Creighton University Archives and Special Collections

Carlson Fable Collection

Item Set

Items

• Aesop's Fables
  1986 Aesop's Fables. Look Listen 'N Play audio and visual set. Playtime. Usborne Publishing. (Text of Carol Watson from Aesop's Fables and Animal Stories, 1982, unacknowledged.) For use with filmstrip. About 15 minutes. $.77 at Kay-Bee, Council Bluffs, March, '91. One extra. Six fables of the ten in the printed version (TH, "The Crow and the Jug," AD, TMCM, LM, GA). Good voices and sound effects, satisfactory background music. Some small changes in the versions, including interchanging the sexes of the ant and the grasshopper. The two sides of the tape seem identical.
• Cuentos Inolvidables #17
  1984? Cuentos Inolvidables #17. Grupo de Teatro "Los Campanilleros". Madrid: Discos Mercurio. Delightful Spanish renditions of GA, TH, GGE (but with a hen) with music and fine voices. Picking up the Spanish on the first hop may not be easy!
• City Mouse, Country Mouse And Two More Tales from Aesop
  1984? City Mouse, Country Mouse And Two More Tales from Aesop. Clover Patch Collection. A Scholastic Classic. Providence, RI: Entertainment Software Corp. LM. BC. Three-minute presentations not terribly well done. Apparently Jacobs' translation adapted. The voices of the mice seem to be fast-forwarded tapes. Nice music and good narrator.
• Aesop's Fables
  1984? Aesop's Fables. Dramatized on cassette with actors, music and sound effects. Waldentapes: Stanford, CT. Thirty minutes of well done stories. Good varied sound effects. Well read. Maybe twenty stories. The translation seems to be that of Joseph Jacobs. I like these!
• The Kingdom Lost and Found. A fable for everyone.
  1984 The Kingdom Lost and Found. A fable for everyone. Read by Jack Carney. 28 minutes. ©Mary Terese Donze, ASC. Privately produced. Gift of the author, Jan., '01. Prince Leaf of Filc in Norway in an emotion-laden tale seeks, in peril of his life, the person who can make unbreakable bubbles. He finds the woodcutter/magician who can do it. King Olaf, sullen since he lost Queen Ingebord, tries to break them and soon becomes obsessed with them as they double in number every day. They smash, heat, and bury them--to no avail. When Leaf revisits the woodcutter to ask him to stop the bubble menace, the woodcutter first tempts him with the chance to settle elsewhere as a prince. When Leaf insists on helping his father, the woodcutter gives him the solution. Saying "I love you" sincerely breaks the bubbles and rekindles humane feelings in the kingdom.
• The Best of Aesop & Other Classic Fables
  1984 The Best of Aesop & Other Classic Fables. Marshall Cavendish Ltd. London: Barge Studios. For use with book (1985) of same title. Great readers, great sound effects. This tape follows the booklet verbatim. The only drawback for use in a presentation lies in the readers' British accents.
• Aesop's Fables
  1983 Aesop's Fables. Made for use with Ten Best-Loved Aesop's Fables and My Big FunThinker Book of Fun with Fables. Speaker not acknowledged. Made in Hong Kong. FunThinkers. Compton, CA: Educational Insights. Gift of Kathryn Thomas. Excellent voices. Clever interviews and discussions before and after the ten fables. Very well integrated with the print material. Artistically alert; for example, finger-snapping music introduces the story in which the fox's tail gets snapped off. The fox has a French accent with crow but a British accent when he loses his tail. The crow comes back and pecks at the fox after the story of the lost cheese. The tortoise is slow in speech, too. Ms. Hare says "Watch me next time!"
• "The Fox and the Grapes" Audio Cassette
  1980 "The Fox and the Grapes." Use with the book. Society for Visual Education, Inc. $1.39 from Barb Daniels, Lebanon OR , through eBay, March, '04. This tape presents with several voices exactly the words of the book of the same title and year. The tape runs just under five minutes. There are a few sound effects. The tape has been well used. The vocal quality is sometimes poor. At one point in his leaping he touches the grapes. He tries to leap at them ten times. The fox admits at the end that the grapes look and smell good but claims that they do not taste good. "Good-bye, sour grapes," he says at the end. The narrator says that the fox hated something because he could not get it. I also have the book.
