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One thing characters Joe played music via cranked music box, not the strings) are the corner-
Palooka and Sad Sack had in stones for any serious Casper collector. Working examples are rare, and
common, other than fighting boxed examples are rarer still.
in World War II, was a curious The only rarer Casper items I am aware of are two lithographed tin
bit of merchandising from toys produced in Japan by Linemar. One was a wind-up “Mechanical
Japan. They both had three Casper,” copyright Harvey Famous Comics, while the other was a
small booklets of Transfer rather strange wind-up
Pictures – temporary water “Mechanical Casper Ghost
transfer tattoos, printed with Tank,” copyright Harvey
pictures of characters from the Features Syndicate. Previously
comics. At first glance, they produced with much more sensi-
could easily be dismissed as a ble Superman graphics, the
bootleg, but they credit the Tank features turnover action,
copyright to Fisher and Baker with Casper lifting the tank until
respectively, and they all state it rolls over. Characters Herman
“Lic. by Harvey Famous Name and Katnip, Buzzy, Baby Huey,
Comics, NYC.” This could be and Little Audrey are all pictured
the first reference to Harvey on on the tank, along with another
a piece of character merchan- ghost, possibly one of the
dise, but it is hard to date Ghostly Trio.
these booklets. They do not The Gund Manufacturing
have a copyright date, and Company produced six
examples for sale have been “Gunderful” hand puppets, with
credited to anything from the the sixth being Casper’s cousin
“I Love Sad Sack” pinback button,
Button World Mfg., Inc. 1966 1930s to the 1950s. Spooky. Some of these do show
up for sale from time to time but Casper Moisturizing Bath Soap,
CASPER, THE FRIENDLY GHOST are almost always in poor Rovar Soap Co. Inc. 1995
condition. The felt hands
Moving from fighting and war to friendlier times, we come to what suffered the worst and are usually (Casper movie merchandise)
could be considered the “Golden Age” of Harvey Comics merchandise, missing or have been replaced. Milton Bradley made a Casper board
brought about by Casper, the Friendly Ghost. game and produced enough copies of it that it is easily available for
Paramount Pictures, founded in 1912 as the Famous Players Film purchase today. Publishing company
Company, was affected by the changeover Saalfield produced four boxed activity sets,
in film production from silent to sound in which are now fairly rare and typically
the 1920s. Cartoons could be produced have missing pieces or are partially com-
faster than feature films, so Paramount pleted. Hungerford Plastics Corporation
signed a contract with Fleischer Studios in made vinyl figures of Audrey, Huey,
1929 to distribute Fleischer’s Screen Songs Herman and Katnip, and two different
animated cartoons. Paramount assumed Caspers. Wonder Books produced a total
full ownership of Fleischer Studios in of eight books between 1960 and 1969
1942 and renamed it Famous Studios. featuring Matty’s Funday Funnies cast. In
American author Seymour Reit came 1961, Sawyer’s Inc. created a set of three
up with the character Casper the Friendly Casper picture cards for their Tru-Vue 3D
Ghost in 1939 for use in children’s books, picture viewer, and in 1965 made an
and cartoonist Joseph Oriolo provided “Electric Projection Theater” set.
illustrations. They came up with three sto- Once the Harvey characters were
ries before Seymour went to serve in the replaced on Matty’s Funday Funnies with
U.S. Army during World War II. While Beany and Cecil, merchandising began to
Seymour was gone, Joe sold the rights for slow down. A February 1963 Harvey
Casper to Famous Studios. In 1943, Casper Tru-Vue Magic Eyes Story Set, Sawyer’s Inc. 1961 comic book contains an advertisement for
Famous Studios began producing Tarco’s
Noveltoons to compete with Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies and “Casper Electronic Adventure
Looney Toons. Reit and Oriolo’s book The Friendly Ghost formed the Game,” a game of skill where
basis for the first Noveltoons appearance of Casper in November of you fly Casper by remote
1945. The Little Audrey character was created to replace Little Lulu in control. I would guess this
Famous’ lineup so they could stop paying royalties to Lulu’s creator would work like some of
Majorie Henderson Buell. Little Audrey made her first Noveltoons the road racing games of
appearance in December of 1947. Other characters—Baby Huey, Buzzy the day, but I have
the Funny Crow, and Herman and Katnip— also got their start in never seen an example
Noveltoons. Starting in 1951, Harvey Comics licensed these characters, of this game for sale.
began printing Casper and Little Audrey comics in 1952, and Baby Button World made
Huey comics in 1956. an “I Love Casper”
Paramount started running into financial troubles and sold off assets pinback button in
to raise capital. Paramount sold Harvey the full rights to the characters 1966, similar to the
they had been printing, along with some of the Noveltoons. Harvey Sad Sack button men-
Films reshot the opening titles with new Harveytoons branding, then tioned above, but I
Mattel Toymakers sponsored a show on ABC-TV called Matty’s have never seen the bag
Funday Funnies using this material. The show ran from 1959 to 1961 and cardboard hanger.
using Harvey characters.
Mattel created what are still some of the most sought-after Casper “I Love Casper”
toys during this time. The talking Casper doll, jack-in-the-box pinback button,
(“Casper-in-the-music-box”), and toy guitar (“Ge-tar” that actually Button World Mfg., Inc. 1966

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