FACT! #50

In 1894, Dr. John Kellogg was working as the superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan along with his brother, William Keith Kellogg. Dr. Kellogg was a ardent believer in Sylvester Graham's teachings of abstinence and the consumption of plain foods and a vegetarian diet would cut back on ill feelings, which included arousal and passion. As such, the food served to the residents of the sanitarium were vegetarian in design and basically flavorless.

On August 8th of that year, the Kellogg brothers had cooked some wheat but had to leave it as urgent matters suddenly befell them. When they returned later, they found that the wheat had gone stale. In an attempt to save it, the brothers forced it through the rollers as they normally would to create long sheets of dough. Instead they created flakes which they promptly cooked and served to the residents. To their surprise, the residents enjoyed the toasted wheat flakes. In 1895, the Kelloggs filed a patent for "Flaked Cereals and Process of Preparing Same"

William decided to found a company in 1906, the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Company, to distribute a corn flake cereal to the masses. Originally, he wanted to add sugar to the cereal, but this created issues between the two brothers. The corn cereal hit the market first as Kellogg's Toasted Corn Flakes and finally, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, which is the name it bears today.

Though the cereal was popular, William had the idea of offering a promotion to increase sales. Starting in 1909 and lasting until 1931, if anyone purchased two boxes of their corn flakes, they could get a small booklet (Funny Jungeland Moving Pictures Booklet) as a premium item. For 105 years, Kellogg's Corn Flakes have been a popular cereal and as such, advertising items and boxes routinely fetch in the $50+ range.

And for those wondering, the name of the green rooster on the front is Cornelius "Corny" Rooster.

Speaking of 50+... This is Virtual Vintage's 50th FACT! Thanks for reading and here's to many, many more! I'm hoping to have something awesomely special ready in the near future around the time we hit 100!

FACT! #49

First unveiled in 1932, the Washington Quarter-Dollar was largely unchanged for 66 years, with the exception of 1933 (no quarters were minted) and 1975 - 1976 (when the reverse of the coin changed to honor the bicentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.)

With 63 years of no change to the design, the Washington Quarter-Dollar is currently the longest lasting design in US Mint history, beating out the Lincoln Wheat Penny and the Lincoln Memorial Penny, both lasting approximately 50 years.

It should be noted that quarters minted between 1932 and 1964 are all 90% silver. They easily fetch $5 in terrible conditions, depending on the price of silver.

FACT! #48

Krazy Kat was one of the most important comic strips of the early 20th Century and many people today are aware of the comic. But few people realize that Krazy Kat was actually a spinoff from another comic strip.

George Herriman (b. 1880 - d. 1944) was working for the Los Angeles Hearld-Examiner as a cartoonist when, in 1910, he started work on a domestic comedy strip named The Dingbat Family. Though it was apparent early on that the story revolved around the unseen family upstairs. Just a few weeks into its run, the name of the strip was changed to The Family Upstairs.

During this time, Herriman used a small space at the bottom of the strip to chronicle the adventures of the family's cat and an unnamed mouse. Those two would eventually be spun off into Krazy Kat and Ignatz mouse. The Dingbat Family/The Family Upstairs ended in 1916.

It should be noted that Herriman helped popularize the use of "dingbat" to reference someone who is foolish. It was a term for the sound made when a typographical symbol was struck on a typewriter, "ding" and "bat." Its use for someone foolish originates from the early days of the 20th Century.

FACT! #47

Most people know that the NES was released in America in 1985, that was actually only a limited market release exclusive to the New York City area. The NES didn't have its national release until February, 1986 after (obvious) market success in the test area.

There were a handful of titles released between October and December of 1985 including: Excite Bike, Duck Hunt, Gyromite, Hogan's Alley, Ice Climber, Super Mario Bros., Wrecking Crew and a few others. These games really helped secure the NES' popularity with American audiences and are still fondly remembered and many are considered the pinnacle of classics for the system.

FACT! #46

Perhaps the biggest name in model trains in the 20th Century and beyond would have to be the Lionel Corporation. Established in 1900, the company originally provided novel (at the time) electric goods to the public such as fans and lights.

