Creighton University Archives and Special Collections

Carlson Fable Collection

Item Set

Items

• Fables and Fun, Vol. 2
  1977 Fables and Fun, Vol. 2. Paperbound. Minneapolis: Marketing Ventures. $6.47 from spittinunagecards through eBay, Nov., '13. Here is one of two volumes in one of three sets. This landscape volume 9" x 8¼" has the same cover picture featuring a monkey, a lion, a mouse, and a boy removing a thorn. The pamphlet contains nineteen fables with a T of C on the back cover. The following are illustrated: "The Eagle and the Arrow"; WSC; The Fox and the Lion"; 2P; "The Old Hound"; "The Viper and the File"; DS; "The Snake and the Crab"; "The Monkey and the Camel"; and "The Fowler and the Ringdove." The narrations tend to the colloquial. Several morals are either catchy or unusual. Thus WSC moralizes "The advantage gained by lying only lasts until the truth is found out." DS has this rather strange moral: "All that glitters is not meat in the water." "The Monkey and the Camel" is followed by "Wanting applause and winning it are two different things." "The Fowler and the Ringdove" is particularly pithy: "If you make trouble you will get into trouble." The book is accompanied by a flexible 33 rpm record containing all nineteen fables. The line drawings would be suitable for crayoning. WSC and DS have full-page drawings that may be the best of this lot. The two volumes are enclosed in a sleeve. I will leave the records with their volumes. It would be a miracle to find those other two sets!
• Disneyland Double Feature: Walt Disney Presents The Best Stories of Aesop and Animal Stories of Aesop
  1972 Disneyland Double Feature: Walt Disney Presents The Best Stories of Aesop and Animal Stories of Aesop. Both narrated by Sterling Holloway, with music composed and conducted by Camarata. Walt Disney Productions. Disneyland DDF-1. $4.99 from Teresa Vanwye, Indianapolis, IN, through Ebay, June, '00. The second of the two records here is identical with the one produced by Disney in 1961. See my copies above. The first seems to follow the same format as the second, offering five fables: GGE, FC, and "The Hare and the Hound" on Side 1, with DM and TH on Side 2.
• Aesop's Fable
  1967 Aesop's Fables. Read by Boris Karloff. Directed by Howard Sackler. NY: Caedmon. Gift of Pat Donnelly from the Milwaukee Public Library, June, '93. Twenty-one fables on each side. Karloff's reading is sensitive but surprisingly low-keyed. The texts, whose author I cannot identify, seem classic, pithy, well expressed. This record is not as clear as the audio cassette of the same production.
• Aesop's Fables the Smothers Brothers Way
  1965 Aesop's Fables the Smothers Brothers Way. Words and Music by John McCarthy. Arranged and Produced by David Carroll. The Smothers Brothers. Mercury Records SR 60989. MG 20989. $12 at Yesterday's Memories Book & Record Store, Feb., 1987. Extra copy for $7.50 from Martin D. McKay, Cambridge, OH, through Ebay, Feb., '99. Clever working of songs into a typical Smothers Brothers routine, with lots of nonsense included. The fables are respected by and large. Tommy howls and gets into it, and sometimes the moral comes through. See the same material on a compact disk.
• Robert Rocca Presénte 6 Fables de Jean de La Fontaine
  1961 Robert Rocca Presénte 6 Fables de Jean de La Fontaine. Vinyl record 7" x 7". $5, March, '03. The back cover of this vinyl disc states, in French, “A songwriter that is tired of the fables actually recited aloud.” Presumably, Robert Rocco is a songwriter who adapted the classic Jean de la Fontaine fables that were popular in France and set them to music. The fables include “Le savetier et le financier”, “L’alouette et ses petits”, “ Le Renard et les Raisins”, “Les animaux maladies de la peste”, La vielle et les deux servants”, and “Le petit poisson et le pecheur”.