• "The Fox and the Crow" Audio Cassette
  1980 "The Fox and the Crow." Use with the book. Society for Visual Education, Inc. $1.39 from Barb Daniels, Lebanon , OR , through eBay, March, '04. This tape presents with several voices exactly the words of the book of the same title and year. The tape runs five minutes. There are a few sound effects. Vocal quality is good on this tape. The "caw" is particularly good here. This fox does the flattery of the female crow well. He starts with compliments on general beauty and feathers, and then moves on to the crow's eyes and her virtues. Only then does he move on to her voice. The crow moves down closer to hear his flattering whispers. I also have the book.
• "The Crow and the Pitcher" Audio Cassette
  1980 "The Crow and the Pitcher." Use with the book. Society for Visual Education, Inc. $1.39 from Barb Daniels, Lebanon , OR , through eBay, March, '04. This tape presents with several voices exactly the words of the book of the same title and year. The tape runs just over five minutes. There are a few sound effects. The tape has been well used. The pitcher answers back when the crow says that she wants the water. In fact, the artist works hard to give the pitcher strong facial expressions. The not-so-swift pitcher opines that tossing pebbles to get water makes no sense. The pitcher is smart enough to notice at the end of the story that he is stuck with all the pebbles! I also have the book.
• The Tortoise & the Hare
  1993 The Tortoise & the Hare. Production Manager George Fleischman. Produced in USA. Interactive Publishing Corporation. $10 from Omaha Computer Swap Meet, May, '98. This audio cassette reproduces the narrative of the CD-ROM of the same name, year, and manufacturer. See my notes there. The reading is enhanced with simple musical background and some sound effects. The text is copyrighted by National Textbook Company, the producers of Tina la Tortuga y Carlos el Conejo/Tina the Turtle and Carlos the Rabbit (1972/90). Richie and Tina are very good friends, but Richie wakes up one day in a very bad mood and cannot stop taunting Tina with the things she cannot do while he can. Tina gets angry and demands a race. Tina announces to him: "You go far little by little."
• The Lion & the Mouse
  1993 The Lion & the Mouse. Production Manager George Fleischman. Produced in USA. Interactive Publishing Corporation. $10 at the Omaha Computer Swap Meet, May, '98. This audio cassette reproduces the narrative of the CD-ROM of the same name, year, and manufacturer. See my notes there. The text is copyrighted by National Textbook Company, the producers of Leonardo el León y Ramon el Ratón/Leonard the Lion and Raymond the Mouse (1978/90). Leonard and Marty are the characters here. The story is told in the present tense. "I don't make a good meal, but I do make a good friend" Marty pleads.
• The City Mouse & the Country Mouse
  1993 The City Mouse & the Country Mouse. Production Manager George Fleischman. Produced in USA. Interactive Publishing Corporation. $10 at the Omaha Computer Swap Meet, May, '98. This audio cassette reproduces the narrative of the CD-ROM of the same name, year, and manufacturer. See my notes there. The text is copyrighted by National Textbook Company, the producers of Chiquita y Pepita (1978/89). Molly (CM) and Margaret (TM) are cousins. Molly invites Margaret to a party along with a number of friends. A large dog attacks in the city even before the mice get to food. Molly drinks some wine with Margaret helping by holding the glass. At dinner a cat attacks. Further, loud noises like the clock's bonging bother Molly.
• French Railways (SNCF) advertisement based on GA from a British magazine
  1950? French Railways (SNCF) advertisement based on GA from a British magazine. 4¼" x 11¼". Gift of Susan Carlson, Dec., '24. As Susie said in giving me this extraordinary piece of advertising, it is a "crossover" of my interests in railways and fables. The text here has little reference to the story of GA. The ant takes charge of the pair's holiday together. "Ideal travel is a combination of speed, comfort, and economy!" The grasshopper answers that those are his very thoughts and that is why he has already bought the tickets. The best clue I can find for dating this unusual piece is that trains in France are in the process of "more electrification." Good going, SNCF!
