Harry Potter Souvenirs

This, the latest of my posts about our recent trip to Harry Potter land at the Universal Orlando theme park, is devoted to my souvenir haul. The amount of amazing things for sale in the Potter shops was astounding; believe it or not, what's shown below is only a small sample:

These tiny bottles of Skele-Gro measure just 3 1/4 inches tall. (They were actually keychains.)

 The Monster Book of Monsters was tops on my Need-to-Get souvenir list, and it didn't disappoint. It rolls around, growls, bites, and snaps, just like the "real thing"!

There was a single-page edition of the Quibbler, complete with Spectrespecs, for sale in one of the shops:

Prefects and Department of Magical Law Enforcement officials could get new badges from a display at the end of the castle ride:

Soft and cuddly Pygmy Puffs are as irresistable in real life as they are in the books:

Much less cuddly was Mr. Filch's nemesis, the Fanged Flyer, complete with a Handler's Glove, on sale at Zonkos!

Of course, if you're using a Fanged Flyer, it's good to have an Extendable Ear nearby, in order to hear the outraged shouts of your intended victims, teachers, or mother:

The ear actually works; it has a microphone inside:









Another good item to have handy at all times is a Sneakoscope, which spins and flashes brilliantly at any nearby nefarious activity (or, when you install the batteries and give it a twirl):

No trip to Ollivander's would be complete without a beautifully boxed wand:

All that shopping tends to leave one famished. Good thing Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, and bottles of Pumpkin Juice were readily obtainable:

More Pics From Harry Potter Land

As promised, here are some more pics from our vacation to Harry Potter Land (at Universal's theme park in Orlando, Florida):

The Owl Post storefront:

A Quidditch trunk (the Bludgers actually jump and strain at their chains, making a thumping sound that can be heard from across the street):

Flourish & Blotts bookshop window (the photographs of Gilderoy Lockhart move):

Chocolate Frogs in one of Honeydukes shop windows (the large box opens and the frog moves):

Puking Pastilles in another of Honeydukes windows (an animated display, the stream of purple "puke" continually flows):

 Clippy, the magical licorice dispenser inside Honeydukes:

 Extendable Ears on display in Zonko's window:

The scene inside Zonkos joke shop:

Harry Potter Land

Last week, we went on vacation, and our destination was the brand-new Harry Potter land at Universal Studios Florida. My family had to literally pull me out of there at the end of our visit as I cried, "Noooooooo....I don't wanna leeeeeeave!" Small children were looking at me askance, clearly shocked by my bad behavior. I didn't care: it was a spectacular place, quite literally looking and feeling as if we were in the Harry Potter movie world. (Just much hotter and more humid than I imagine Hogwarts' rumored Scottish location to be...)

We've got hundreds of photos to sort through still, but here's a few quick shots to start with:

Hogwarts Castle, with a signpost pointing the way to Hogsmeade. The castle was enormous, and the ride inside (not to mention the queue area for the ride, which winds through the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Gryffindor Tower, and Dumbledore's office) was breathtaking.

Inside the castle, this was the main portrait gallery. It stretched for several floors overhead, and the paintings talked, moved, and conversed with each other just like in the films. It was amazing.

Outside the cauldron shop in the adjoining village of Hogsmeade.

The sign for Olivander's wand shop, with Hogsmeade buildings in the background. We waited an hour to get in the wand shop, where I gleefully bought a ridiculously overpriced souvenir wand (more on my souvenir haul in a bit), but it was still a fabulous experience.

Inside Olivander's wand shop: towering shelves jam-packed with teetering boxes.

Behind the bar at the Boar's Head, with Butterbeer on tap.  The boar periodically came to "life." Note the shrunken heads in the top left corner!

Naturally, I had to buy a lot of souvenirs at Harry Potter land. I need them for my job, of course. We throw huge HP parties at my library. Hmmm...maybe I can write off my purchases on my taxes???

What I Bought on My Vacation at Harry Potter Land:

a Monster Book of Monsters (it really works: snaps and bites and rolls around and growls!)

a wand (it doesn't really work, unfortunately...)

a Sneakoscope (lights up!)

Extendable Ears (they really work! they have a tiny microphone inside!)

a Fanged Flyer (came with a "handler's glove")

an edition of the Quibbler, complete with SpectreSpecs

a deluxe Chocolate Frog

a box of Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans (unopened)

a tiny bottle of Skelegro (empty)

two bars of Honeydukes chocolate

5 postcards

a sheet of actual Owl Post postage stamps

a stuffed Pygmy Puff (doesn't do anything; it's just cute)

a bottle of Pumpkin Juice

a box of Honeydukes salt water taffy (for everyone back at work)

We had to use an extra suitcase to get it all home.

More pictures to come: Honeydukes shop windows and interiors, more inside-the-castle views, and the Hogwarts Express train!

1950s Halloween Photograph

Here's hoping you have a Halloween as happily exhausting 

as this little boy's!

Original b&w photo, 1958: found at an antique yard sale.

Vintage Jack O' Lantern Decoration

One of my favorite vintage Halloween die-cut decorations is this jack o' lantern, made of embossed cardboard circa the 1940s by H. E. Luhrs. 12 inches wide, it sports a fantastic, toothy grin.

Hi! I'm Jack!

Vintage Halloween Cupcake Picks

Circa the 1940s-50s, these pulp paper cupcake picks, 2 3/4 inches tall, include two jack 'o lanterns, a black cat, and a grinning skull. It always amazes me to find such fragile, tiny pieces of ephemera have survived for so long...

