This item comes from the Ovaltine Archives--read the story below. You can use a printout of this EBAY listing as your COA (Certificate of Authenticity) ! 

 My Internal Inventory Code : BINDERS FULL OF OVALTINE

CONDITION OF ENTIRE COLLECTION : A General Statement

One must realize that due to the nature of how the Wander Company handled their Ovaltine Archives, the method of storage and handling was not with picky collectors like you and me in mind. Items may be folded, written on in ink or pencil (with notations, messages, personal notes or filing codes), stapled, taped, cut unevenly (in the case of pages from print media), punched with binder holes....... and a LOT of the items in binders were glued to black construction paper pages.

Fortunately whatever glue they used frequently has deteriorated and allowed items to fall off  the pages without tearing or paper loss. However, keep in mind that such items carry brown brush stroked glue stains on part of their surface which I attempt to show in most cases. In cases of certain binders being sold in their entirety, to be safe, assume most items have glue stains on the back unless otherwise specified.

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ITEM FOR SALE IN THIS LISTING :

ADVERTISING BINDER :  called "Coupon Record Books" by the Ovaltine Company because they used these to document their advertisements in magazines of the time period AND kept notations of  what "coupon" or premium offer (if any) was part of the ad and what specific publications carried the ad. I have this kind of binder for the years 1927, 1930-1939, 1943, 1947, 1948, 1950.

DETAILS AND INFO : originally these were in an old binder format that made handling these very difficult. It was the type where the metal piece on the front and back threaded the page holes and interlocked. This made turning pages and pulling out ads VERY difficult and sometimes even damaged items. The metal parts were disposed of and the original covers kept BUT they were placed in their original pages into current day, more user friendly D-ring binders. So you get a current day binder and contents EXACTLY the way they were at Ovaltine.

An explanation of format -- these binders have clear pocket pages and each had between 30 and 80 of these pages per binder. EACH POCKET PAGE holds ONE specific ad (and duplicate size variations and/or proofs of that same ad) that ran in different publications. Sometimes a pocket page has 1 item in it, other times as many as 10. The left reading page indicates the publications the ad ran in and what coupon/promotion/premium was in the ad. The right reading page holds the ads and proofs.

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CONTENTS 1936

Additional photo----Click-------------> PHOTO 13

Themes of the ads are mostly getting good sleep, curing fussy eaters and nervous & underweight children, and the procession of tortured souls called Betty the Nail Biter, Tag-Along Ted, Fussy Eater Frances, Not-a-Wink Jones who are all led to healing and inner peace  ......all by using Ovaltine !

Keep in mind, this year 1936 was probably the peak of the Little Orphan Annie era !!!

1) Pocket pages :  72 pages (38 generic ad + 34 Little Orphan Annie ad ; 25 pages hold proof only with no ads and 28 pages hold color ads and/or proofs)

NOTE--for our purposes here, "ads" are clipped from within a newstand publication and have print on both sides but only one side is Ovaltine ; proofs are blank on the back

2) Duplicates Ads =  13  (clippings from the actual publications)

3) Proofs =  49    (blank backed industry '"tear sheets", not available to the public & VERY RARE, tend to be crisper in clarity and brighter colors, these are the most valuable items $-wise in the binder)    Click HERE to see comparison of quality, proof is on the LEFT.

******Total # of character items (ad,dupe ad and proof) =  47 Little Orphan Annie (26 ad, 21 proof)

Total # of Items in this Binder*** =  72 pocket pages ads + 13 duplicate ads + 49 proofs - 25 "proof only" pocket pages = 109 items .

***Theoretically, the total # of items in the binders follows this formula..... 1 + 2 + 3 - 4 =  total

1) the # of pocket pages (which is the number of DIFFERENT ads in the binder, held inside the right reading pages)

2) duplicates are "extra" ads (clipped from publications) in those pockets

3) proofs are BLANK on the back and high quality ads

4) you do not add the # of proofs where the only item in the pocket was a proof.

So suppose you had 47 pocket pages, 25 duplicates, 28 proofs and 5 "proof only" pocket pages..the total items is 47 + 25 + 28 - 5 = 95 items in the theoretical binder

DISCLAIMER-- please understand the labor intensiveness of inventorying these binders, we are only human and may have a small margin of error on the counting (easily less than 5%).

