The 1906 advertising card of an organ grinder and his monkey was published by Livermore & Knight Company, a publisher known for their holiday and color advertising cards. It was sent from Detroit to Miss Elenor Croop in Niagara Falls, New York in 1908.
If you pull on the monkey's head, you'll find that you can pull him out. And there's something attached to him, a folded note.
Oh, look, it's an advertisement for sheet music. When was the last time you saw an advertisement for sheet music? This advertisement seems to be directed at retailers. It's a creative approach; I wonder if it worked.
Just so you know what it sounded like, here's a 1909 recording of Harry Macdonough singing Sweetheart Days.
And here's the back of the card, showing the matching design around the stamp box that Livermore & Knight were known for.
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She sent you a truly lovely card! A while ago I bought an organ monkey, who looks very much like this one....although he's an ornament, I decided from the beginning that he will sit on my desk where we can look at each other!
ReplyDeleteWhat an unusual card - love the monkey and his note!
ReplyDeleteIn the present day circumstances, the organ grinder would be out of job.
ReplyDeleteI hope they rang in the profits. I don't think they could have done it without the monkey.
ReplyDeleteBarbara
An interactive postcard! How forward-thinking!
ReplyDeleteThat's a very unique advertising card. I bet children really enjoyed playing with it too.
ReplyDeleteWonderful card - what a find! I love the advertising blurb for the sheet music - 'no quantity of this new ballad is too much for you to order'. I was really hoping to like the song, but, alas, it just doesn't do it for me. There is quite a lot of old music from that era on the Internet, much of it is surprisingly good.
ReplyDeleteTerrific post on an unusual type of ephemera. The music publisher Jerome H Remick was a major figure in the development of popular song. Gershwin worked for him for a few years. This was one of thousands Rimick produced that became the tunes everyone knew. However the card's organ grinder is not an instrument that I'd associate with sweetheart days!
ReplyDeleteYou're right Mike. It's odd to have any music advertised via organ grinder, since they were looked down upon by musicians. All they did was turn the handle of a badly-tuned instrument, often with no thought to the rhythm either. That said, I'd sure like to get my hands on one of those old instruments.
ReplyDeleteNice postcard.
ReplyDeleteI have too one postcard "Organ-grinder", but without a monkey. My is from Georgia, old Tbilisi:
http://aeliita123.blogspot.com/2012/02/organ-grinder-old-tbilisi-7.html
One doesn't meet too many Elenor Croop's anymore. The name seems as old as the card!
ReplyDeleteI kind of like "Sweetheart Days". Can't imagine an organ grinder rendition though.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kristin, it’s rather a sweet and sentimental song and not badly sung. Lovely card and I like the the paper engineering.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fascinating card, I love the confident spiel of the Remick & Co flyer.
ReplyDeleteThe pop-out monkey was a clever idea. I'd never thought of sheet music as something that would have been advertised, but of course it would have been. Thanks for this entertaining post.
ReplyDeletea terrific find! So rare to find this kind of vintage piece with inserts.
ReplyDeleteA fine moustache on the organ grinder. I'm sure their music would have been better than some of the buskers we get in our local town. Fine card.
ReplyDeleteGreat card.
ReplyDeleteI'm running a meme about stamps called Sunday Stamps if you would like to visit tomorrow:
http://viridianpostcard.blogspot.com/
What an amazing postcard to have - his mustache is something else.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous card. Oh for the days when companies put as much time and effort into designing marketing postcards that they now do in designing Facebook campaigns. Who will be able to pass around one such ephemeral on-line campaign in 100 years time? They will be lost to social history.
ReplyDeleteI like that the front and back of the card have some common element.
ReplyDeleteIndeed a great find!!
:)~
HUGZ
Christine, what a wonderful post! I really enjoyed the other two on this page also ... the streetcar in Hawaii and the Korean ones. Thanks for the history lessons!
ReplyDeleteKathy M.