Oddfellow the Teddy Bear

Presenting one of the quirkiest antique teddy bears in my collection: Oddfellow, a circa 1915 British bruin measuring 20 inches tall. At some point during his long life, Oddfellow had eye replacements, but apparently his surgeon was all out of matching shoe buttons:

I thought about calling him "popeye", but that seemed sort of mean.

Oddfellow came dressed in an antique child's coat festooned with vintage buttons, including a Prefect's badge and a sporting medal. I added an 1890s Independent Order of Oddfellows badge, which just seemed to suit him.

I love old Oddfellows, Shriners, and other quasi-secret society paraphenalia, and have a small collection of badges, fezzes, and whatnot, but that's a topic for another day...

Teddy Bears' Halloween

My miniature Schuco and Steiff teddy bears have agreed to pose for a Halloween photo, carving their pumpkin. The large scale antique dollhouse table and chairs are just the right size, and featured in last summer's birthday photo, too. The bears date from 1910-1950s; the furniture is early 1900s American; and the backdrop is by Edward Gorey, from his Dracula Toy Theatre.

"We love pumpkin carving!"

"Ewww...I don't think I want to stick my paw in there...do you?"

King Kong Board Game

From my collection of vintage monster-themed board games comes "King Kong," made by Ideal in 1976. This was a tie-in product released in collaboration with the King Kong film remake that came out the same year. The film was not well-received; critic Leonard Maltin didn't mince his words when he said: "it dispels all the mythic, larger-than-life qualities of the original with idiotic characters and campy approach." Ouch. Still, the game is cool!

The box features fantastic promotional art from the movie poster, of Kong standing atop the World Trade Center towers (a change from the original film's climatic setting at the Empire State Building).

The game board is huge (appropriate for a story about a gigantic ape climbing gigantic buildings), measuring 32 inches long when fully opened.

The board represents the World Trade Center, and your mission as a player is to successfully attack Kong before he reaches the top. He, however, can spin about and knock you off the building, which is not a good thing.

Cards pulled can help ("take a helicopter ride!") or hinder you on your mission.

The spinner is totally cool, a tiny King Kong:

Vintage monster games generally command high prices, but Ideal's "King Kong" is still rather readily available and pretty reasonably priced, perhaps because of the remake film's unpopularity. See if you can find one, and play it this Halloween!

King Kong Carnival Chalkware Figure

If you visited the gaming tents of a traveling carnival in the 1930s, and fortune favored you that evening, you could have won this glorious chalkware prize: a 14 inch tall statue of King Kong.

If I'd been at a carnival back then, you can bet I would have been begging my date for one of these. It always amazes me to find such old chalkware pieces in such great condition today, as they are notoriously fragile.

 Grrrowrrr!

Siamese Twin Sock Monkeys

I love sock monkeys, especially quirky vintage ones. These aren't vintage, but they are nonetheless some of my favorites. Made by a crafter on the U.S. west coast, these siamese twin sock monkeys are one of her specialities.

Just in time for Halloween, may I present Julius and Edsel, in all their cuddly freakishness:

Hello hello!

A Haunted Portrait

Well, I don't know if it's really haunted, but it seems a distinct possibility...

My favorite antique dealer decided this year that she was ready to part with this portrait of her family ancestor. (I know what you're thinking: how could she bear to give up such an heirloom?! I wondered too.)

The tinted photograph is in its original, 21 inch tall domed-glass frame, and dates from the early 1900s. The green miasma in the background really heightens the spooky mood, I think. I'm not sure what effect the photo tinters were going for there, but I can't imagine they intended the "ghoulish vapour" look they unwittingly achieved.

Isn't he a delightfully creepy looking kid?

Several observers have said he looks rather like a young Uncle Fester, of Addams Family fame. I haven't mentioned this to the antique dealer, as I believe the little boy was actually a relative of her husband's, and I'm not sure how flattered she'd be by that comparison....

Souvenir Spirit Photograph from the Johnstown Flood

I discovered this photograph in an old album we rescued from an abandoned house a few years ago. (That's a long story in itself, for another day...) I was thrilled to realize I had found my first "spirit photo." These images of "ghosts" created through various tricky means were all the rage during the heyday of Spiritualism in the Victorian period, and again in the 1920s.

In the photo, the young woman with the upraised arm and the old man on the left are real, while the two large, transparent figures are the "ghosts." One of the most remarkable things about this photo is that it accidentally reveals the process of making the "spirit" effect. The old man on the left simply stepped to the side before the lengthy exposure process was complete, which left his ghostly imprint in the center. The "real" old man shouldn't be in the finished photograph at all, but the photographer didn't crop the picture properly. This was a pretty sloppy spirit photo, clearly churned out at a fast clip for the tourist trade.

Original, antique spirit photos are highly collectible, and several books have been written about them.  This one is extra-special, in that it is also a souvenir photo. The back of the picture bears a stamp which reads:

"Steven Studio 318 Broad St. Johnstown PA." Pencilled on the back is the caption, "Anna and Spirit pechirt (picture?) April 1924".

This photo proves there is no event too terrible for a shameless huckster to profit from. Johnstown, Pennsylvania is famous as the site of a horrific flood that killed 2, 209 of its citizens on May 31, 1889. A dam broke during a tremendous storm, and the resulting torrent all but swept Johnstown away. The disaster was so heart-wrenching, it was commemorated country-wide in lithographs, poetry, sheet music, books, and stereograph cards all the way into the 1920s, when Hollywood released a major motion picture based on the event.

You can learn more about the Johnstown flood at the Johnstown Flood Museum, and see more spirit photographs at the American Museum of Photography.