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SIZE OF BINDER (thickness) :      binder spine is 4 1/2 ", one of the thickest in the collection

CONDITION OF ITEM IN THIS LISTING : this binder probably has more condition issues than the others with there being some ads in very rough condition but still there are many ads in nice condition as well, problems include more noticeable glue stains, tape repairs,tears and missing pieces--a few of which are shown in the photos. Of the 72 pocket pages, somewhere in the 10-15 range have serious condition problems (and they tend to be the full page color newspaper ads) and after that most of the page contents are as nice as any other binder's contents----still a lot of great looking ads in here!

as noted in Condition Remarks at the top, many of these ads may have brown glue on the back, it seems these may have been stored in a particular format in the early years and were transferred in the 1950s or 1960s into the metal clip binders I found them in,

note that a lot of the ads are on newsprint which is particularly fragile especially so on the newsprint proofs whereas the slick ads tend to have survived better; but the overall condition of the ads tends to be very good to fine with very few being in 'terrible condition" unless noted otherwise; do not expect a binder full of high grade ads though......some will be but a lot will not be

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 Click here to see all my listings on EBAY from The Ovaltine Archives !

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                        THE OVALTINE ARCHIVES

In Feb and Mar 2012, I purchased what I am calling "The Ovaltine Archives".

Ovaltine was a product of the Wander Company and they originally had their offices in Illinois when they started in the 1920s. They were located for decades in Chicago and Villa Park, IL and the return address on many classic premiums for Little Orphan Annie and Captain Midnight carried those same return addresses. Some time in the 1980s they appear to have moved to Minneapolis MN, due possibly due to having been purchased by a larger company. In present day, Ovaltine is owned by Nestle who also now has one of their offices in Minneapolis MN.

In 2012, I purchased a large amount of Ovaltine related material from an individual who had worked for Nestle in Minneapolis at the time the items were being discarded. At some point in 2007-2010 , orders came down from "higher up" that the enormous Ovaltine Company archives on premises were to be gotten rid of by a certain time. The storage where they were located was emptied and everything was put on 2 pallets about 6 feet high.

Employees of that office were instructed they could take whatever they wanted for free, since the items were headed for the garbage. After a week or so, whatever was not taken by employees was disposed of and unfortunately, A LOT of the material was not saved. No one knows for sure what was in the boxes that were thrown away but I can tell you that from what remains, the Ovaltine people were fanatical record keepers and appear to have saved EVERYTHING.

The remaining material, The Ovaltine Archives, contained 99% paper items such as.....................

40+ binders and books with such items as :

2 binders that track the sales results of every Little Orphan Annie premium from 1930-1938, 9 binders that show examples of ads run in magazines for years 1930-1937, salesman pitch books for 1950s Capt Midnight promotions, a small amount of original art, 2 binders that contain an example of every company envelope Ovaltine used from the 1930s-1950s, TV commercial storyboards from the Leo Burnett Company, proof copies of advertisements, Capt Midnight TV & Radio ratings results, 4 books of advertising analysis, 1 book documenting Ovaltine ads connected with the Dave Garroway TV show, a couple binders which contain a small amount of material on Howdy Doody promotions around 1950, 6 binders of 1955-1956 Capt Midnight related company correspondences with their ad agency Tatham-Laird, 3 binders of 1955-1956 Capt Midnight related letters to consumers with Capt Midnight letterhead and his picture, 12 binders documenting print ads for years 1927,1930-1939, 1943 ; 3 binders of proof copies of print ads for years 1947, 1948 and 1950

Advertising and Misc.items include :

advertising blotters, TV station pitch books, CBS TV merchandising kit for the Capt Midnight TV show with film commercials and newspaper ad mats, several dozen 1950s Capt Midnight store signs, posters, salesman brochures and misc advertising, a small assortment of Ovaltine related archive photos, 1973 cereal boxes with PDQ offers, some misc LOA and Capt Midnight premiums, LP records with radio & TV commercials on them, numerous 16mm and 35mm films, and a large sampling of in store advertising materials such as large bin signs, posters, banners, window signs, jar labels, shelf talkers, coupons, jar collars, product holders, brochures, flyers, and more !

There is not a lot of duplication. It is rare there is more than 2 of anything which makes me think that possibly they tried to save 2 of everything but in some cases, a small handful of items had quantity of 5 or 10.

Admittedly, a significant portion of the Ovaltine Archive material is only going to be of interest to die hard food, radio and premium collectors. However the information contained in some of these papers reveals amazing inside company info never intended for the public--sales numbers, cost of radio and TV commercials, problems with SAG (Screen Actors Guild), costs of production and commercial time, analysis of sales and print media ads, scripts for commercials, analysis of advertising success and costs, consumer response to ads and premiums, inner company communications, sales meeting and conference reports, damage and breakage reports from shipping premiums, communications with TV stations, and so on. There are 100s and 100s of invoices for example.

If you ever wondered what it would be like to open "the books" on a company that had one of the most significant roles of all time in 20th century nostalgia and collecting---- here is a once in a lifetime opportunity !!!

After all, the legendary Little Orphan Annie decoder mentioned in the iconic movie, A Christmas Story, was issued by................. Ovaltine !

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