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| The Mag-o-Flex |
We have seen a large amount of promotional material on this blog that were released to promote Walt Disney's live-action movie The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952). In fact more were produced than we imagined as we saw in a post I did in 2012. This (below) was taken from a magazine from Today’s Cinema dated 27 March 1952:
The caption reads: 'Many of London's biggest stores are collaborating with RKO Radio's Exploitation department in window display tie-ins for Walt Disney's British production in Technicolor, The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men, the RKO release with Richard Todd and Joan Rice, which is currently scoring a hit on its World Premiere run at the Leicester Square Theatre.
1. The ‘Robin Hood’ display put on by the Houndstitch Warehouse Company in their women’s outdoor wear window.
2. The elaborate sports window tie-in at Selfridge’s Oxford Street.
3. Vatric, Regent Street, purveyors of vacuum cleaners, use this modernistic ‘Robin Hood’ motif.
4. Famed toy store, Hamley’s, of Regent Street, brighten their windows ‘Robin Hood’ cut-outs, bows and arrows.
5. Cramer’s music store, of Kensington High Street, favours the eye-catching ‘Robin Hood’ music display.
6. This ingenious ‘Robin Hood tie-in’ is on show at Anglo-French Shoes, of Victoria Street.'
Laurence has recently sent me images of a child's projector produced about the time of the films release. It is a Mag-O-Flex, in excellent condition and is another rare example of a 'Disney's Robin Hood tie-in' from about sixty three years ago.
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| The Mag.O.Flex |
The Mag-O-Flex was a battery operated plastic film projector with four film strips.
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| The Mag-O-Flex with films |
Laurence has also included images of the film strips, scripts and packaging.
Please find attached the Mag-OFlex images so that you can see them for yourself. I scanned them at a high resolution so you can blow them up if desired. They are not great pictures but then we are talking a childs projector in 1952! I would have given my right arm at the time!! Also attached the script that came with it and the package they came in.
Many thanks to Laurence for these wonderful images. I too would have given my right arm to own something like this when I was a child. If you have any memorabilia or memories of Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood, please get in touch.
Special thanks to Laurence for these great images of the Mag-O-Flex! If any other readers have memorabilia from the movie please get in touch!
ReplyDeleteTo see many more examples of memorabilia from the film and its release please click on 'memorabilia' in the labels.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Laurence in that I would have given anything to get hold of one of these projectors in 1952. At that time though times were very hard but good in so many ways so this kind of luxury would be difficult to afford at the time. This adds to the interest in The Story of Robin Hood really in my view because we all know how good the film looks even now - but imagine back in those times in 1952 when we went into the cinema and saw this wonderful Technicolor production on the big screen. Simply magical.
ReplyDeleteI have just found one of these projectors in my loft with 3 films, don't know what happened to the fourth. Also with it are the stories for Robin Hood, Alice in Wonderland parts 1 and 2 and Lambert the Sheepish Lion. Don't know which film is missing as bulb is also missing. For some strange reason also have stories for Mickey and the Pogo Stick, Peter Pan Parts 1 & 2, Mickey Cops a Cop and Honey Harvester in an envelope marked No 3. In an envelope Marked Number 1, have stories for Bambi the Little Fawn, Mickey's Express Delivery, Cinderella. Pinocchio and Goofy The Magician, but sadly none of the films
ReplyDelete