly for women." It was published in 1956 by Champion Spark Plug Company of Toledo, Ohio.

Motorola TV for '56

"This book introduces the fine New Motorola TV for 1956. Altogether new. Different from the moment it is turned on." That's how we are introduced to this colorful booklet featuring all the latest innovations and models for the exciting new year in television.
The first pages inform us on something called Eye-Conditioned TV and the Series 1700 color television. Then we go ahead a page to have tiny men pointing and things so  learn more about the start - and the heart - of eye-conditioned TV. A tiny-waisted, pink-clad women stands a half an inch from the TV (and blocks our view) so we can see how easy it is to the new Motorola Power Panel controls. Behold the aluminar tube! I think the triangles are trying to attack the lonesome little girl. The Channelight selector and Front Tuning show us how easy it is to turn on and tune.
I love these two pages showing all the colors available for the 1956 line. The next page gets the product photos started. The 24k11 and the 13 other standard makes and models. Next, the decorator colors makes and models taunt me with their beauty.
Now, close up photos of the black-and-white models: 24k11, 24k10, 24k9, 24t4, 24t3, 21k45, 21k44, 21k43, 21k42  21k41, 21k40, 21k39, 21k38, 21k37, 21c4 (aka hypnosis through phallic shaped projectiles), 21t28, 21t27, 21t26, 21t25, 17t26, 17t25, 17t24.
The sudden shower of jewels let us know that it's color TV time. We get a fiesta of information (I want that to become a saying. People in charge - GET ON IT!) on the Exclusive Colorola Tuner. The models start with the 19ck1, 19ck2, and the very last page features a woman gardening while a man on the 19ct1, tells the woman where to bury the bodies (near the azaleas).

1956 Azalea Week in Norfolk Pamphlet

A little background history from the Norkfolk NATO Festival (Azalea Festival) website:

Norfolk NATO Festival is the longest continuously running Festival in the Hampton Roads region, and the only one of its kind in the United States which honors the NATO Alliance and its member nations.

In 1951, the Women’s Club of Norfolk and a number of Norfolk’s garden clubs embraced an idea espoused by Fred Heutte, the city’s Superintendant of Parks and Forestry, to promote the city’s floral beauty through an annual Festival. Named the Norfolk Crape Myrtle Festival, it took place in Stone Park, located at the north end of The Hague, in the heat of the August sun. However, after the 1952 Festival, city business leaders from the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, the 21st Street Business Area Association, and the Retail Merchants Association revised the Festival’s theme and season, choosing a springtime Azalea Festival to highlight the beauty of the one-hundred acre Norfolk Azalea Gardens (now called Norfolk Botanical Gardens). The Festival was operated and financed as a Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, in cooperation with the City of Norfolk, from 1953 to 1998.

In 1953, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) established its first and only Command in North America, Supreme Allied Command, Atlantic, in Norfolk, Virginia. America, Supreme Allied Command, Atlantic, in Norfolk, Virginia. Aligning the city’s Azalea Festival with the newly formed NATO command helped it to stand out from the multitude of other azalea festivals in nearly every state south of Mason-Dixon line. One year after NATO’s arrival, Norfolk city leaders renamed this event the International Azalea Festival, which served the dual purposes of a salute to the allied forces and celebrating the beauty of the city’s gardens.

Today, the Norfolk-based NATO command is known as Allied Command Transformation (ACT), and serves as the think tank or futures organization for the Alliance. In 2009, NATO celebrated its 60th Anniversary, with 28 full member nations and 22 Partnership for Peace nations as part of the Alliance, providing an ever-increasing and dynamic international community here in Hampton Roads.