In 1901 the company produced its first train, the Electric Express. Unlike later trains from Lionel, this one was originally not intended to be sold to consumers and was simply a storefront display. Eventually, the company did produce a dozen models of the Electric Express.

Lionel Corporation dissolved in 1993. But between 1901 and 1993, thousands of different trains were produced by the company. Nowadays the trains range between common and ultra rare with prices reflecting that. Many Lionel Trains sit in the hundreds of dollars range with a number cresting over $1,000. The trains are frequently brought to PBS' Antiques Roadshow and many of them have been found to be worth in the $2,000 - $5,000 range.

As for an estimate on the original Electric Express train set? If a functioning one with its original pieces showed up, the sky's really the limit. An estimate of $10,000 - $25,000 doesn't seem particularly far-fetched in my opinion.

FACT! #45

In 1915, Coca-Cola offered a contest among its bottle suppliers to design a distinct and unique bottle for their flagship drink. Word made its way around all of the bottling plants and one in particular, the Root Glass Company, operating out of Terra Haute, Indiana, got to work on the contest. The owner of the bottling plant passed it down to some of his staff and one man in particular, Earl R. Dean, began working on ideas for the new bottle.

Dean was inspired by the shape of the cocoa pod and used it as a basis for his design. The first prototype was indeed a distinct and unique look (as shown above), but was flawed. With the middle being wider in diameter than the base, it caused the bottles to fall while on conveyor belts.

After a little bit of tweaking, mainly shrinking the diameter of the bottle in the middle, Dean's design was chosen by Coca-Cola in 1916 and the famous bottle shape, which continues to be used to this day, made its debut.

Dean was offered the choice of a $500 bonus, or a lifetime job with the Root Glass Company. Wisely, he opted the consistent work and stayed with the company until it was bought out in the 1930s.

FACT! #44

While most people don't know exactly where Odie came from in the Garfield comic strip, the common belief is that he was around since the first strip. Odie actually joined the strip on August 8th, 1979 one day after his original owner, Lyman, joined the cast.

Yes, Odie was originally owned by a friend of Jon's who lived with him and Garfield for a few years. Lyman was originally meant to be someone Jon could talk to and confide in, but Garfield soon filled that role more and more rendering Lyman obsolete. Lyman quietly disappeared from the comic in 1983 with a final appearance in 1988, leaving Odie in the care of Jon.

As to what happened to Lyman? No one knows for sure. Jim Davis, creator of the strip, has put forward two different situations: Either Lyman joined the Peace Corp or his corpse currently resides in Jon's basement. No fooling, Jim Davis has said "don't look in Jon's basement" when asked what happened to Lyman.

FACT! #43

Initially marketed as "Urge" in Norway in 1996 by the Coca-Cola Company; Surge was Coca-Cola's answer to Pepsi's Mt. Dew soda. After success in the Norwegian market, Surge was released internationally in 1997 to some acclaim.

Sadly, Surge never quite captured a significant portion of the energy soda (different from energy drink) market and quietly began to disappear starting in 1999. By 2003, the brand had been discontinued completely.

It has since gained a bit of a cult following and prices aren't exactly set. It appears to vary between size and whether the containers are filled or not. But the rough estimate is $25 - $100 for a sealed 2-liter... Though with no set price, it could go for more or less.

The Scent of Teddy Roosevelt

I couldn't believe it. My brain was incapable of taking in the vast wealth of amazing that my eyes had just stumbled upon on a routine trip to the antiques mall in my town. But there it was, unmoving, a little worse for wear, but exactly as he would've wanted it. Yes, my friends... There exists...

TEDDY ROOSEVELT AFTERSHAVE!

Yes, my friends, in bygone years were men were men and people would continue to work despite a little thing such as getting shot, or cutting a limb off, or death... There was this aftershave. Unfortunately, I really couldn't find out much about it. Released by Avon, it appears to be from the 1970s/1980s, but I could be wrong.

Indeed, that is the smile of one of the greatest presidents and one of the absolutely manliest men in the history of ever. Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States from 1901 - 1909 when, after William McKinley died from gunshot wounds, he ascended to that office.