• Fables de La Fontaine, No. 3
  1961 Fables de La Fontaine, No. 3. Paperbound. Livre-Disque: Philips. $4.99 from T.J. Novak, St. Paul, through eBay, April, '12. At last I have found Number 3 in a series of four combinations of book and record. There is a slight anomaly, since the only date I can find here is 1961 on the back cover of the booklet, and my copy of Number 3 is dated 1959. This "Livre-Disque" contains eight fables, pictured and mentioned on the cover: FK, "The Lion and the Mosquito"; BF, "The Ass and the Little Dog"; "The Eye of the Master"; "The Cock, the Cat, and the Mouse"; 2P; and "The Little Fish and the Angler." Renée Faure and Jean Davy are readers of various of the fables. A 45 rpm record is part of the book; it has its own little envelope inside the front cover. The booklet of fables is attached inside the overall jacket. As in other volumes, some pages are monochrome and some polychrome. The illustrations are lively if nothing else. I enjoy particularly the vested gentleman holding a lapdog and being accosted by the ass! I will keep this specimen, including its record, with the books.
• Fables de La Fontaine, No. 4
  1959 Fables de La Fontaine, No. 4. Paperbound. Livre-Disque: Philips. €5 from St. Ouen flea market, Paris, June, '09. Here is Volume Four, found four years after I found Volume Two, published in 1957. Apparently I have one more livre-disque to find to have the set of four complete. This "Livre-Disque" contains six fables, pictured on the cover: DW, "The Heron"; "The Daughter"; "The Stalled Carter"; "The Merchant, the Gentleman, the Shepherd, and the King's Son"; and "The Ass Carrying Relics." Jean Davy, Michel Bouquet, Renée Faure, and Robert Manuel are readers of various of the six fables. A 45 rpm record is part of the book; it has its own little envelope inside the front cover. The booklet of fables is attached inside the overall jacket. Be careful! The record sleeve is open on the bottom. Some pages are monochrome and some polychrome. The illustrations are lively if nothing else. I enjoy particularly the disdainful pose of the young woman and then the contrasting pose of the man she ends up marrying. I will keep this specimen, including its record, with the books.
• Fables de La Fontaine, No. 2
  1958 Fables de La Fontaine, No. 2. Paperbound. Livre-Disque: Philips. $4.99 from T.J. Novak, St. Paul, through eBay, April, '12. I already have one copy of this book and record, acquired from endingsandbeginnings through eBay in August of 2005. Now I have found a fresher copy with a separate record jacket and different book covers. This front cover, for example, no longer features a picture of a 45 rpm record. The back cover shows not the first two volumes of this series but the third. The date on that version was 1957. Here it is 1958. This "Livre-Disque" contains eight fables. I still presume that Jean Davy et Michel Bouquet read the fables. Monochrome and polychrome pages alternate. The illustrations are lively if nothing else. I will keep the book and record together among the books.
• Fables de La Fontaine, No. 2
  1957 Fables de La Fontaine, No. 2. Jean Davy et Michel Bouquet. Paperbound. Livre-Disque: Philips. $9.95 from endingsandbeginnings, through eBay, August, '05. Here is Volume Two, found three years after I found Volume One, published in 1955. This "Livre-Disque" contains eight fables. It is not clear what role Jean Davy et Michel Bouquet play. A 45 rpm record is part of the book; it has its own little envelope inside the front cover. Be careful! The record jacket is open on the bottom. Monochrome and polychrome pages alternate. The illustrations are lively if nothing else. The back cover of Volume One seemed to indicate four volumes in the set. This back cover shows only two. I will keep this specimen, including its record, with the books.
• Les plus belles Fables de La Fontaine en relief et en musique
  1956 Les plus belles Fables de La Fontaine en relief et en musique. Editions Lucos. Pop-up. Paperbound. Mulhouse: Lucos: Le Petit Ménestral: Editions Lucien Adés. $19.98 from Claude Bru Valois, through eBay, Feb., '11. This is a worthy combination of a 33 rpm record and six excellent pop-up scenes. The La Fontaine scenes, presented in landscape format with the fable on the flat surface closest to the reader, are about 90% intact. In several, one character or element is unhinged or otherwise defective. The scenes are GA; MM; OF; WL; FC; and TH. The best of them is WL, both for its artistic vigor and for its present condition. FC is also strong and well preserved. This is a heavy book. The small 33 rpm record is in a wrapper attached to the inside of the front cover. Its music is by Hubert Rostaing and the fables are read by François Perier. I will keep the record with the book. A lovely find!
