The Ultimate Dennis the Menace Thread 3 3

[ComicBookGuy]

Dennis was the spokesman - or, spokesboy - for so many products over the years it's hard to keep track. He was also in the business of promoting The Red Cross, Unicef, and Encyclopedia Britannica:

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Here's a Delmonte ad:

 

[ComicBookGuy]

This carpet ad is clever. Who wouldn't want a "Dennis-proof" carpet?

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Here is the other side of the carpet ad poster:

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Sears used Dennis to sell its products in 1967. There are over 50 Dennis cartoons in the Summer 1967 Sears Catalog:

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Same for the Sears 1967 Christmas Catalog:

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Inside the Christmas Catalog you can play "hide-n-seek" with Dennis and win a $5 discount coupon:

 

[ComicBookGuy]

A final image from the 1967 Sears Christmas Catalog. The last time I saw one of these catalogs on eBay, it sold for $43. There are a lot of cross-over collectors that seek these: Dennis collectors, Sears catalog collectors, fashion researchers, etc.

 

 

 

 

[Allen Ross-migration]

The root beer ad was from me, posted somewhere in the middle of this thread.

 

Wow, Morning Funnies! I had completely forgotten about that. I think I still have one of those cereal boxes (collapsed) somewhere. I think they had comic strips in a format just like in the Sunday comics but original for these boxes.

 

I also have some of the Sears catalog cartoons, but I cut them out at the time, and pasted into pages placed into a notebook. That notebook since got water damage, but I still have it.

 

Thanks for all the ad images!

[ComicBookGuy]

My pleasure, Allen!

 

With the Dennis hurricane currently ravaging parts of the U.S. as I write this, comparisons to Dennis the Menace are inevitable. Check out this eBay scam:

 

Dennis the Menace Image on Toast on EBAY

 

The seller is trying to get us to buy an image of the Dennis "the Menace" hurricane that is etched onto a piece of toast like Mother Teresa's image was. Either that or just give him money after we've looked at it.

 

Here is his description in case the link dies on us:

 

Hurricane "Dennis" who really became the "Menace" today... July 10, 2005, caused the Panhandle of Florida a lot of devastation, and ruined the lives of many of those, who never fully recovered from "Ivan". It is my hope that those of you who will look at this toast, keep in your prayers all the people in the South, who must once again start to re-build their lives. I have taken some time to draw an original sketch of "Dennis" the Menace and dated the toast. This is not for consumption, but a memory, of the havoc that mother nature can cause.

 

I will donate 1/3 ( one third ) of all the proceeds raised by this toast, to help those in need in Florida. A check will be made payable to the American Red Cross. Won't you please consider bidding and let your friends know, every penny will help !! I would have loved to start the bidding at $16,000 but I knew I couldn't pay the Ebay fees up front !! So let's make this happen.

 

This is a Toast--first of its kind on Ebay......for this cause. Lets keep those in the South in our prayers.

 

 

And, of course, here's the piece of toast:

 

 

 

[BillyBatson4360]

"So let's make it happen...while I blithely pocket 2/3 of the money (or actually all of the money because how are you going to know if I ever write a check to the Red Cross)! You contribute to charity while I make a fat profit."

 

And the "artwork"!

 

This guy is obviously the Al Wiseman of the knife-on-a-piece-of-toast art scene.

[Wiseguy-migration]

"So let's make it happen...while I blithely pocket 2/3 of the money (or actually all of the money because how are you going to know if I ever write a check to the Red Cross)! You contribute to charity while I make a fat profit."

 

And the "artwork"!

 

This guy is obviously the Al Wiseman of the knife-on-a-piece-of-toast art scene.

 

***********************************************************************************

Naw Billy, more like Hank Ketchum.

Not smooth enough to be AW.

 

JRW

[BillyBatson4360]

You're right!

 

BTW no one bid on this scam. It restores just a small fraction of my faith in humanity.

[ComicBookGuy]

I think it's actually cool that a lot of people were calling the hurricane "Dennis the Menace." One of the headlines I read was...

 

Dennis the Menace: Hurricane Strikes Cuba With 150 Mph Winds

 

Date Posted: July 9, 2005

 

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL STATION, Cuba (AP) -- Packing devastating 150 mph winds, Hurricane Dennis tore down a guard tower at the U.S. detention camp for terror suspects as it stalked Cuba's south coast and prepared Friday to strike into the heart of the largest Caribbean island.

 

Thousands of residents and tourists fled the Florida Keys, fearing Dennis would skirt the island chain or hit it on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, on a path that raised fears of further disruption to U.S. oil operations.

 

A Category 4 storm with 135-mph winds, Dennis killed five people, collapsed a bridge and blocked roads with downed power lines and trees in Haiti and Jamaica on Thursday....

 

Link:

 

ChannelOne.Com Newslink: Dennis the Menace

 

Here's a cool picture of the storm:

 

[ComicBookGuy]

I've been meaning to return to this documentation of Dennis items. My research is finding that his popularity during the last part of the 20th century has really not been documented at all, despite his visibility on tv, in film, and on so many countless products. Even I am constantly amazed by the number of products I continually discover that are out there.

 

A big recent surprise was discovering that Dennis was selling savings bonds for the U.S. government in 1963. Here is a shot of a printing block for an ad:

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Shot #2:

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Shot #3:

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Here is the September 1960 issue of JACK & JILL MAGAZINE with a story written by Jay North, who is about ten at the time. Not many people know he was an aspiring writer as well as actor and singer. This was one busy kid, and it's easy to see why he grew up so bitter. According to him, he had his childhood taken away from him by being forced to play Dennis the Menace long after it stopped being fun. Invariably when he has been interviewed during the past decade he mentions he is working on an autobiography, but it has yet to be released.

 

 

[ComicBookGuy]

Here is a rare still-in-the-box Dennis stuff 'n lace doll from Standard Toycraft. Super rare:

 

[ComicBookGuy]

When I was at the Wizard World Philly Show this past June, I had the pleasure of talking to Overstreet advisor Bob Beerbohm for about twenty minutes. He told me he thought this was one of the absolute rarest of all Dennis items, the night light from the late 1960s. He also mentioned that the Babysitter's Guide was published as a teacher's edition as well as a regular edition. That is an item I have yet to see.