While I could easily fill this entire blog from here on out with the amazing things that mad man did, that is not why this post is here. You can actually SMELL LIKE TEDDY ROOSEVELT! What mysteries lie inside of this box, you ask? What vessel can contain the incredible amount of amazing, badass and manliness and why are we not shooting men to Mars with this material? Well..

It seems to be porcelain, my friends. Mark this as the day where you know the true answer to what can be used to create cold fusion and what really helped create the universe. The liquid sits on the inside of that almost appropriately terrifying bust. You know, thinking about it now, I'm sure that was the last thing many an animal saw... Teddy Roosevelt laughing at them for succumbing to death.

The scent, according to those that have smelled its majesticness, seems to vary between baby powder, to Old Spice and Brut. But I'm more curious as to how they figured out what he smelled like... Unless they've secretly been storing his body, extracting his essence from it on a regular basis to fill these bottles with. Those MONSTERS!

Below are the rest of the graphics of this box sans a short biography on the man on the back of it. So look at them, infuse yourself with his awesomeness, then go out and karate chop a bear and make steaks out of it.

Oh, one more thing...

That really happened. You want to know why the world sucks? We don't have politicians that resemble anything like Theodore Roosevelt anymore.

FACT! #42

After development of PONG finished in 1972, Nolan Bushnell and Allan Alcorn decided to test the arcade game out at a local watering hole that they frequented and knew the manager of; Andy Capp's Tavern.

Shortly thereafter, Bushnell went on a business trip to Chicago. While gone, the manager of the tavern called Alcorn up and said, as the story goes, "come down here and fix this f-ing thing!" Alcorn hurried down to the tavern and began to inspect the PONG cabinet, which had ceased working. Upon removing the coin mechanism, he found it to be overflowing with quarters.

From that day on, PONG fever swept the nation. The cabinet was literally jammed with quarters (and I bet many of them still had silver in them) due to the incredible popularity of it.

FACT! #41

Minted for a mere 3 years from 1856 - 1858, the Flying Eagle cent was a rather unique coin. As with early Indian Head cents (which were minted after the Flying Eagle) it was composed of 88% copper and 12% nickel, which gave it a distinctly white appearance that is more reminiscent of modern day nickels. Due to that content make-up, the coin was known as the "nickel" before the mint released the $0.05 nickel coin.

They were minted for such a short time due to technical difficulties. The stamps at the mint would often have to strike harder to get both the obverse and reverse. This resulted in numerous coins having failed or very weak strikes.

Currently, even in poor conditions, the Flying Eagle fetches roughly $30. In non-mint, they can fetch as much as $500 and in mint conditions, they're easily worth $1,000+. The 1856 Flying Eagle cent was only produced in a quantity of a few hundred and as such, are worth $6,000+ in poor conditions and quickly reach well over $10,000 in better conditions.

FACT! #40

Perhaps one of the biggest names in the newspaper comic strip industry, Tribune Media Services was established in 1919 by "Captain" Joseph Patterson. Patterson had a very influential hand in many comics, having suggested the idea of Walt from Gasoline Alley finding a child (Skeezix) left on his doorstep which turned Gasoline Alley into a long running soap opera comic.

He also had a hand in changing Little Orphan Otto into Little Orphan Annie and he came up with the basic idea for the comic strip The Gumps, which is what eventually drove him to establish Tribune Media Services. The Gumps was a very popular strip and to syndicate it nationally, Patterson opted to create a whole new media wing for the distribution of that one comic.

As for why he was called "Captain?" He reached the rank of Captain while fighting in World War I.

FACT! #39

Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques

In honor of my favorite web comic's 8th anniversary, I decided a FACT! based on webcomics was in order. The first known webcomic published was a Dungeons and Dragons parody strip named Witches and Stitches by Eric Millikin, which was published on CompuServe back in 1985. Ever since then, webcomics have been around and many of them have lasted for more than a decade. It's proven to be a difficult, but viable medium and definitely has longevity in it.

I've been reading Questionable Content for a few years and absolutely love it. Even when considering Men In Hats, this is my favorite webcomic. I've gone through the archives multiple times and it's definitely something you can re-read and find new jokes.

Thanks for the great times and congratulations on all your achievements, Jeph Jacques. Here's to many more years of excellent story telling and humor!