• Fables de la Fontaine 1
  1956 Fables de la Fontaine 1. Jean A. Mercier. Hardbound. Monaco: Pathé Disques-Albums: S.A.M. Editions Les Flots Bleus. $5 from Luc Gauvreau, Montreal, March, '03. This is a combination book that includes a 45 rpm record, with eight fables narrated by Gerard Philipe. Its first gift to me is that it shows the source for the illustrations used on the lovely menus produced for La Compagnie Générale Transatlantique in 1957. These are lovely watercolors! Each of the eight fables has a full-page (7¼" x 7¼") colored illustration: MM, "L'Ane et le petit Chien," WL, "Le Singe et le Dauphin," FC, "Le Petit Poisson et le Pêcheur," "Le Coche et la Mouche," and "Le Loup devenu Berger." My prize goes to the milkmaid! She is also on the cover. I do not know if the "1" on the cover and title-page suggests that there are other books of La Fontaine in the series, or merely that La Fontaine is the first in the disque-album series. The hunt continues!
• Walt Disney's The Tortoise and the Hare
  1955? Walt Disney's The Tortoise and the Hare. Unbreakable 78 rpm Little Golden Record RD 150. Gil Mack, the Sandpipers, Mitchell Miller and Orchestra. Record by Bestway. Jacket by Simon and Schuster, New York. Gift of Wendy Wright, Nov., '11. Here is a short sung rendition of the story of Toby the Tortoise and Max the Hare. Max's problem is that he wastes time with a pretty female rabbit along the way. One website lists a copy as "50's." The record is certainly pre-1963 because Simon and Schuster's address in New York has a code but not a zip code. The record jacket is worn, but not badly for having lasted over fifty years! Click on the small illustration above to see a larger version of the record-jacket.
• Fables de La Fontaine, No. 1
  1955 Fables de La Fontaine, No. 1. Pamphlet. Livre-Disque: Philips. $9 from Francine Juneau, Montreal, through eBay, Oct. '02. Here ten fables are shown and read by Yves-Gérard le Dantec. A 45 rpm record is part of the book; it has its own little envelope inside the front cover. Monochrome and polychrome pages alternate. The illustrations are lively if nothing else. I see by the back cover that there are four volumes of La Fontaine. Now I have to find the other three! I will keep this specimen, including its record, with the books.
• Fables de La Fontaine, No. 1
  1955 Fables de La Fontaine, No. 1. Paperbound. Livre-Disque: Philips. $4.99 from T.J. Novak, St. Paul, through eBay, April, '12. I already have one copy of this book and record, acquired from Francine Juneau through eBay in October of 2002. Now I have found a fresher copy with a separate record jacket and a different set of advertisements on its back cover. This back cover, for example, features not the fourth but the third member of this series of La Fontaine's fables. As I mention there, here ten fables are shown and read by Yves-Gérard le Dantec. A 45 rpm record is part of the package. Monochrome and polychrome pages alternate. The illustrations are lively if nothing else. I will keep the book and record together among the books.
• Walt Disney's The Grasshopper and the Ants
  1949 Walt Disney's The Grasshopper and the Ants. Paperbound. Walt Disney Productions. $15 from Second Story Books, Georgetown, Dec., '10. This is a genuine find! I was finishing up in Second Story when I noticed this combination of a booklet and a 45 rpm record in the window. I had just given an extensive lecture two months earlier on "The Grasshopper and the Ant," including some criticism of Disney. This booklet may be the best illustrated Disney GA that I now have. There are two records along with the booklet; the records are produced by Capitol. The narrator is Don Wilson, who is joined by the original cast. Adaptor is Alan Livingston. The booklet itself starts with the telling but surprising image of the grasshopper spitting! I am delighted to have found this combination. I have not yet been able to play the records. 45 rpm record players are hard to find these days!
