Moon Money (1969)

Not sure how to describe this except as ephemera/toy.  Play money is a pretty cool toy at times and this was issued in 1969 as a souvenir of the landing on the Moon.  I was lucky enough to have a friend give me this package of "Moon Money" when he was cleaning house.  Not rare but really fun to look at.

 Copyright 1969 by "Texantics Unlimited, 2120 McKinney, Houston, U.S.A."

 There is a lot of information and symbols crammed into each side of the bill:
-Unified Space over America
-signed by Victor E. O'Greencheez, Asseyer of Moondust and Philthy Luke R. Kaiser, Projector of Moonbeams
-This note signifies that NASA's saga of success has a space era effect of unifying all mankind.
-This commemorative currency honors the amazing space flight and walk on the moon by Apollo 11 astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins, July 16-20-24, 1969
-Moondust certificate
-Moon Dublunars
-Apollo Eleven, A 100, NASA Bank this with Tranquility, Space City USA
-Dedicated to all Apollo crewmen
-Apollo Series M
-N X D MOON PDQ 4 B 9 V D 0 (Annex the moon  pretty damn quick for benign video?)
-N R G 2 XL R 8 (energy to accelerate)
-E Z 4 U 2 XL B A MOONMAN (easy for you to excel, be a moonman)
-the engraving has Saturns 5s, Apollo capsules, and the Command module/Lunar module


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On the reverse side we see:
-Unified Space Over America
 -Saturn 5 Blast-off /Columbia-Eagle (above and below the left picture) The sign next to the rocket says "Translunar Skyway 1."
-The center picture is the path to the Moon plus tiny icons for the stages of the mission
-One small step for a man/ One giant leap for mankind (above and below right picture).
-Engraving has 1st step on the moon in a crescent moon
-This currency may be exchanged at Bank of Tranquility for Moon Mad-money, Astro Dough, Lunar Lucre, Solar Simoleons, Cosmic Coin, Moon Mazuma, Celestial Cash, Laser Loot, Green(Cheese) Backs, Satellite Shillings, Blast-off Bucks, or all the moonrocks you can carry on your first lunar sojourn.

"Space Dittos" (1962?)

"Ditto" from 1962

Come away with me to the dark ages of space flight in the classroom and the world of dittos.

"Dittos" were paper sheets distributed in the classroom and created by using a spirit duplicator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duplicating_machines#Spirit_duplicators

They were called dittos because they were made on a machine manufactured by "Ditto" and they were usually "aniline purple."

They tended to fade over time so you rarely see ones from the 1960s.  However the ditto masters themselves were sold pre-made to teachers in sets.

I found a set of (1962?) books which shows the contents of one of these science sets. These were tiny (3" x 6") books showing what the final printed image would look like. So the teacher could look through the book to preview which image they wanted to print.

This seemed to be from a 1962 set of science worksheets for 6th graders because they mention John Glenn and Alan Shepard.

 Notice the "cute" cartoons at the bottom from "Sammy Science!"

This one is from the 4th grade book

Maybe of interest to only a few of you but I am fascinated how information about space flight "trickled" down to children via school.

Earth Satellite Game: Fight your way to the Moon in a 3-stage rocket (1956)

 

Sometimes the images just grab you and you don't care about the source.  One such example is the cover to the 1956 board game "Earth Satellite: Fight your way to the Moon in a 3-stage rocket."

It is an expensive game to find complete but I was lucky enough to find a broken one which had many of these cool images intact.  Since I never planned to play the game, these evocative fragments are cool decorations. The game pieces are really cool, with their approach to what might happen during a space mission.

One of the things that I didn't know about the game was that the game pieces are 3-stage "Bonestell" rockets. As part of the game you get to build your game piece.

I also love the board. Although tough to show completely it gives a wonderful sense of how you have to climb to get to the Moon.

Finally I like this game board spinner. I am tempted to have it made into a T-shirt because it is such a perfect 1956 image of how children dreamed of spaceflight even while many adults did not have a clue what was coming in a year or so.

The Milestones of the Space Epoch (1967)

Yet another nice Russian book. This everything included approach suggests it might have been for young adults/popular consumption.

Vasiliev, M. The milestones of  the space epoch. Moscow: Mashinostroenie. 1967. (226 p.) 17.5 cm x 22.3 cm.

The colored plates in this book make it very attractive. The text and most of the illustrations focus on the history of Russian space exploration. The plates however convey the romantic visions of places people had yet to go.

 While the Russians never made it to the Moon, this vision of an astronaut seeing where the first unmanned probes had landed is a powerful thought.  The Apollo 12 mission got to enact this painting with their retreval of the Surveyor 3 Surface sampler scoop.

 The Russians seem to love paintings of Saturn in their space art. This painting of a colony on one of Saturn's moons is very striking.

 Viewing the earth from space was already happening when this book was published but the "airiness" of the space station structure gives a  different emotion to seeing the home planet.

 A fully developed moonbase has been a long-time dream. In this one we observe mining the Moon for resources.

Finally an illustration of a solar sailor, using sunlight to propel a probe.

ZUMM (1967 spanish coloring book)

 Just a very quick fun cover.  Not a lot to say about this one. It was a coloring book published in Mexico. It was about man's pursuit of flight and his eventual use of rockets.  Mostly I just like the cover.  Happy Monday!

"2001: A Space Odyssey" Howard Johnsons Children's Menu (1968)

Sometimes work gets in the way of blogging but I am back with lots of cool stuff.

I never thought of 2001 as a children's film, but it did make an impression on me when I saw it as a child. While incomprehensible in some ways (especially the ending) it did show a grand scheme for my future in space.

Howard Johnsons was actually aboard the 2001 space station in a brief product placement.  They also issued a children's menu which highlighted the movie (and their placement) but gave the story of the movie in a slightly different way than I remember.

However the comic itself reproduces some great visuals from the movie. Cue the music....

I love the final stereotyping where the boy wants to be a space pilot and the girl a space stewardess!

And just for fun, here is your activity page:

5-16-13 By popular demand here is the whole activity page and the menu.

 

Also someone commented on the cover's resemblance to Jack Kirby's cover of Race for The Moon (1958). I happen to have a good copy of the original art of that cover. What do you think?