• "No Sour Grapes in This Bunch…they're all honeys!"
  1942? "No Sour Grapes in This Bunch…they're all honeys!" Advertisement for TruVal shirts, pajamas, and sportswear. Unknown magazine. $10 from an unknown source, Feb., '24. The black-and-white fox here appears elsewhere and even in color in further TruVal advertisements. Notice the urgent plea for experienced seamen for the Merchant Marine. Does the magazine insert this kind of extra invitation into someone else's advertisement?
• Velvet Smokie Tobacco
  1925? Velvet Smoking Tobacco. Unknown magazine. $10 from an unknown source, Feb., '24. "A race ain't all in getting' started first" says the terrapin as he passes the rabbit on the road. The bespectacled terrapin is of course smoking a pipe as he passes the sleeping hare. It has been fun trying to date this advertisement. Clues include the reference to "Velvet Joe" and the markings on the tobacco tin. Velvet is boasting of the slow start their tobacco gets by being aged two years.
• Merrill Lynch, The One-Eyed Doe
  Danger comes from the direction you least expect it. Now Walter is in Department S-32. In another ad, he was in S-44. I hope all those inquiries found him!
• Merrill Lynch, The Mother Lion and the Braggarts
  The advertisement understands the fable well as about quality versus quantity. These ads generally direct an inquisitive potential client to the same person, Walter Scholl. Did Walter get a lot of mail?
• Merrill Lynch, The Milkmaid and her Pail
  Here there are three parts to the illustration. The story is told as I like to tell it, about daydreaming and a dress. "Keep your mind on your business and don't go day dreaming about profits -- especially paper ones…. What's the best source for that kind of information and guidance? Your broker, of course."
• Merrill Lynch, The Goose and the Golden Eggs
  The application here, perhaps a bit stretched, is that a good investment may reach its term. Greedy hangers-on end up losing everything.
• Merrill Lynch, The Donkey and the Thistles
  Since one man's meat is another man's poison, each of us should consult Merrill Lynch about how to invest our money. Here the artist signs his work. Is that Van Schreiber?
• Merrill Lynch, The Three Tradesman
  Once again the advertisement honors the fable's lesson well. Each of the three men sees the city in his own terms. Such a confined view will always be dangerous in life!
• Merrill Lynch, The Farmer and the Nightengale
  The point drawn is that of the traditional fable. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, as the nightingale tells the farmer -- after the farmer has released him to reveal a priceless truth.
• Cocktail and mocktail card advertisements
  2024 Cocktail and mocktail card advertisements. Kingfisher Institute, Creighton University. April 2, 2024. Each year the Kingfisher Institute offers a get-together for Creighton faculty and staff. In April of 2024, they did so in conjunction with Reinert Alumni Library. The event has two special features: a game of trivial pursuits and a special cocktail or mocktail of the day. This year the event celebrated the Carlson Fable Collection by basing a set of the trivial pursuit challenges on the fable collection. For added fun, they based the drink of the day on La Fontaine, playing with his name as "the fountain" of youth. What fun!
• Cup with Aesop quote
  1990? Large gray and blue cup with "No act of kindness no matter how small . . . is ever wasted. Aesop" on two sides. Royal Norfolk. Chesapeake, VA: Greenbrier International. From Sharon Green, Dallas, TX, thru eBay, perhaps Feb., '06. The quotation used on this large cup has become rather standard for citation on mugs, mousepads, t-shirts, and elsewhere. It comes presumably from LM. I am not sure it fits exactly with fable wisdom. Fable wisdom might say "Sometimes you can help yourself by helping other people!" I preached this past weekend that values not rooted in stories are ephemeral, and this may be an example. I want to know "What story did that saying come from?" This is one of many eBay purchases lost in history, and I can find little about this cup on the web.