• Merry-Go-Sound: Aesop's Fables in Song
  1948? Merry-Go-Sound: Aesop's Fables in Song Sides 3 and 4 of 4. For use with an electric phonograph for children. Tone Products Corporation of America. Unknown source. The verso of the dust-jacket presents a strong illustration of WS, apparently by R. Feldstein. It is curious to find the dust-jacket presenting an advertisement for a phonograph and an illustration for a fable -- without mentioning the record of fables inside the package. This might have been a part of a set with further packaging that would have offered better orientation.
• Bugs Bunny and the Tortoise
  1947? Bugs Bunny and the Tortoise. Mel Blanc. Canvas-bound. Warner Brothers. $20 from A Time Treasured Antiques, Duluth, Sept., '18. I found this album during a chance visit to an antiques store as I walked back to the hotel from a lovely train ride in Duluth. I have remarked in several cases, including Disney and Random House presentations of TH, that the rabbit resembles Bugs Bunny. Well, here is Bugs Bunny himself in Capitol Records and Warner Brothers' "Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies" presenting the famous race. Elmer Fudd is, both visually and on the 78 rpm records, our host and narrator. The book, pasted into the cardboard jacket, has 20 double-sided pages, numbered to allow viewers to see a pair of facing pages with every portion of the two records. Bugs trips over a book of TH. Bugs goes directly to the end of the book to see by how much the hare beat the tortoise. He is angered by the result, even more when a tortoise offers to bet him on a race together. Daffy Duck serves as announcer for the race out and back again. After establishing an early lead, Bugs opines that the hare in the book probably knocked himself out. Bugs tries to avoid that by taking a rest. In the meantime, he puts a young duck into the water even though that duck does not want to get wet. Fun goes further when Bugs passes the tortoise, and the tortoise asks a taxi to follow Bugs. Only the taxi does not take the tortoise with him! Bugs walks into a trap, set for chickens by Henery the Hawk. A carrot farm proves to be Bugs' undoing. His stomach bulges as he sleeps against a tree. When the tortoise comes by, Bugs surprises him with the alarm clock he has set. The tortoise air mails himself by having a couple of air mail stamps slapped onto himself. Bugs wins by an ear. After a close finish, Elmer declares that "Bugs Bunny won by a hare!" Apparently first done in 1947 and republished in 1975. I cannot find any date information on either the printed material or the record. Researching this lovely find led me to finding better preserved copies online, and I have ordered one for the collection.
• Two Victor "Featherweight" Slides
  2018? Two Victor "Featherweight" Slides by Victor Animatograph Company, Davenport, Iowa. $4.95 for black-and-white LM and $6.95 for colored FS from Alboxman through Ebay, July, '18. 3¼" x almost 4". These slides are indeed light. It seems that the glass of the slides is very thin. I am still seeking the best solution for illuminating slides like these for web presentation. Patented Oct. 5, 1915.
• Glass magic lantern colored slide of Gustave Doré's TMCM
  1900? Glass magic lantern colored slide of Gustave Doré's TMCM. 7" x 3 7/8". Labeled on the lower rim "Class 29. Series 11. Fables of La Fontaine. No. 2. The City Rat and the Country Rat. B. 1 F. 9." $19.99 from phillips_bradley on Ebay, Dec., '19. The coloring of the image here is surprisingly strong. The image is about 3" in diameter.
• Fables of La Fontaine: Doré
  1900? Fables of La Fontaine: Doré. 77 black-and white lantern slides. "By permission Cassell, Petter, and Galpin." $170.50 from Bastion Epanning, Victoria, BC, through eBay, Oct., '08. Here are beautiful magic lantern slides, 3¼" square, with a circular scene within a square frame. Most retain the two paper slips proclaiming "Fables of La Fontaine: Doré" and ""By permission Cassell, Petter, and Galpin." Though the pictures do not scan well, they are very well done. I offer several here merely as samples; they do not do Doré justice! The slides themselves are in various states of poor repair. In many, the two glass plates have separated. In some the framing paper -- square on the outside, circular on the inside -- has become fragmentary. Two slides have cracked. What a wonderful ephemeral find! Click on any image to see it enlarged. Lifted together, these slides are also exceedingly heavy!
