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| Hey Kids! FLIP•O•VISION! Flip•O•Vision produced back in 1949 by the TOPPS company, was a set of 60 flip books that each made a mini-movie. Inside each elongated 5¢ pack contained a booklet with 30 perforated pages folded like an accordion and a stick of bubblegum. The pages had to be separated and then bound together with a rubber band to be used as a "flip movie". The subjects featured in the "mini productions" consisted of various performers, famous and obscure comedians, singers, movie actors, radio actors, etc, all performing their various mute schtick for TOPPS cameras, as well as a few film clips, (Bob Hope), pulled from current movies. "Flip•O•Vision" was most likely the brainchild of the legendary Woody Gelman, head of product development at TOPPS, in an attempt to cash in on the newfangled invention called television, (a TV set is even featured on the wrapper). Unfortunately for TOPPS, television sort of caught on, Flip•O•Vision, which might have seemed like a good idea at the time, did not. They've since become highly sought out by collectors of vintage bubblegum cards and film memorabilia. Leonard Maltin discusses Flip O Vision and adds some additional vintage Flip Books here: /blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/a-harpo-marx-flip-bookand-more     |
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Charlie Chan Flip•O•Vision front   |
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| a Flip•O•Vision title card |
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Original store ads |
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| The Flip•O•Vision box |
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box side view |
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| the wrapper |
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| Check list |
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Topps publicity photo  |
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| The complete Harpo Marx "Bubble Smoke" Flip book And watch the animated version here: /2.bp.blogspot.com/-ouS-BqXjNC4/T1OARJ1CZbI/AAAAAAAAAV0/5Zl_FYufGpM/s1600/Harpo.gif |
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Harpo and a young Marilyn Monroe, who had a small part (with Groucho) in their then current film "Love Happy"  |
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Chico's turn with Marilyn       animated... http://kirkdouglaslives.com/topps-flip-o-vision-kirk-douglas-card/ |
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| Various Flip•O•Vision fronts... |
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The complete "The Ink Spots" flip book The Cab Calloway tribute blog "HI DE HO', featuring the Cab Calloway Flip O Vision, Animated: http://thehidehoblog.zumablog.com/index.php?sujet_id=18409   |
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| some additional title cards... |
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| Billy Gilbert |
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| Al Schacht (and some Victor Moore) |
Ralph Byrd as Dick Tracy
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| the final flip book of the set |
Love the Marx Brothers stuff and I've animated the Harpo sheet which, if you're interested, you can see here.
ReplyDeleteWhere on earth do you find this stuff? Just fantastic to look at and such an ignored genre, especially here in the UK where I don’t believe we have much of a tradition of flip books, though I once owned (and probably still do) a flip book which was meant to teach me how to swing a bat at cricket (a sport much like baseball but without the constant ad breaks).
Thank you sir! I added the Harpo video to the blog!
ReplyDeleteI love these! And that animated Harpo is great.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't aware of Flip-O-Vision until this minute. Wow!
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I saw the first image I thought "Hey, you could scan these and sequence them with a GIF animator." But by the time I got a few images down I saw that somebody already had the idea and followed through. You guys are really on the ball!
Thanks Drew. Glad to help.
ReplyDeleteFor for my own amusement, I did the two other sheets you have here. The Chico Marx and the Kay Kyser.
Excellent. I pitched a certain publisher a book cataloging non-sports, non-Wacky Pack Topps material and I've never even seen this stuff.
ReplyDeleteGOSH! This is really wonderful. Thanks! And thanks for the animated gifs, Blackmonk. I love flip books. I'm making one of Lana del Ray because she's so un-animated. I like contradictions too. Someone should make a flip book of Flip Wilson--I'd buy that. Thanks again--wonderful post.
ReplyDeleteBack in the 80's I pitched the then president of Topps on a series of flip books to teach breakdancing techniques, with the back of each page having information on artists, lyrics, etc. Neither he nor I had any idea that the company had done anything like it in the past. This is the first I have ever heard of it.
ReplyDeleteBoy, Topps could do no wrong in the fifties and sixties. They need to issue an art book. Like Western Publishing (Golden Books, Dell Comics), they've been selling off their archived originals bit by bit on eBay for years. I just hope it's all been scanned and preserved...
ReplyDelete(My, my - kissed by a teenage Marilyn! But that's how he got the name "Chico," which was originally "Chicko"!)
It's so funny and cool to seeing so many cards collecting together; it seems they are telling a small old story, some like viewing old movies.
ReplyDeletepdf to flash page flip
Hey, I think this is a photo of the Flip-o-Vision camera. It has Marilyn and Harpo standing in front of it and the clothes match:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=419006284801640&set=a.183822361653368.34671.139750022727269&type=1&relevant_count=1
You are so right! Thanks for the tip.
ReplyDeleteHi de Ho,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to inform you that I've just published an article about the CAB CALLOWAY Flip-O-Vision with an animated GIF of the set. Of course, I've used some of your pictures and info and you're quoted in references.
I hope you'll enjoy :
http://thehidehoblog.zumablog.com/index.php?sujet_id=18409
The new address for the animated Cab Calloway Flip-O-Vision is: http://www.thehidehoblog.com/blog/2013/04/flip-ovision-cab-calloways-flipbook-1949
ReplyDeleteThanks again for this great article.