• Aesop's Fables from Father Tuck's Story Books
  1908? Aesop's Fables from Father Tuck's Story Books. Coloured Lantern Slides. Junior Lecturers' Series. Chapter 2 of 2 Chapters. In the original box. Watford: Tuck. $35.20 from mike3949 on Ebay, July, '21. Another very lovely set of eight substantial and richly colored slides. The numbered scenes included are given on the T of C on the box's side. I am so happy to get this set to complete the pair of Tuck's Lantern "Coloured Lantern Slides."
• Aesop's Fables from Father Tuck's Story Books
  1908? Aesop's Fables from Father Tuck's Story Books. Coloured Lantern Slides. Junior Lecturers' Series. Chapter 1 of 2 Chapters. In the original box. Watford: Tuck. $192 from E. & J. Shelley, June, '99 A very lovely set of eight substantial and richly colored slides. The numbered scenes included are: 1. LM (title slide: "Aesop's Fables from Father Tuck's Story Books"), 2. "The Dove and the Crow," 3. WL, 4. DM, 5. "The Fighting Cocks and the Eagle," 6. TH, 7. "The Hares and the Frogs," and 8. "The Quack Frog." I first saw a set of these in a German museum a year ago and wrote asking if any might be for sale. In the meantime, these were offered in London and were even set aside for me without my knowing it! I am already thinking about how best to display these beautiful pictures....
• Narrower Set of La Fontaine Magic Lantern Slides
  1890? Complete set of twelve magic lantern slides of numbered fables of La Fontaine. Original box. 7½” x 1⅝“. €35 from 123broc through Ebay, March, '23. Here is yet another surprise in the experience of collecting fables. In 2019, I found, at the Paris shop of Thierry Corcelle, an intact set of 12 glass magic lantern slides, each presenting two La Fontaine fables with title panels. I was delighted to bring them home with me! Four years later I found this set of twelve La Fontaine magic lantern slides on Ebay. Since we have several sets of such slides, I did some checking and comparing. I was amazed to see that the designs were the same as those on the Corcelle slides, but there were also significant differences. The slides were narrower, and so the images were less expansive. The coloring, apparently by hand, was different in case after case, and the typeface used on the panels was different. Since it is fascinating to examine the differences together, I also offer a page not only on each collection but on a page of comparison between the two. 1. GA / 2. FC 3. Schoolmaster & Child / 4. Robbers and Ass 5. SS / 6. Astrologer & Well 7. and 8. MSA 9. and 10. MSA 11. The Master's Eye / 12. The Miser and His Treasure 13. BS / 14. The Angler & the Little Fish 15. TB / 16. The Man and the (Frozen) Snake 17. MM / 18. Women & Secrets 19. Two Friends / 20. The Oyster & the Litigants 21. The Mongolian's Dream / 22. The Old Man & Three Youths 23. Forest & Woodman / 24.The Fool & the Sage
• Corcelle Complete Set of 12 Magic Lantern Slides
  1890? Complete set of twelve magic lantern slides of numbered fables of La Fontaine. Original box. 8½” x 2⅛“. €200 from Thierry Corcelle, Paris, July, ’19. Exquisite set, numbering each of the 24 fables on 12 slides. The color work is exquisite! 1. GA / 2. FC 3. Schoolmaster & Child / 4. Robbers and Ass 5. SS / 6. Asetrologer & Well 7. and 8. MSA 9. and 10. MSA 11. The Master's Eye / 12. The Miser and His Treasure 13. BS / 14. The Angler & the Little Fish 15. TB / 16. The Man and the (Frozen) Snake 17. MM / 18. Women & Secrets 19. Two Friends / 20. The Oyster & the Litigants 21. The Mongolian's Dream / 22. The Old Man & Three Youths 23. Forest & Woodman / 24.The Fool & the Sage
• Extra-Wide Magic Lantern Slides
  1890? Three extra-long colored magic lantern slides showing La Fontaine's fables. Two fables per slide. 10½" x 2½". $32.04 from nanicohen through Ebay, June, 21. Again, the color work in these slides is strong, even after all this time. The two titles are in cursive in a text-box to the left, and the two fable scenes to the right play out almost as two aspects of one scene. Beautiful craftsmanship! And very fragile! Monkey and Dolphin/Man with Wooden Idol FM/Horse and Stag Shepherd and Sea/Fly and Ant